54

Chapter Three
The Children Are Still Watching Us:
The 'Visual Psycho-mimesis¨ oI Il cielo cade and Certi bambini
Nicoletta Marini-Maio
(Dickinson College)

He is the Adam who names all that he sees and Ieels. He discovers the
most ingenuous similarities and relations among things. He adapts the
name oI the bigger thing to the smaller one, and the other way around.
And more than ignorance it is astonishment that motivates him, and
curiosity more than loquacity.
Giovanni Pascoli, 'Il Fanciullino¨

A Iew years ago, Aine O`Healy pointed out that 'the image oI the child as observer oI a
society that is out oI control,¨ which was 'a recurrent trope in the national cinema during the
postwar years,¨ has been 'revived during the past decade in the work oI several Italian
Iilmmakers, suggesting an implicit homage to the legacy oI neorealism.¨
1
With regard to the
neorealist dominion she mentioned De Sica`s I bambini ci guardano (1943)a title which, she
agreed with Sebastiani,
2
still seemed aptand De Sica`s classic neorealist works, namely,
Sciuscia (1946) and Ladri di biciclette, as well as Rossellini`s Germania anno :ero (1947) and
the Neapolitan episode oI Paisa (1946). In the cinematic panorama oI the late 1980s and 1990s,
O`Healy analyzed Francesca Archibugi`s work and claimed that nowhere was 'the Iigure oI the
child more consistently constructed as witness oI adult weakness or ineptitude than in the work

1
O`Healy, 'Are the Children Watching Us? The Roman Films oI Francesca Archibugi,¨ 121.
2
See Sebastiani, 'Piccoli e grandi (disagi),¨ 18.


55

oI Archibugi.¨
3

Recently, several Italian Ieature Iilms have attained similar aesthetic and ethical goals
exploiting the condition oI the adolescent as a metaIictional device to depict the complexity oI
history and society.
4
In these Iilms, the Iigure oI the child, besides being the protagonist (both
hero and victim oI the events), is emphasized as the problematic center oI the narrative and
assumes a high semiotic relevance: on one hand, the child is the active subject as well as the
(oIten) abused object oI the action; on the other hand, he or she provides the narrative point oI
view oI the Iilm, usually Irom an oblique and low perspective. In other words, the child is
employed both as metanarrative means to displace the Iocalization and as agent to give voice to a
disadvantaged and at the same time privileged subject.
Speculating on the communicative impact oI neorealist cinema, Deleuze claimed that the
practice oI depicting dreadIul stories grounded in sociologically and historically disturbing
terrains Irom the perspective oI the child`s 'motor helplessness¨ illustrated the inability to react
to violence and degradation. To observe that reality Irom the child`s perspective, he argued,
emphasized the power oI denunciation intrinsic in neorealism.
5
The persistence and the centrality
oI the child`s perspective in contemporary Italian cinema, thereIore, raise some questions about
its Iunction and scope. We may wonder whether the child`s 'motor helplessness¨ is still being
used as a means to visually and symbolically underline the deIiciencies oI societycarrying the
power oI denunciation pointed out by Deleuzeor iI it has changed expressive modes, Iunction,
and objectives. IdentiIying elements oI novelty in the perspective oI the child`s gaze in

3
O`Healy, 'Are the Children Watching Us?,¨ 121.
4
I will mention only a Iew examples: Il ladro di bambini (1992) and Le chiavi di casa (2004) by Gianni Amelio, Il
cielo cade (2000) and Certi bambini (2004) by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi, Scarpette bianche (1996) and Quando
sei nato non puoi piu nasconderti (2005) by Marco Tullio Giordana, Domenica (2001) by Wilma Labate, Io non ho
paura (2003) by Gabriele Salvatores, Il miracolo (2003) by Edoardo Winspeare, Lisola (2003) by Costanza
Quatriglio, and Pianese Nun:io, 14 anni a maggio (1996) and La guerra di Mario (2005) by Antonio Capuano.
5
Deleuze, Cinema 2. The Time-image, 3.


56

contemporary Italian Iilms will allow us to better understand whether Italian cinema is still
paying tribute to the neorealist legacy or iI it has developed a new code oI representation.
To answer this question, it is necessary to take into account the societal and cultural
changes that have occurred in postmodernity, changes that prompt us to reIormulate both the
idea and the perception oI childhood in the cinema Irom one oI 'motor helplessness¨ to one oI an
erratic and unsteady condition. Taking as its starting point the notion that childhood symbolically
mirrors the position oI 'liminality¨ and the state oI 'liquidity¨ experienced by human beings in
contemporary society, this paper examines how the postmodern construction oI childhood
inIluenced the visual syntax oI the two Ieature Iilms by Andrea and Antonio Frazzi, Il cielo cade
(1999) and Certi bambini (2004).
6
Furthermore, it will show how, Irom a technical perspective,
such cinematic devices as low-angle Iocalization, montage, and the pedinamenti oI the
Steadicam have developed a new visual syntax capable oI rendering the expressive potential oI
children`s a-linear and anarchic visions by means oI what I would like to call 'visual psycho-
mimesis.¨
The narrative convention oI the youth oI the hero is a topos oI Western literature. Franco
Moretti points out:
The more a society is, or perceives itselI, as a system not yet well settled or whose
legitimacy is still precarious, the Iuller and the stronger the image oI youth becomes. This
image emerges as a sort oI svmbolic concentration oI the uncertainties and oI the tensions
oI an entire cultural system; and the youth oI the hero becomes, Ior its part, the narrative
convention, the fictio that allows us to explore the values in conIlict, try them out, and

6
With regard to the concept oI 'liminality¨ see Victor Turner, 'Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites
de Passage,¨ 93-111. For the original deIinition oI the notion oI 'limen¨ in relation with the rites oI passage, see
Arnold van Gennep, whose seminal study Les Rites de Passage was published in France in 1909. For the notion oI
'liquidity,¨ I am reIerring to Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernitv.


57

'choose¨ in one way or in the other.
7

In postmodern society this topos has acquired a more ambiguous and mobile Iunction. As
Agamben maintains, this world has lost the absolute value oI experience because all truths
descending Irom experience have been either IalsiIied or proved Ialse Ior belonging to invalid
paradigms. Here the Iigure oI the childor oI the infans (Irom Latin in-fari)who is unable to
speak and does not hold experience, is not conducive to a deIinitive choice between the values in
conIlict. Instead, it has become the svmbolic concentration, as Moretti would put it, oI the
inability oI the society to shape its experience as authority and history.
8
The infans, in Iact, is
endowed not only with limited linguistic skills, but also with deIective knowledge and lack oI
experience. In other terms, the infans holds the langue but not the parole, it holds the language
but not the discourse, it holds stories but not history.
9
II regarded thus, childhood becomes an
allegory oI postmodern society, where, Ior Agamben, 'experience is now deIinitely something
that can be only had but never owned.¨
10
According to this perspective, the notion oI childhood
is an ideal metaphorical construction to travel through in order to perIorm experience: it is in Iact
mobile, peripheral, and changeable. Since they stage the experience oI history, death, and evil
through the perspective oI a child, Il cielo cade and Certi bambini are paradigmatic territories Ior
such travel.
Il cielo cade (The Skv Falls, 2000), the Frazzis` debut in cinema, is the cinematic

7
'Quanto piu una societa e, e si percepisce, come un sistema ancora non bene assestato, o dalla legittimazione
ancora precaria, tanto piu piena, tanto piu Iorte diviene l`immagine della gioventu. Questa emerge come una sorta di
concentrato simbolico delle incertezze e delle tensioni di un intero sistema culturale; e la gioventu dell`eroe diviene,
dal canto suo, la convenzione narrativa, la Iictio che permette di esplorare i valori in conIlitto, metterli alla prova,
scegliere` in un senso o nell`altro.¨ This and all subsequent translations and transcriptions are mine unless
otherwise noted. Moretti, Il roman:o di forma:ione, 205.
8
See Agamben, Infan:ia e storia, 5-7.
9
See ibid.
10
Ibid., 29. 'L`esperienza e ora deIinitivamente qualcosa che si puo solo Iare e mai avere.¨


58

adaptation oI Lorenza Mazzetti`s eponymous novel, Iirst published in 1961.
11
This is an
autobiographical novel that bears testimony to the horror oI the Holocaust Irom the perspective
oI an eight-year-old girl and her little sister, who survived the massacre oI their aunt Nina
Mazzetti (Lorenza`s mother`s sister) and oI their cousins Luce and Annamaria by a Nazi squad
during the retreat oI the German troops Irom Florence in 1944. Lorenza and her sister were
spared since they did not bear a Jewish last name and wore cruciIixes. AIter the massacre,
Lorenza`s uncle Robert Einstein (brother oI the more Iamous Albert) committed suicide.
The Frazzis` Il cielo cade stages the atrocious experience endured by Penny and Baby,
the Iictional characters oI Lorenza and her sister, at their Jewish relatives` house during the
summer oI 1944. AIter the accidental death oI Penny`s and Baby`s parents, Aunt Katchen and
Uncle Wilhelm (Iictional names oI Nina Mazzetti and Robert Einstein) house the two girls in an
opulent villa in the Florentine countryside, where they have repaired with their two daughters to
escape anti-Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany. In the villa, Penny and Baby live immersed in
the intellectual atmosphere oI the Einsteins` aristocratic colony, which also includes the clumsy
piano teacher Signor Pit, and the Einsteins` stylish and indolent Iriends Maja and Arthur. The
two girls soon become acquainted with the peasants` children Lea, Pasquetta, ZeIIirino, and
Pierino, with whom they play in the woods, indulge in semi-innocent erotic explorations, and
share the religious obsessions that the priest has inculcated in their impressionable minds. AIter a
squad oI German soldiers occupies the villa and the Allies` bombings disrupt its sophisticated
rituals, the three classy guests Signor Pit, Maja, and Arthur leave Ior Switzerland, and
Wilhelmin reality the only Jew oI the Iamilyeventually decides to join the partisans in the
mountains. On August 3, one day beIore the liberation oI Florence, another German squad stops

11
Mazzetti`s novel has been recently republished by Sellerio (2001).


59

by the villa and murders Aunt Katchen and her two daughters in Iront oI Penny and Baby. The
next day Uncle Wilhelm goes back to the villa and decides to kill himselI.
For most oI the Iilm, and beIore the catastrophic ending, Penny unconsciously interprets
the numerous hostile signals oI anti-Semitism coming Irom the outside as premonitions oI the
Iinal tragedy. However, such signals only marginally reach the Einsteins` secluded space, whose
utopian dimension, as Marcus points out, recalls that oI the Edenic garden oI De Sica`s Il
giardino dei Fin:i-Contini (1970).
12
Both Iilms start by Iocusing on a lush garden, with mournIul
musical background, and their tragic plots unIold in a peaceIul and uncontaminated space against
the background oI the Holocaust. The hypotextual reIerence to Il giardino dei Fin:i-Contini not
only highlights the state oI denial that characterizes both the Finzi-Continis` and the Einsteins`
illusory reality, but it also inscribes Il cielo cade in the neorealist cinematic tradition.
13

The diIIerences between the two Iilms, nevertheless, are at least as important as their
analogies. From a technical point oI view, Ior instance, the initial shots oI De Sica`s Iilm are
taken Irom a high angle, with zooms, blurs, Irozen images and Iilters that alter the colors and the
eIIects oI the light. The powerIul Iocal point oI the scene is the sun, which appears at the
beginning oI the shot in its immobile and absolute brightness. In other words, in Il giardino dei
Fin:i-Contini the point oI view is that oI an omniscient gaze, one that claims narrative authority.
By contrast, the initial garden scene oI Il cielo cade is shot Irom a low angle and the only zoom
Iocuses on two children, whose Iast run carries the spectator`s gaze through the garden and up to
the Einsteins` sumptuous villa. Low angle shots and low Iocalization, the main structural motiIs
oI Il cielo cade, are introduced Irom the very beginning, in signiIicant opposition to the Iilm`s

12
See Marcus, 'A Childhood Paradise Lost¨ in Italian Film in the Shadow of Auschwit:, 102.
13
This is underlined by the presence oI Isabella Rossellini in the role oI Katchen, a clear metacinematic tribute to
Roberto Rossellini, one oI the Iounding Iathers oI neorealism. With regard to the notion oI denial in Il giardino dei
Fin:i-Contini, see Marcus, 'De Sica`s Garden of the Fini:i-Continis: An Escapist Paradise Lost,¨ in Filmmaking bv
the Book, 91-110.


60

hypotext. These technical and stylistic choices emphasize in Iact the opposite perspectivesthat
is, objective and subjectiveat work in the two Iilms. The authoritative, high perspective oI Il
giardino projects the story to an anti-historical Edenic dimension, which the deportation oI the
Finzi-Continis and the consequent abandonment oIor Iall Iromthe garden will eventually
disaggregate. In contrast, the low Iocalization oI Il cielo cade makes the Einsteins` garden more
Iamiliar and domestic, leading to a selective vision oI history and reality.
In a Iilm that shows an awareness oI the lesson oI neorealism and is IaithIul to the
narrative structure oI Mazzetti`s book, it is in Iact through the empathetic world oI eight-year-old
Penny that Il cielo cade gives testimony to the massacre oI the Einsteins. Both in the novel and
in the Iilm, Penny is the protagonist as well as the Iocalizer oI the story. Being a child, she is in a
privileged position and may observe the world Irom a peripheral location, which does not imply
responsibility and action. As Minghelli points out, in Iact:
Childhood constitutes an extraordinary subject position. Its relation to time and the world
is simultaneously one oI total absorption and exclusion. Because oI its absolute devotion
to the present, the child is a Iormidable actor. But, given its marginal relation to the
world, it is only and inevitably a spectator.
14

Penny`s apparently oversimpliIied interpretation oI the events is rendered through the
preponderance oI point-oI-view shots, the oral narration voice-over, and all the resources oI
visual syntax.
15
In order Ior the adults to be seen and understood by Penny, they have to stoop
down, crouch, and sit at her level. In several external shots, the adults do not even Iit into the
Irame and consist merely oI decapitated bodies crossing the children`s horizon. The low angle
shots allow the spectator to Iocus on what Penny sees and understands: Iragments oI adult bodies

14
Minghelli, 'What`s in a Word? Rosetta Loy`s Search Ior History in Childhood,¨ 163.
15
See Metz, Film Language. A Semiotic of the Cinema, 15-17.


61

and partial images and actions, oIten perceived through the entrances and the windows oI rooms
where the children are usually not admitted. In other words, Penny`s gaze explores the
contradictory world oI history Irom a marginal condition and a tangential space, that is,
childhood and the garden: she is dislocated in a liminal state.
The concept oI liminalitv requires some explanation. In postmodern society, adolescence
has become an extended and legitimate sojourn in an intermediate state, which has acquired a
speciIic deIinition by its contiguity with the other phases oI human liIe.
16
Adolescence has
become, thereIore, a liminal state, a limbo between dependence and autonomy. Focusing on the
liminal stage oI rites oI passage, Victor Turner identiIies some analogies between the condition
oI the young subject in contemporary culture and the rites oI initiation oI primitive societies.
17

He points out that the notion oI liminalitv as the undeIined borderline location oI the subject is
perceived as dangerous, since individuals experiencing transition have no place in society. In
particular, the transition oI the child into adult liIe requires conIronting the other, the sense oI
Iear and instability that any rite oI passage implies, and, eventually, death.
In Il cielo cade Penny`s liminal condition as a child secluded in the garden corresponds to
a twoIold rite oI passage: the Iirst on the level oI micro-history, that is, the initiation to
adulthood, and the second on the level oI macro-history, that is, the experience oI the Holocaust.
She perIorms the actual initiation to adulthood within the garden, whose salviIic Iunction against
the pathology oI Fascism develops into a Decameron-style comic utopia, where Penny and her
sister Baby have their introduction to the knowledge oI sex and love alongside the allegra
brigata oI their peasant companions. Within the garden, the children`s low perspective dissipates

16
In reality, the notion oI the social transition between inIancy and adulthood, namely, adolescence, was Iormulated
as an anthropological category in the nineteenth century with the introduction oI compulsory education and oI labor
legislation. See Schindler, 'I tutori del disordine: Rituali della cultura giovanile agli inizi dell`eta moderna,¨ 310.
17
See Turner, 'Betwixt and Between.¨


62

any Iear and trivializes the events through a synecdochic selection oI the objects oI the world.
For instance, when Penny and her Iriend discover the waitress Rosa having sex with her Iiance,
the children Iocus on the two lovers` interlaced Ieet, which they regard as the only corporal
maniIestation oI sexual intercourse. From this observation, they initiate a group discussion as
well as a playIul reciprocal exploration. Likewise, when they run into some German trucks that
are threateningly pointing to the Florentine countryside, their gaze converges on the trucks`
wheels and on some military jackets abandoned in the woods. Another clear example oI the
children`s selective itemization oI reality takes place when the bishop visits the villa. Penny and
Baby obsessively Iocus on the bishop`s ring and steal a piece they have cut Irom his stole (again,
a subtle reIerence to the Decameron!), convinced that these sacred relics will allow them to
achieve Uncle Wilhelm`s religious salvation, a mission that they have compulsively taken upon
themselves. Over all, these examples show how the children tend to concentrate their attention
on the collateral Ieatures oI objects, actions, and events.
Through such a process oI dissection oI reality in discrete aspects, in Iragments that she
observes Irom a peripheral perspective, Penny`s gaze becomes macroscopically close to the
objects oI her interest and turns into an irreverent and nonconIormist perspective. In Bakhtinian
terms, Penny`s gaze rejects the 'absolute distance¨ oI epic representation and instead approaches
history and the world Irom 'above, below, in Iront oI, behind, earlier, later, Iirst, last, past,
present, brieI (momentary), long and so Iorth.¨
18
As Bakhtin speculates, this narrative mode
generates a cognitive and liberating laughter, as is in the case oI Cervantes` Don Quixote, whose
behavior is a means Ior the reader to identiIy the paradoxical aspects oI the world in a way that
promotes critical thinking. The Bakhtinian reIerence to Don Quixote is actually very important

18
Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination, 24.


63

Ior Il cielo cade. Don Quixote is in Iact a remarkable intertextual presence in the Iilm: Penny
reads Don Quixote to Baby at night, and at the end Baby mistakes an English soldier Ior
Cervantes` anti-chivalric hero. Seen against the historical background oI the Holocaust, the
metaphor oI Don Quixote is in Iact the mise en abime, although a paradoxical one, oI Wilhelm`s
Iailed narrative and a delicate parody oI his idealistic attitude toward liIe, the war, and the
Germans.
Notwithstanding Penny`s marginal and lowered perspective, history erupts in her world
in many ways. Apparently brainwashed by Fascist propaganda, Ior example, Penny includes in
her school essays Mussolini`s speech oI the day, and combines it with nationalistic rhetoric and
Iamily ties:
I love Mussolini more than my Iather because my Iather is not here anymore. But now
that I live with my uncle, I love Mussolini like my uncle, I love Italy like my aunt, and
the King like Signor Pit.
19

The associations oI Mussolini with Penny`s Iather and uncle, Italy with her aunt, and the King
with the Einsteins` piano teacher suggest that Penny is not immune Irom the media bombardment
oI Fascist propaganda and that she is indeed struggling with the icons oI powerIul masculinity
and Ieminine body politics diIIused by that propaganda. These associations, nevertheless, also
show that Penny is instinctively trying to neutralize such icons, superimposing upon them the
more domestic scenario oI her adoptive Iamily.
Penny elaborates these heterogeneous signs in an original Iashion. The most relevant
creation oI Penny`s imagination springs Irom her perception oI the group oI images comprised
by Mussolini, the King, and the Holy Cross, which hang triumphant on her classroom`s wall in

19
'Io amo Mussolini piu di mio padre, perche mio padre non c`e piu. Ma ora che sono sempre con lo zio, io amo
Mussolini come lo zio, l`Italia come la zia, e il re come il signor Pit.¨


64

an ironically blasphemous Trinitarian composition. These signiIiers inIlame Penny`s creative
mind, along with the priest`s ghastly accounts oI the Last Judgment and Hell, his warnings about
uncle Wilhelm`s mortal sins and, towards the end, about the risks Wilhelm Iaces because oI the
exacerbation oI anti-Semitism. She associates the inputs oI the external world through the
combinatory process that has been identiIied by poets and writers as the source oI symbolic
imagination. In particular, Giovanni Pascoli has related the sources oI poetic creation to the
symbolic and pre-logical associations oI the fanciullino |small child|.
20

Nevertheless, it is Gianni Rodari`s description oI the child`s imaginative processes that
seems particularly apt to render Penny`s visual elaboration oI reality.
21
In order to describe such
processes, Rodari adopts the paradigm oI the binomio fantastico |Iantastic binomial|. The
binomio fantastico, he argues, consists oI a process through which the child combines the prosaic
components oI common experience to build a new perception oI reality, one that responds to the
child`s curiosities and needs. Rodari emphasizes that the child`s mind tends to make arbitrary
binary associations by emphasizing one or more Ieatures that, extrapolated Irom their habitual
context, produce a new image, usually estranged Irom our common perception. Penny`s
visionary creation oI the Madonna pelata |baldheaded Madonna| is a perIect synthesis oI the
imaginative mechanism described by Rodari. Required to write another school essay about a
dream oI hers, Penny starts with a reIerence to the Madonna:
Once I dreamed that I was in the sky with Mamma, when I saw the Madonna. I wanted to

20
Pascoli relates the creation oI poetry to the symbolic imagination oI the fanciullino that, he argues, naturally lies
inside the human soul. Pascoli maintains, however, that only the poet is provided with the sensibility necessary to
discern the fanciullino`s symbolic associations as well as to translate them into a Iigurative language. See 'Il
Fanciullino,¨ in Pensieri e discorsi.
21
Rodari (1920-1980) is the most Iamous Italian contemporary writer Ior children. The 1970 Andersen Prize winner
(corresponding to a Nobel Prize in children`s literature), he wrote innumerable short stories, novels, and poems. His
Grammatica della fantasia |Grammar oI Fantasy| is a theoretical essay about the creative mechanisms oI children`s
imagination.


65

touch her, but I stumbled and in order not to Iall down I clung to her veil, which slipped
oII Irom her head.
22

Then, brieIly interrupting her writing Ior a meditative pause, she looks upwards to the wall and
sees Mussolini`s martial image. Her imagination immediately makes the connection with the
Madonna:
When I looked upwards I saw that the Madonna had the bald head oI Mussolini. All oI a
sudden, everything began to tremble and Mamma said to me: 'Keep your hands up, or
the sky will Iall! The sky will Iall!¨ I was so impressed that I woke up.
23

The Iinal warning ('The sky will Iall!¨) has a strong impact on Penny`s teacher and on
the priest, who inquire about her religious orthodoxy. In reality, the shocking exclamation
denounces the incompatibility oI the analogical combination between Penny`s two idols, namely,
Mussolini and the Madonna. In an apparently naïve Iashion, Penny superimposes Fascist
mythology upon Catholic imagery. Her explicit visual syntax paradoxically merges the image oI
Mussolini not only with that oI the Madonna, but also with God, Christ, the King, history, and
the Iamily. As a result, in Penny`s eyes Mussolini`s bald head endows him with an aura oI
sanctity and a powerIul divine connotation: 'I wonder why the Duce`s head is so pretty and
shiny with no hair..In Iact, the Duce has a halo around his head, like a saint.¨
24
From her
vision, Penny inIers that Mussolini is the new Messiah, with the mission to save the world Irom
evil. Her imaginative process, however, contradicts her speculation: the association oI Mussolini
with the Madonna eventually invokes a punitive Apocalypse: 'The sky will Iall!¨ In the hunt Ior

22
'Una volta ho sognato che ero in cielo con la mamma, quando ho visto la Madonna. Io volevo toccarla, ma sono
inciampata e per non cadere mi sono aggrappata al velo che le e scivolato via.¨
23
'Quando ho guardato in su ho visto che la Madonna aveva la testa pelata di Mussolini. All`improvviso tutto si e
messo a tremare e la mamma mi ha detto: Tieni le mani in alto senno il cielo cade! Il cielo cade!` E per
l`impressione mi sono svegliata.¨
24
'Io mi domando come mai la testa del Duce e cosi bella lucida senza capelli. .Il Duce ha inIatti un`aureola
intorno alla testa, come un santo.¨ Ibid., 12-13.


66

a trustworthy interpretation oI the world as it is depicted by the adults around herthe teacher,
the priest, and her relativesPenny highlights the paradoxes and shows the precarious stability
oI a world that has engendered the aberrant conciliation oI Fascism (Mussolini) with Catholicism
(the Madonna), dictatorship with religion, and political violence with the aspiration to eternal
liIe.
Overall, Il cielo cade represents issues oI history, politics, and religion through the point
oI view oI a child, privileging low Iocalization, binary associations, and the synecdochic
selection oI objects oI reality. Adopting such an obliqueor liminalperspective does not lead
to oversimpliIication; on the contrary, it helps the spectator to Iocus on the contradictions oI
society and promotes historical awareness. In other words, this Iilm oIIers the viewer the
opportunity to reIlect on society and history not by displaying a helpless character who lacks
agencya characteristic common to most oI the children oI classic neorealist cinemabut by
exploring the selective and imaginative gaze oI a postmodern child who observes the world Irom
a displaced position.
In the Frazzi brothers` second Ieature Iilm, Certi bambini (A Childrens Storv, 2004), a
story oI a young gangster roving the outskirts oI an Southern Italian metropolis, the child
apparently plays a more classic neorealist-like role.
25
Reminiscent oI De Sica`s Sciuscia
(Shoeshine, 1946) and adapted Irom Diego De Silva`s 2001 eponymous novel, this work stages
the bloody initiation to adulthood and crime oI Rosario, an eleven-year-old boy who lives in a
working class complex in the suburbs oI a citypresumably Napleswith his grandmother
Lilina, who suIIers Irom mental illness.
26
Rosario leaves his house and takes the subway to carry

25
UnIortunately, Certi bambini was the last Ieature Iilm Ior Andrea Frazzi, who died in May 2006.
26
De Silva`s Certi bambini was the recipient oI the Sele:ione Campiello, Brancati-Zafferana, Fiesole, and Bergamo
prizes.


67

out the mandate oI killing a man, a destination that will be revealed only at the ending oI the
Iilm. During this travel, Ilashes and memories oI the many events that have led Rosario to this
moment appear in his mind. Eventually, Rosario gets oII the train, murders the man, and, with no
apparent emotional alteration, joins a group oI children playing soccer in a courtyard.
From Rosario`s mental recollection during his journey in the subway we learn that, like
the two protagonists oI Sciuscia Giuseppe and Pasquale, Rosario is a street boy: he lives a
makeshiIt existence with the complicity oI a group oI peers, and he Iollows the pernicious
example oI a community oI criminal or indiIIerent adults. Landy`s observation about the lack oI
'reassuring images oI domestic liIe¨ in Sciuscia, where the children are 'all orphans or outcasts,
oI little concern to the adults,¨ is true oI Certi bambini, too.
27
In both Iilms, the children are
victims oI a world that abuses and rejects them, or, even worse, exploits them Ior abject
purposes. Although they have vague dreams oI social rescue and masculinityGiuseppe and
Pasquale want to own and ride a horse; Rosario wants a girlIriend with whom he is ideally in
lovethe events unIold with the detrimental intrusions oI adults and peers, disrupting such
dreams and leading the children to a predictably miserable destiny. Neither Giuseppe nor
Pasquale nor Rosario is innocent, or has a decent house or a regular Iamily (or a Iamily at all), or
goes to school or work. The rhetorical conclusion oI the lawyer`s deIense in Sciuscia, thereIore,
might be applied as an ironic and paradoxical corollary to both Iilms:
Return these innocents to their houses, to their Iamilies, to school, to work. This is not
rhetoric, gentlemen, because iI you consider them guilty, gentlemen oI the court, then
you should condemn us all! We, the men who are leaving childhood to itselI to Iollow

27
Landy, Italian Film, 248.


68

our passions, we are leaving our children alone, more and more alone.
28

Whereas it certainly pays tribute to its neorealist antecedent, Certi bambini is remarkably
diIIerent Irom Sciuscia, particularly Irom an esthetic and visual perspective. In Iact, the two
Iilms assign opposite visual roles to the protagonists: Giuseppe and Pasquale are powerless
objects oI observation while Rosario is endowed with agency and subjectivity, and leads the gaze
oI the spectator through his own labyrinthine itinerary. In Sciuscia, the architectural structure oI
the reIormatory places the children in the unsettling condition oI observed objects: the guards
and the spectatorscan look at them Irom the outside, while the children can see only their
cellmates. In addition, the oIIicials can come anytime and watch the children Irom the
monumental guard post at the center oI the wall adjacent to the rows oI cells. Such a structure
not only empowers the viewers with a sort oI panoptical control oI the children; it also
symbolically reproduces the nature and Iunctioning oI the cinema itselI, 'Iocusing on the role oI
spectatorship.¨
29
The spectator is called to bear witness to the unIair, brutal treatment that
children suIIer Irom society.
Certi bambini aIIirms an innovative code oI representation: it goes beyond the neorealist
code oI representation as well as the modes and techniques adopted in Il cielo cade. The Iocus oI
the entire Iilm is Rosario`s journey in the subway. Through a series oI sensory and emotional
associations stemming Irom Rosario`s a-linear and anarchic mind, memories and images
materialize in long and apparently chaotic Ilashbacks. Apparitions oI Rosario`s grandmother
alternate with Ilashes oI Rosario`s trips to a centro daccoglien:a |woman`s shelter|, where he
Ialls in love with the beautiIul seventeen-year-old Caterina and develops a pernicious jealousy oI

28
'Restituite questi innocenti alle loro case, alle loro Iamiglie, alla scuola, al lavoro. Questa non e retorica, signori
del tribunale, perche se li considererete colpevoli, allora dovete condannare anche noi, gli uomini che seguendo le
nostre passioni abbandoniamo a se stessa l`inIanzia, i nostri Iigli, soli, sempre piu soli.¨
29
On the role oI the spectatorship in Sciuscia, see Landy, Italian Film, 251.


69

the handsome Santino, Caterina`s lover. The intermittent Iragments oI Rosario`s liIe as a
'normal¨ child Iluctuate in his mind alongside images oI his abject street liIe as a young gangster
and drug pusher with his companion Venturino, his pedophiliac boss Sciancalepore, and his
cammorrista mentor Damiano. The accumulation oI events, images, and emotions oI Rosario`s
mental and physical journey leads the spectator to reconstruct inductively the psyche oI the boy.
The spectator eventually Iinds an explanation not only Ior the killing, which takes place at the
climactic end oI the Iilm, but also Ior Rosario`s absolute lack oI ethical awareness, which allows
his chameleonic personality to commit crimes, to perIorm considerate actions, to dream about
Ilirting with Caterina or simply to play soccer with the same lightness and sense oI indiIIerence.
The deIinition oI adolescence as a liminal state is important but not suIIicient to make
sense oI Rosario`s condition in Certi bambini. In Rosario, liminalitv, objectiIied in the journey
by train and in the marginality oI his social and Iamily condition, is complemented by the notion
oI liquiditv, which the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman attributes to the contemporary world.
With a brilliant image borrowed Irom physics, Bauman argues that, like liquids, whose main
physical qualities are quickness, Ilexibility, mobility, expansiveness, and lightness, nowadays
individuals` lives undergo continuous changes oI state. He claims that, as in physics, where the
bonds that have the Iunction to agglomerate atoms into solid and ordered systems have liqueIied,
in contemporary society the ethical obligations and political actions that have the Iunction to
unite individuals have now dissolved, producing a 'liquid society.¨
30
I argue that the
permutations taking place in liquid modernitv, as Bauman calls postmodern society, Iind their
quintessential site in adolescence. SigniIicantly, in his novel Gli sfiorati, Sandro Veronesi distills
the Iundamental nature oI adolescence into the allegory oI schiumevole::a |Ioaminess|, another

30
See Bauman, Liquid Modernitv, XI.


70

'liquid¨ image to deIine the erratic, a-linear condition oI youth:
It is neither superIiciality, nor mere wickedness, nor volubility, nor lightness, nor pure
sloth, nor irresponsibility, nor only distraction, nor dreaminess . . . I am thinking oI
something which Iuses all these concepts together making a new one, a sort oI alloy . . .
What scientists call the demon oI non-linearity,` then, becomes a very clear concept,
which we see in Iront oI us every day: it is the concept oI temporary acquisitions, Iather,
the endless sinking into the present moment, the spasmodic relying on the impulse oI the
instant until the instant itselI includes one`s entire selI, but truly, Iather, one`s entire selI.
Until, Iinally, one becomes something that is not comprehensible anymore, except Ior
this continuous foaming in new shapes and attitudes, which scholars oI chaos call
dissipative.`¨
31

Schiumevole::a, or liquidity, is the main characteristic oI Rosario`s psyche and oI his
narrative construction oI reality. In Iact, in a sort oI unconscious attempt to amend his past and,
at the same time to escape Irom it, Rosario`s psyche assembles, elaborates, repeats, and alters
images and events oI his liIe. As De Silva points out, Rosario`s mental processes rewrite his
memories through the Iilter oI desire.
32
The 'liquid¨ attitude oI Rosario`s psyche is particularly
evident in the scene in which Caterina and Rosario talk to each other about their age. Breaking
the coordinates oI space and time, this scene actually appears twice in Rosario`s mental
recollection, but with substantial changes. Whereas the setting and the dialogue as well as the

31
'Non e superIicialita, ne mera scelleratezza, ne volubilta, ne leggerezza, ne semplice ignavia, o irresponsabilita, o
sola distrazione, o svagatezza . . . Penso a un qualcosa che Ionda tutti insieme questi concetti Iacendone uno nuovo,
una specie di lega . . . Quello che gli scienziati chiamano il 'demone della non-linearita¨, allora, diventa un concetto
chiarissimo, che abbiamo sotto gli occhi tutti i giorni: e quello delle acquisizioni temporanee, . . . quell`aIIogare
continuamente nell`attimo presente, quello spasmodico aIIidarsi all`impulso di un istante Iino a Iarsi contenere del
tutto, ma veramente . . . del tutto nell`istante che lo ha generato. Fino a non essere piu nulla di comprensibile, in
Iondo, se non proprio questo continuo schiumare in Iorme e comportamenti sempre diversi, che gli studiosi del caos
chiamano, non a caso, dissipativi.¨ Sandro Veronesi, Gli sfiorati, 153-54.
32
See De Silva, 'Certi bambini. Intervista a cura di Donata Ferrario.¨


71

editing and camera angles are the same, in the Iirst occurrence oI the scene a game oI seduction
between a charming Caterina and a Iascinated Rosario takes place, while in the second Caterina,
now ungraceIul, conIrontational, and sick, discloses to Rosario her state oI unwanted pregnancy.
This scene, through which Rosario explicitly rewrites his memories, occurs only once in the
novel and is a scene neither oI seduction nor oI disillusion, but rather a neutral conversation
about their age. In Marcus`s terminology, this is the 'umbilical scene¨: the Frazzis Ioreground
their relationship with the parent-text, showing their awareness oI the adaptive process and
making their stylistic choices explicit.
33
In Certi bambini, this process is led by a precise stylistic
and epistemological rationale, namely, the characterization oI the child as a mutable and
inconsistent beingone that Bauman would deIine as liquid and Veronesi schiumevole
|Ioamy|dominated by the pre-logical instances oI his desire.
Rosario`s psyche perIorms multiple Iunctions in the Iilm. First, it is the unstable place oI
conscious and subconscious mental operations, which allow him to elaborate in diIIerent ways
the emotional and intellectual inIormation oI the environment. Following Remo Bodei`s
suggestions about the process oI the human mind, I would argue that Rosario`s psyche consists
oI 'diIIerent versions oI itselI . . . it resembles a palimpsest continuously scratched out and re-
covered with new layers oI signs, out oI whichwhile he is alivethere does not exist any
editio princeps.¨
34
Second, Rosario`s psyche is a metaIictional device. It is in Iact the unreliable
(visual) narrator oI the Iilm; it deliberately lies to the spectator out oI selI-interest, denies its role
in events Irom a lack oI selI-awareness, and, Iinally, expresses ideas that the spectator Iinds
reprehensible, thus avoiding identiIication. Third, Rosario`s psyche is a metacinematic device. In

33
See Marcus, 'Umbilical Scenes,¨ xix-xxiv.
34
'DiIIerenti versioni di se stesso . . . somiglia a un palinsesto continuamente raschiato e ricoperto di nuovi strati di
segni, di cuiIinche e vivonon esiste alcuna editio princeps.¨ Bodei, Le logiche del delirio. Ragione, affetti,
follia, 7.


72

Iact, it is not only the narrator, but also the Iocalizer oI the entire Iilm, and his gaze shows the
two principaland conIlictingways in which reality can be represented in the cinema:
montage, which relates diIIerent images by means oI quick analogical binary associations (as in
Il cielo cade) and sequence shots, which consist in tailing the characters without any editing
process.
In Certi bambini both modalities are present and IruitIul. On the one hand, the editing,
cadenced by the Irenzied rhythm oI Almamegretta`s music, is reminiscent oI the chaotic Ilux oI
MTV cuts and combinations. Rosario`s psyche enters and exits scenes that juxtapose diIIerent
temporal and spatial levels, in a continuous alternation oI scenarios, locations, and places. As the
narrator points out in the novel, 'when Rosario exits the past and begins to see again, new people
are already getting in while others are standing up, ready to get oII.¨
35
On the other hand, long
sequence shots Iollow Rosario`s and his Iriends` criminal excursions in a sort oI pedinamento
|tailing|, a term which De Silva himselI uses, Iollowing screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, to
describe the process oI representation he employs in the novel and that the Frazzis widely exploit
in the Iilm:
What interests me is invention in the etymological sense: the tailing oI the characters and
the discovery oI what, step by step, they can be and do. This anarchy in narration ends up
almost automatically producing that cohabitation oI tenderness and cruelty that, aIter all,
is proper to liIe.
36

The technique oI pedinamento, in particular, attains considerable narrative eIIect. Not

35
'Quando Rosario esce dal passato e ricomincia a vedere, sta gia entrando della gente nuova mentre dell`altra si
alza per scendere.¨ De Silva, Certi bambini, 68.
36
'Quello che m`interessa e l`invenzione in senso etimologico: il pedinamento dei personaggi, la scoperta di quello
che di volta in volta riescono ad essere e a Iare. Questa anarchia del narrare Iinisce quasi automaticamente per
produrre quella convivenza di tenerezza e crudelta che poi e propria della vita.¨ De Silva, 'Certi bambini. Intervista
a cura di Donata Ferrario.¨


73

only does it allow the spectator to chase and reconstruct the Iragmented portions oI the diegesis
that overlap through narrative time, but it also incorporates the spectator into the subjective
vision oI Rosario`s mind, memory, and hallucinations, or, in other terms, into mimesis. Besides
tailing Rosario, we uninterruptedly 'remain with the gaze oI a child, always, Iixed with him, as
in a continued subjective shot.¨
37
We are in Iact presented with Rosario`s distorted and IalsiIied
memorieshis mental palimpsestIrom within, without being warned by distorted opening
sequences, blurs, halos, or any other conventional signals oI narrative manipulation.
The eIIect oI the 'continued subjective shot¨ is technically pursued in the Iilm with the
Steadicam, which Iollows Rosario`s path Irom a close distance, maintains his speed, and oIten
takes on his gaze. The Steadicam, created in 1975 as a substitute Ior the hand-held camera in
running shots over rough grounds, is comprised oI a camera, an arm that carries the weight oI the
camera and isolates it Irom the jerking caused by the operator`s movement, and a series oI rings
and bearings that provide support and connect the arm to a vest that the operator wears.
38
The
Steadicam may be used in what is called high mode or low mode. High mode is the standard
position in which the camera, supported by the post, is at the level oI the eye. In low mode the
camera is mounted upside down and can shoot Irom a considerably lower angle, which may be
particularly useIul in the case oI a scene with a child. The most relevant Ieature oI the Steadicam
is the Iact that it can move anywhere and does not anchor the characters; indeed, it Iollows them
even into the most impervious places. The Steadicam is a shooting human body, and its Iluid
motion and vision correspond to human motion and vision. For this reason, with the Steadicam

37
'Raccontare, stare con lo sguardo di un bambino, sempre, Iisso con lui, come una soggettiva continua.¨ From the
interview with author and screenwriter N. Ammaniti, speaking oI his 2001 novel Io non ho paura |I`m not scared|
and its 2003 cinematic adaptation. In Gabriele Salvatores, Io non ho paura. Contenuti extra (DVD). According to
the standard deIinition, in the subjective shot 'the camera assumes the position oI a subject in order to show us what
the subject sees,¨ Branigan, Point of Jiew in the Cinema, 103.
38
For a detailed description oI the Steadicam see Serena Ferrara, Steadicam. Techniques and Aesthetics.


74

the role oI the camera 'changes Irom creator oI eIIects to narrative voice,¨ and it becomes a
'gaze among the many gazes, actively participating in the construction oI the story.¨
39
It is the
pedinamento oI the Steadicam which accompanies Rosario and his gaze, 'always, Iixed with
him,¨ and Iills the gap between the chaotic plot oI the story and its mimesis.
40
I would argue that
in Certi bambini the Steadicam has a place, a role, and a perspective: its Iluidity is particularly
apt to render the dynamic energythe liquiditv, in Bauman`s termsoI Rosario`s motion,
Ieelings, memories, and a-linear thoughts.
The complex conIiguration oI Rosario`s character and the stylistic choices oI this Iilm are
particularly meaningIul iI considered in the context oI neorealist classic cinema. In Certi
bambini, the Frazzi brothers draw upon modes and techniques characteristic oI neorealist
conventions: the story unIolds within a typical social and urban milieu, the characters are
verisimilar and played by non-proIessional actors, and the camera Iollows Rosario in an
exemplary pedinamento, a technique originally conceived by Zavattini and exploited in several
neorealist works. Furthermore, the centrality oI the children in the storytheir being spectators
as well as the Iulcrum oI the pathosclearly recalls several classic neorealist Iilms, Iirst oI all
De Sica`s Sciuscia. However, other essential Ieatures oI this Iilm decisively counterbalance the
realist code. These Ieatures include the use oI montage to juxtapose the images and memories
springing Irom Rosario`s mind, the non-chronological diegesis, the inconsistency oI the events
which in certain cases are evidently counterIactualand the strong subjectivity oI the point oI
view. In addition, and most important, Rosario is endowed with agency. The contrast between
the two modes oI representationthat is, the naturalistic and the symbolicand the particular
structure oI Rosario`s 'liquid¨ mind allow Ior a deeper observation oI reality and stimulate the

39
Ibid., 75.
40
See Ammaniti`s words in Iootnote 37.


75

viewer`s critical reaction.
It will now be clearer how the visual codiIication elaborated in Il cielo cade and in Certi
bambini Iully expresses the children`s anarchic perspective on history and on the world by means
oI what I have called 'visual psycho-mimesis,¨ thus enriching the neorealist 'language oI
reality¨ with high-potency connotative Iorce.
41
The child`s 'visual psycho-mimesis¨ is not only
instrumental in emphasizing the power oI denunciation oI the cinema, but it is also a way to
project the childalthough Irom a liminal location and a liquid conditiononto the stage oI
agency, one that invites the spectator to observe, deconstruct, and criticize Irom within. The
technological means oI contemporary cinema, in particular, have expanded the expressive
potential oI the child`s perspective. His pre-logical mind becomes a metaphor oI the
contemporary world, through which the child can explore and critically interpret the society that
it mirrors.

Works cited
Agamben, Giorgio. Infan:ia e storia. Turin: Einaudi, 2001.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Estetica e roman:o. Turin: Einaudi, 1979.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Modernitv. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000.
Bazin, Andre. What Is Cinema? Jolume II. Berkeley: University oI CaliIornia Press, 1971.
Bodei, Remo. Le logiche del delirio. Ragione, affetti, follia. Rome-Bari: Laterza, 2002.
Branigan, Edward. Point of Jiew in the Cinema. A Theorv of Narration and Subfectivitv
in Classical Film. Berlin, New York and Amsterdam: Mouton, 1984.

De Silva, Diego. Certi bambini. Turin: Einaudi, 2001.
---. Certi bambini. Intervista a cura di Donata Ferrario |cited September 8, 2006|. Available at
·http://www.Iucine.com/network/Iucinemute/core/index.php?url÷redir.php?articleid÷1093~

41
See Bazin, What Is Cinema? Jolume II, 14.


76

INTERNET.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2. The Time-image. Trans. Hug Tomlinson and Robert Galeta.
Minneapolis: University oI Minnesota Press, 1989.
O'Healy, Aine. 'Are the Children Watching Us? The Roman Films oI Francesca Archibugi.¨
Annali d´Italianistica 17 (1999): 121-36.
Ferrara, Serena. Steadicam. Techniques & Aesthetics. OxIord: Focal Press, 2001.
Landy, Marcia. 'A Cinema oI Childhood.¨ In Italian film. Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge, UK, 2000. 234-60.
Mazzetti, Lorenza. Il cielo cade. Palermo: Sellerio, 2001.

Marcus, Millicent, 'A Childhood Paradise Lost: Andrea and Antonio Frazzi`s Il cielo cade (The
Sky Is Falling).¨ In Italian Film in the Shadow of Auschwit:. Toronto: Toronto
University Press, 2007. 99-110.

---. 'De Sica's Garden of the Fini:i-Continis: An Escapist Paradise Lost.¨ In Filmmaking bv the
Book. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Un Press, 1993, 91-110.

---. 'Umbilical Scenes: Where Filmmakers Foreground Their Relationships to Literary
Sources.¨ Romance Languages Annual 10.1 (1998): xix-xxiv.

Metz, Christian. Film Language. A Semiotic of the Cinema. Trans. Michael Taylor. New York:
OxIord University press, 1974.

Minghelli, Giuliana. 'What's in a word? Rosetta Loy's Search Ior History in Childhood,¨
MNN.116 (2001): 162-76.

Moretti, Franco. Il roman:o di forma:ione. Turin: Einaudi, 1999.
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1907, p. 1-55.

Rodari, Gianni. Grammatica della fantasia. Introdu:ione all´arte di inventare storie. Einaudi:
Torino, 1973.

Schindler, Norbert. 'I tutori del disordine: Rituali della cultura giovanile agli inizi dell`eta
moderna.¨ Storia dei giovani. Ed. Giovanni and Jean-Claude Schmitt Levi. Roma-Bari:
Laterza, 1994. 303-74.
Sebastiani, Massimo. 'Piccoli e grandi (disagi).¨ Francesca Archibugi. Ed. Carola Proto. Roma:
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Svmbols. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1967. 93-111.


77

Veronesi, Sandro. Gli sfiorati. Milan: Mondadori, 2001.

Filmography
Certi bambini. Directed by Andrea Frazzi and Antonio Frazzi. DVD. Florence, Italy: Cecchi
Gori Home Video, Italy, 2004.
The Skv Is Falling. Directed by Andrea Frazzi and Antonio Frazzi. DVD. USA: Facets, 2003.
Il giardino dei Fin:i-Contini. Directed by Vittorio De Sica. DVD. Milan, Italy: Medusa Home
Entertainment, 2003.
Io non ho paura. Directed by Gabriele Salvatores. DVD. Milan, Italy: Medusa Home
Entertainment, 2005.
Sciuscia. Directed by Vittorio De Sica. DVD. Milan, Italy: Medusa Home Entertainment, 2007.