Hussam Fahmy
Last year witnessed many projects of converting animated stories into films, the most prominent of which were "Aladdin" and "The Lion King", but converting the cartoons into impressive films is not exclusive to Hollywood, and this is what we see through the new Italian movie "Pinocchio" It was directed by Italian Matteo Garoni and starring the beloved Italian star Roberto Benigni.
The film achieved mass success in Italy before the cinemas closed their doors due to the Corona virus, and it also witnessed success during its special screening at the Berlin International Film Festival 2020.
In the treatment of Matteo Garoni we return to the origin of the Italian story of Pinocchio, the origin that differs from the children's story that Disney transformed into an animated movie during the 1940s, where the story becomes more serious, sometimes bitter, and more magical as well.
Reality and strange
Matteo Garroni's new treatment returns to the spirit of the original story composed by Italian Carlo Collodi in 1883, and so the movie approaches the real life of the Italians at this time, and this is of course the first difference from Disney's animated movie.
Realistic treatment begins with a greater appearance of the figure of the carpentry father, a poor and impoverished "gibbito", who suffers from the depression of other Italians, but finds inspiration by seeing one of the theaters of the dolls, and then he decides to make a doll, and thus begins the story of Pinocchio, the wooden child Who dreams of being a real child.
Matteo Garrone's real-life vision of the poor, which was clearly shown before in his previous films, most notably "Dogman" in 2018, continues to emerge through the story of Pinocchio, we see it first through the life of "Gibbito" and then we see it more through the suffering of Pinocchio Whoever is subjected to exploitation and kidnapping, then a wonderful court who orders imprisonment for all who prove his innocence, and orders the release of all those who are found guilty, are imprisoned.
This realistic treatment jumps smoothly to mix with the strange elements in the story, which the director makes no effort to try to explain, this is a magic story and you have to accept it as it is.
Sweet and bitter
The distinguishing element of this new treatment is that it mixes very smoothly the sweet and bitter feelings of the story. On one side, the film can be considered a children's movie, celebrating a classic tale that everyone knows.
It also depends heavily on a huge achievement on the level of visual effects, fashion design and decoration, as we feel like we are already moving to the world of Pinocchio, Italy in the late nineteenth century, where the magical princess who represents the renewed rescue of Pinocchio, and the two villains who carry the features of a wolf and a cat, in addition to a maid who makes comics By its similarity to the sluggish and slow "snail" animal.
Of course, the beautiful feelings are directed by the presence of the cheerful Italian actor Roberto Benigni on the screen.
The bitter feelings continue without filtering (without modification or paraphrasing), as Matteo Garoni tells the story in its original version instead of the childish story that Disney told us, and here we continue to suffer Pinocchio after leaving the home of his maker and his father, moment by moment, until he is exposed in one of the scenes to an attempt Killing by hanging.
This blending definitely provides a serious aspect for adults, as well as the colorful and cheerful side of the film's child audience.
father and son
With a more reflective look at the film, we will find that the story of Pinocchio is not only about a wooden boy who learns that honesty is the savior and that lying and deception will lead him to long suffering and bad fate, and so in the end he acquires the right to transform into a real child, but it is also a story full of sermons about the relationship of the father and son.
A relationship begins with an innate, usually the father grabs you from birth, and in the story of Pinocchio the father makes you with his hands, and love here comes without conditions, but this relationship turns into a relationship that may be strengthened or weakened over time based on the efforts exerted by the two parties.
In the story of Pinocchio, the son exploits the love of the father, who leaves him repeatedly and lies to him and deceives him and escapes from him, and automatically this translates to a more difficult life and endless suffering, it is a suffering that was about to end his life completely, but rather transformed him at some point from a child to a donkey who would spend his life In hard work without complaint.
The wooden child does not turn into a real child in the end except by restoring his good relationship with his father, as the roles are reversed, so the father stays at home tired and ill, and the son's responsibility becomes the hard work in order to earn a living his day and enough to feed and treat his father.
And so ... and only thus, the wooden child acquires the right to convert to a human being, which we can translate into reality, by saying that hard-working, diligence and caring for the father finally leaves the child's flocks of childhood and walks the paths of manhood transformed into a man.