Joe-Pourri Archive
We thought you might enjoy seeing video covers for some of Joe’s films as they appear in Italy, then delve into some interesting new info on Joe's Italian films submitted by Richard Gray.
UN CUORE SEMPLICE
"Un cuore semplice" was released in Italy on 22 April 1977, I suspect only briefly, as the box office charts show it as one of the least successful Italian releases that year. The director, Giorgio Ferrara, is the husband of the film's star, noted stage and screen actress Adriana Asti, who gives a most moving performance. It's probably the most cinematically conventional of Joe's Euro-films, a sensitive and exquisitely photographed adaptation of a literary classic. The story of an ordinary woman's life, loves, disappointments and sorrows, a good, simple woman, who has no dramatic story to tell, yet her life is as fascinating and important as that of someone famous or infamous.
Joe only appears in the first 20 minutes, in a number of scenes in which he attempts to seduce Felicita (Asti), before abandoning her - the first of many disappointments in her life. Joe looks very elegant in early eighteenth century costume, and there is a very sexy scene where he is playing some sort of ball game with the villagers while Felicita watches. He's wearing an unbuttoned green shirt which flys open in the breeze, displaying his chest very attractively.
CALORE IN PROVINCIA
"Calore in provincia/Provincial Heat" is one of Joe's most obscure movies. I've wondered if he's even in it as he's not listed in the cast by Farinotti’s reference guide. I notice that you have now put a poster for it on the website. I can't make out his name and surely it would have been featured prominently as otherwise why cast him in the film? I'd really like to know if his name is on the poster. It's definitely not set in the Middle Ages and sounds like a fairly crude mafia sex comedy. Farinotti categorizes it as a "sexy," rather than a "drammatico." It never turns up on Italian TV, but may in the future.
FANGO BOLLENTE
"Fango bollente/The Savage Three" is available again, as you may know by now, from European Trash Cinema. Unfortunately it's a poor quality, full-screen copy with Greek subtitles, and is cut, I suspect, as it lasts just under 80 minutes. Farinotti lists the running time as 93 minutes. Italian artwork for the film shows Joe getting out of bed semi-naked, a scene which doesn't appear in the video copy. The only scene in which he is shirtless is when he's driving a fork-lift truck, chasing a naked woman around a factory in order to skewer her to the wall - not very erotic!
The director of the film is Vittorio Salerno (not Solerno), brother of the movie's other star, well known 70's actor Enrico Maria Salerno, who plays the cop. "Fango bollente" was co-written by the noted screen writer Ernesto Gastaldi, who created many interesting horror films in the '60s. The few touches of interest in this otherwise dismally exploitative look at "violent youth" are no doubt from his pen. And to make matters worse, Joe has a horrible haircut!
DONNA E BELLO
"Donna e bello" has been screened a number of times recently on an Italian cable channel, and I'm glad I didn't buy the dubbed copy from ETC as the TV print is excellent quality, uncut, tho' unfortunately shown pan and scanned - very unusual on Italian TV. There are many beautiful shots of Joe and I share his enthusiasm for his co-star, the wonderful Andrea Ferreol. I hadn't really been looking forward to "Donna e bello," but it was a pleasant surprise which avoided most of the excesses of 70's Italian pseudo-political films.
It's a pity that the Italian cinema made such poor use of Joe, seeing him in terms of crude action films rather than more erotic drama, to which he's much more suited. I collect Italian film posters and artwork, and looking at the material created for his films, it's astonishing how badly they portrayed him - they obviously weren't trying to attract lovers of beautiful men into the theaters!
LA MARGE
"La marge" is available on video again (in Italian, PAL format) from a company called Raro Video. More info at www.rarovideo.com. I haven't purchased it yet as an Italian cable channel has been showing a number of Borowczyk films which I'm hoping will eventually include "La marge."
WARHOL DOC and ATTITUDE
Here in Britain it was good to see Joe making an all-too-brief appearance in the recent Warhol documentary. In this month's (May) issue of Attitude, a glossy magazine for gay men, there's a full page feature on him, mentioning the Little Joe book, accompanied by a full page nude still--interest in Joe just goes on and on down the generations.
Synopses below are from the standard reference book on Italian cinema, "Dizionario di tutti i film" by Pino Farinotti (1996 edition):
HEAT IN THE PROVINCE (Calore in Provincia)
Mafia, cuckolds, honour, money. The usual mixture for a certain kind of Italo-Sicilian comedy of the lowest level. Don Ciccio manages to become a relative of the powerful Don Calogero because the latter's daughter - who's pregnant - chooses don Ciccio as her "repair husband." (I’m not sure what the translation of "repair husband" is but we can probably guess!)
A SIMPLE HEART (Un Cuore Semplice)
From Gustave Flaubert's novel. We're at the start of the 1800s. Felicita (Adriana Asti) is a naive and trusting peasant girl whose father dies unexpectedly. She’s forced to leave the family home to work as a servant on a farm. At a village fair she meets Teodoro (Joe Dallesandro), a handsome young man, whom she falls in love with and is seduced by. When she discovers that Teodoro has married an older and wealthier woman in order to escape the draft for the war, Felicita is heartbroken.
Grief-stricken, she leaves the village and finds work as a maid for a rich widow (Alida Valli) and her two children, Virginia and Paolo. Full of love to give, Felicita grows deeply fond of the children, which is barely tolerated by their stern mother, who forbids Felicita any overt expression of affection. Over the years, the children grow and are sent to boarding schools to complete their education.
Meanwhile Felicita is reunited with her sister and meets her nephew Vittorio, whom she comes to love like a mother. Unfortunately Vittorio’s visits are always cut short by Felicita’s demanding mistress. Vittorio leaves to work as a sailor. Soon Felicita receives the news of Vittorio’s death at sea and her mistress is informed that her daughter Virginia has died of pneumonia in the convent where she was studying.
A parrot called Lulu is given to the mistress as a present from departing friends. Disliked by the mistress, the exotic bird becomes the only object of Felicita’s affection as it reminds her of her nephew Vittorio’s travels. The years pass and Lulu is the only source of joy for Felicita, who teaches him words and speaks and plays with him, regardless of her mistress’ reproaches. One day Lulu also passes away. It’s the last straw for Felicita, who slowly starts losing her mind. On her mistress’ suggestion, she has Lulu stuffed.
Paolo comes to introduce his wife to his mother. The snobbish and disrespectful young woman is very critical of everything and of Felicita in particular. This strengthens the bond between Felicita and her mistress, who is forced by her daughter-in-law to stay at the farm instead of accepting her son’s offer to sell up and go to live with them in the city.
The two lonely women keep each other company, remembering the good old days and sharing their grief. Eventually, Felicita’s mistress discovers that her accountant has mispent all her fortune and she is bankrupted. Soon the mistress dies, leaving an allowance for Felicita. Paolo lets her stay in the villa - ransacked by his wife - until it is sold.
Old and almost deaf, Felicita spends the days in her room, praying at the shrine she has created over the years, a collection of her life’s most meaningful mementoes, of which Lulu is the centrepiece. For the preparation of the altar for the Corpus Christi Day Felicita contributes by giving them Lulu, but she is too sick to attend. Felicita dies in her bed while the procession parading the altar that features Lulu passes under her window.
©2005, Michael Ferguson | webmaster@joedallesandro.com