PIZZICATA (1996)

Modest in scale & effect, Edoardo Winspeare’s helming debut is meticulous in detailing the local folk customs & background of a small Southern Italian town in 1943 where an Italian-American flyer is downed not too far from where he & his family lived before emigrating 15 years ago. Passing himself off as a cousin of a resident, he falls hard for the daughter of his protector, even though he’s aware that she’s about to be engaged to a well off local. And, before you can say CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, there’s a tragic price to be paid. With the exception of some fetid sequences detailing a sort of mad dance fever, Winspeare let’s things play out in a basic Neo-Realistic style, non-pros and all, which adds immeasurably to the verisimitude, but the line between inevitability & the obvious is sometimes crossed.