Matteo Brigante's (Yves Montand) nasty power play with Donna Lucrezia (Melina Mercouri).
By David D. Robbins Jr. | The Fade Out
The Law/La Loi (Oscilloscope, 1959), directed by Jules Dassin
“If you had wings, would you stay in this hole?“
That’s the question that opens the initial scene in director Jules Dassin’s 1959 classic film, “The Law” (“La Loi”). It’s a question asked by one Italian man to a row of Italian men sitting and looking at a pigeon. It’s a rhetorical question, answered by the same character. He says the pigeon stays around because there’s always someone willing to throw a few crumbs its direction. It’s a statement about the hangover feudal system of Southern Italy, and more generally about how those with powerful lord their strength over those without it. It’s a constant battle between the haves and have-nots, the handsome and the toothless, or those who rule the roost and those who supplicate.
The DVD cover for "The Law" featuring actress Gina Lollobrigida.
So, is that all that is meant by ‘the law’ in Dassin’s movie? Not exactly. The Law’ is also the name of a strange and vicious card game, also known as passatella, played among the taverns of Southern Italy before it was outlawed. The game required a number of friends, generally more than five, to find some way of assigning winners and losers. That could mean, a card game or a roll of the dice. The winner would be in charge of liquor, drink for free, appoint a sub-boss, and choose an idiot. The idiot would have to place his hands on the table (to show he is without a weapon) and be subjected to the law of the others. The law consisted of being told truths to one’s face and those at the table asking questions aimed at humiliating the idiot. So, if you’re the idiot of the drinking game, why submit to the rules? The hope is that one day, you too, would become the boss and be able to do the same in return. This card game is at the center of this very strange movie. This film isn’t one for subtlety, but it is a sprawling and messy look at class systems, cruelty, sexuality, gross male dominance and social laws. You may find yourself thinking that the only real law in this movie is the law of physics being defied by actress Gina Lollobrigida’s marvelous push-up bra.
The film’s second sequence is its most beautiful. The camera starts at the top of a building, where the pigeon in the first scene has flow off to in order to rest. An aria is being sung in the background, from an unknown source. The camera slowly descends the building, peaking into each apartment terrace, briefly introducing characters one floor at a time. We first see a lawyer and his beautiful wife Lucrezia (Melina Mercouri), who stares out a window at the young man she pines after. The young man whispers to himself, “I love her”, as he looks up to see her face. She whispers, “I love him”, watching him sitting at a cafe table. The camera slide down to the next floor, and we see an inspector and his family. (We later learn he is cheating on his wife with her best friend, seen in the shot.) The camera slides down further. It is the inspector’s aide, who yells up to the inspector that he wishes he had the same view as his prisoners, who can apparently see the beautiful young woman who is singing the aria. It’s a system of social levels. The camera moves a couple of blocks away, and we finally see the source of all the singing. It’s our first glimpse of Mariette, a housemaid, played by Lollobrigida. She is on an upper terrace, singing while shining the boots of her padrone, Don Cesare, who rules the entire coastal town.
It sounds a lot more high-minded than the film actually is. Eventually, there are a hodge-podge of storylines that play chaotically through the setting of The Gargano (the southernmost tip of the spur of Italy). The sexy Mariette inspires ogling glances from most of the men in the film, and is nearly raped by town racketeer, Matteo Brigante. (Played with great sleaze by actor Yves Montand.) But Mariette only has eyes for a young agronomist (Marcello Mastroianni), who isn’t willing to admit he loves her or wants to get married. Lucrezia’s love interest turns out to be Brigante’s son, who believes he wants to flee the town with the love of his life. Mariette steals a wallet with half a million lire from an overweight Swiss tourist, and then is persuaded by the agronomist to find a way to give it back.
It all makes for entertaining farce. The many subtexts of the movie muddle it so that the audience is never sure whether its watching low comedy, political commentary, love-triumphant, or kitsch. Maybe that’s the point. It’s a movie with a presumably serious undertow, veiled by 1930s dramatization, and shaped by the curvy corsets of Lollobrigida. All things settled, it’s a movie concerned with the power people wield over each other, and how the world might just be a better place, as one of the characters suggests, if there were no bosses.
Note: The film is now available on DVD through Oscilloscope. There are a number of extra features, including an alternate ending. But two extras caught my attention. One is a 1957 French interview with the novelist that inspired the movie, Roger Vailland. The other is an 1958 television episode of ‘Cinepanorama’ featuring on-set interviews with four of the film’s stars. The production of the movie looks fantastic.
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