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The Camels
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Giuseppe Bertolucci (1947-2012) was the younger brother and occasional collaborator (eg., La Luna [1979]) of Bernardo Bertolucci – more prolific, but less revered. “Bertolucci Jr is a director with a subdued and marginal career”, observed the noted Italian critic Tullio Kezich (1928-2009) in 1988, “divided between the ineffability of ultra-risky experiences (Lost Objects, 1980) and the forced communicability of the comic genre … He always mediates between a great, healthy hunger for cinema and a stubborn intellectualism”. It’s certainly the case that Giuseppe held a surer footing in certain popular Italian film genres than his sibling; for instance, he helped inaugurate the starry career of Roberto Benigni with Berlinguer, I Love You (1977). The Camels is a fairly ordinary but engaging and enjoyable comedy about a reluctant young TV quiz star (Paolo Rossi as Ferruccio) who is put on the road as a promotional performer in the motley crew of an aspiring entrepreneur (Diego Abatantuono as Camillo). Their tour – by camel, no less – allows the camera extensive coverage of the Po Valley (to cinephiles: Antonioni territory). “It isn’t surprising that the contestant [i.e., Ferruccio] is always trying to escape”, wrote Kezich upon its Venice Film Festival premiere, “since the individual who doesn’t want to be absorbed by the pack is the true theme of the film”. That pack includes an eccentric singer, Miriam (Sabina Guzzanti) – anticipating those films to follow, almost two decades later, depicting the strange, deluded life of Florence Foster Jenkins. Two-thirds of the way in, the plot shunts bizarrely to generate an unexpected romantic intrigue, involving Anna (Giulia Boschi) and her parents (the mother is played by Laura Betti from Pasolini’s filmic universe). Thankfully, things tie up again by the end. It’s worth watching for the idiosyncratic performances of the cast – particularly the guy with a stiff leg. © Adrian Martin 6 July 1990 / 6 September 2024 |
