Eat Pray Love in a “Sicilian Sauce”
TORONTO – Pierfrancesco Diliberto says that his fourth film, That God Forgives Everyone, draws some comparisons to the American hit film Eat Pray Love (2010), while of course carrying an entirely Italian sensibility. The film is based on a novel he wrote in 2018, of the same name, which went on to sell 200,000 copies. In short, the plot follows a cynical Real Estate Agent who courts a devout woman by adhering to Gospel doctrine for three weeks, all while gorging on Sicilian sweets.
In the Julia Roberts film Eat Pray Love, she plays a middle-aged woman seeking spiritual catharsis in Italy, all while exploring food, prayer and romance. At the time of its release, several Italian critics skewered the film over what they felt was a kitschy 1950s portrayal of Italy that exploited Italian stereotypes.
“It rains spaghetti, the Italians are always gesticulating and following foreign girls shouting vulgarities but then getting engaged to a nice housewife to please their domineering mothers, all this under the sign of dolce far niente”, wrote Curzio Maltese (then of La Repubblica).
Maltese was correct in that the depictions of Italian daily life [in Eat Pray Love] were a saccharine or milk chocolate version of Italy’s cultural reality. His sentiments were and are, of course, largely shared among Italian filmgoers. It’s unequivocally true that American cinema frequently trades on Italian stereotypes, seldom capturing the true modern urban lifestyle in Italy.
And Diliberto’s new comedic film is certainly an unconscious, if not deliberate, attempt to correct the missteps of Eat Pray Love. But while the director has only ever expressed his respect for the American film, the mere mention of it reveals a significant – if not central – preoccupation with the indignation many Italians feel when they watch “Americanata” films. The director even calls his film: “Eat Pray Love in a Sicilian sauce”.
That God Forgives Everyone most certainly honours the local sensibility, but there is a hint of “I can say it, but you can’t” to Italian filmmaking of this brand. Taking umbrage for instance, as Italian critics did, with Julia Roberts’ character learning how to hand gesture Italian style, is disingenuous.
Italians spend more time than anyone studying their own “lexicon of gestures”, as Isabella Poggi (professor at Roma Tre University) describes it. The Italian scholar identified 250 distinct Italian hand gesticulations and compared them in sophistication to sign language.
Renowned artist Bruno Munari published “Speak Italian: The Fine Art of the Gesture” in 1958. Even researchers like Andrea De Joro have linked Neapolitan gestures to Ancient Greek and Roman vases.
As for the “invasive Italian mother” or “Latin lover” stereotypes, while undoubtedly exploited by foreign filmmakers, they’re no different than the Italian depictions of culturally clueless, uneducated or money-obsessed North Americans. Let’s call it even.
And besides, in Diliberto’s film, the protagonist is a cynical, pastry-obsessed man who does everything to keep a woman – including posing as a devout Catholic. Stereotypes?
Images courtesy of Piper Film and Netflix
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix
