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I watched Martin Scorsese's My Voyage to Italy. Thank you, Baby Lee, for spurring this into action.
I was expecting Scorsese to physically travel to Italy. But wouldn't that have derailed the point? Scorsese wants us to know that movies have the power to take us to places, take us to emotions, take us to events that change our beings right from a movie theater or even your couch in your living room. Scorsese pleads to the young to watch the Italian neorealist movies, and Fellini movies, and Antonini movies because they left an impression on him and he is confident they will leave an impression on us. Not that we will all grow up to become famous directors, but because a two hour slice of art can help show us what it means to be a human in desperate times, with a devasted country, with devasted people (see neorealism, especially). All good art should help explain what living is, what people really do and how they really feel. These Italian films that Scorsese talks about and shows us strove for these ideals.
If do plan on watching some of these films, and do not like having the ending revealed, you'll have to skip Scorsese's film. I've never had a problem with knowing the ending myself in most cases. The end result is not the only important thing to a film. The entire process is important. You know Romeo and Juliet die at the very beginning of the play. Does it make their love any less dramatic? Does knowing that the muses sing of the "doomed" raging Achilles make his story any less exciting? Of course, some movies benefit from the suspense. That is their purpose. Hitchcock pleaded to audiences not to tell others what happens to Janet Leigh or who the mother really is. He was a master story teller. His art excelled in that. But the point of these Italian movies is not to be frightened or filled with suspense. We do want to know what happens next though, but it's just as important to realize why "next" happens, what events unfold to lead these people to these decisions. Scorsese talks about how he watched some of these films over and over. We do that too, with out favorite movies. We know Michael becomes the Don, but we watch anyway. We watch film verisions of our favorite books, and not because we want to see how it ends. If you are more interested in the process, the criticism, and the art appreciation, knowing the end is just a small detail. Scorsese wants us to think like that.
The movie is over four hours long. Most of it is scenes from Scorsese's favorites sometimes with his own musings voiced over interspersed with the film dialogue. He talks about a final shot that continues to haunt him to this day (L'Avventura) for example and things of that nature. He also talks about growing up in NYC, going to the theater with his dad, or watching the Italian movies on his little TV with neighbors and family. He mentions what movies particularly influenced his own (I Vitelloni and Mean Streets). He really does a great job of placing the movies in their actual historical context with the neorealists movies. His commentary completely upholds his love for movies, but it's never something like "Wow! I LOVE this part!" It stays sophisticated and interesting and deeply knowledge based, like a college professor.
The majority of major films today can be something like Transformers, which isn't even about humans, or superhumans, or comedies featuring awkward, immature men struggling with hangovers and getting laid. It's worth opening ourselves up to something different from movies, an art that has the capability to morph mulitple arts - music, photography, theater - into something that is truly meaningful for human beings. My Voyage to Italy asks us to do this, and I think it's worth taking Scorsese up on it.
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