Award-winning film from Gianni Amelio, its rep now somewhat in the shadow of his somber justice tale, OPEN DOORS/’90 just before, and the absurdist international trade horror of LAMERICA/’94 soon after. (What a range in just these three!) BAMBINI, heartbreaking & heartwarming without getting sticky, something of a three-day mini-epic, going south from Milan to Rome to Sicily, as young carabiniere Enrico Lo Verso (an Amelio regular) is left on his own with a couple of problem kids: asthmatic 9-yr-old boy; prematurely toughened 11-yr-old sister, separated from a mother who’s been pimping the girl & ignoring the boy. Refused entry at a Catholic Orphanage in Rome, Lo Verso must get them to a children’s home in Sicily. With its walking pace and incorrigible brother/sister act, the film patiently works its Neo-Realistic tone (both kids non-pro) to make the inevitable warming up more believable, more intensely touching when it does develop. Especially fine during an impromptu stop at Lo Verso’s hometown where the kids experience a family unit as foreign to them as a moon landing. Yet, even here, thrown out again. Amelio’s moral: no good deed goes unpunished, but the effort not for nothing. A wonderful film.
DOUBLE-BILL: Few Amelio titles recently brought Stateside, even for home viewing. But OPEN DOORS and the astonishing LAMERICA/’94 easily found.
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