The Icicle Thief
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''The Icicle Thief'' ( it, Ladri di saponette) is a 1989 Italian
comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
Maurizio Nichetti Maurizio Nichetti (born 8 May 1948) is an Italian film screenwriter, actor and director. His 1989 film ''The Icicle Thief'' won the Golden St. George at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1998 he was a member of the jury at the 48th ...
, titled in imitation of
Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...
's 1948 classic
Italian neorealist Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...
film ''
The Bicycle Thief ''Bicycle Thieves'' ( it, Ladri di biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as ''The Bicycle Thief'') is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It follows the story of a poor father searching in post-World War ...
'' (Italian: ''Ladri di biciclette''). Some feel ''The Icicle Thief'' was created as a spoof of neorealism, which predominated Italian cinema after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. However, it is generally understood that the film is critical of the impact of
consumerism Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the Industrial Revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to overproduction—the supp ...
on art, as suggested by the contrast between the nested film and commercials, and the apathy of Italian television viewers in recognising the difference between the two. The film won the Golden St. George at the
16th Moscow International Film Festival The 16th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 7 to 18 July 1989. The Golden St. George was awarded to the Italian film ''The Icicle Thief'' directed by Maurizio Nichetti. Jury * Andrzej Wajda (Poland – President of the Jury) * Ge ...
.


Plot

The movie begins with a film director, played by director Maurizo Nichetti himself, discussing his latest film on an intellectual Italian TV channel which is about to broadcast it at short notice in place of a more highly regarded competitor’s. His "masterpiece" follows the bleak travails of a poverty-stricken unemployed man (again played by Nichetti) who finds work in a chandelier factory, but cannot resist stealing one of the gleaming lights for his wife. The pompous director is initially pleased with the seriousness with which his work is analysed, but he then becomes distraught when his
black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
opus is repeatedly interrupted by full-colour commercials. The TV audience, watching in their homes, are completely oblivious of the interruptions and the "outrages" perpetrated on the director’s artistic intentions.Michael Brooke (no date)
“The Icicle Thief (1989) Plot Summary”
IMDb (no date). Retrieved 12 Sept. 2014


Nested film plot

The nested film borrows key elements from the ''
Bicycle Thieves ''Bicycle Thieves'' ( it, Ladri di biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as ''The Bicycle Thief'') is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It follows the story of a poor father searching in post-World War ...
'', with the protagonist family having the same first names from the original, and the director intending to end the film tragically. The director’s original plot followed the travails of Antonio Piermattei (Maurizo Nichetti) and his impoverished family: Antonio finds work in a
chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent li ...
factory, where he tries to steal one of the lights for his wife, Maria (
Caterina Sylos Labini Caterina is a feminine given name which is an Italian and Catalan form of the name ''Katherine''. Notable people with the name include: In music: * Caterina Assandra, Italian composer and Benedictine nun * Caterina Bueno, Italian singer and folk ...
). When Antonio manages to smuggle a chandelier out of the factory, he is supposed to be paralysed by a traffic accident with a truck while riding home with the chandelier (just after the plot diverges due to a power failure). The accident would have forced Maria into prostitution, with their two sons, Bruno ( Federico Rizzo) and Paolo (Matteo Auguardi), ending up in an
orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...
in the final scene.


Plot divergence

A power failure in the studio causes a model (Heidi Komarek) from one of the commercials to end up in the nested film's universe and disrupt the plot. Maria, thinking that Antonio is having an affair with the model, enters the commercial universe by faking her death, causing the police in the film to accuse Antonio of murdering her. Nichetti is forced to enter the film universe to restore the original plot, but Bruno convinces Don Italo (
Renato Scarpa Renato Scarpa (14 September 1939 – 30 December 2021) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 85 films from 1969 to 2019. Scarpa died on 30 December 2021, at the age of 82. Selected filmography * '' St. Michael Had a Rooster'' (1972) * '' ...
) to shift the blame from Antonio to Nichetti for Maria's murder, after learning of Nichetti’s orphanage plot: this causes Nichetti to chase Bruno through the commercial universe before ending up in the commercial for floor wax, where Maria had been realising her aspiration as a singer.


Actual ending

Back in the film universe, Antonio laments the apparent loss of Maria and Bruno, and the possibility of the model leaving him due to the grim nature of the film. However, Nichetti manages to convince Maria and Bruno to return to the film universe with shopping carts of modern-day goods, with the Piermattei family reunited the satisfaction of the viewer (Carlina Torta). Nichetti then attempts to return to the real world, only to be trapped in the film universe after the viewer switches off the television set before going to bed.


Cast

*
Maurizio Nichetti Maurizio Nichetti (born 8 May 1948) is an Italian film screenwriter, actor and director. His 1989 film ''The Icicle Thief'' won the Golden St. George at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1998 he was a member of the jury at the 48th ...
as himself, and Antonio Piermattei *
Caterina Sylos Labini Caterina is a feminine given name which is an Italian and Catalan form of the name ''Katherine''. Notable people with the name include: In music: * Caterina Assandra, Italian composer and Benedictine nun * Caterina Bueno, Italian singer and folk ...
as Maria Piermattei, Antonio’s wife * Federico Rizzo as Bruno Piermattei, Antonio’s son * Matteo Auguardi as Paolo Piermattei, Antonio’s baby son *
Renato Scarpa Renato Scarpa (14 September 1939 – 30 December 2021) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 85 films from 1969 to 2019. Scarpa died on 30 December 2021, at the age of 82. Selected filmography * '' St. Michael Had a Rooster'' (1972) * '' ...
as Don Italo * Heidi Komarek as the model * Claudio G. Fava as the Film Critic * Massimo Sacilotto and Carlina Torta as television viewers Source: Maria Reviews


Wordplay translation

The film's Italian title ''Ladri di saponette'', a play on the Italian title of De Sica's film, means "Soap Thieves"; it is justified by dialogue where a boy is told not to use up all the soap when washing his hands, and his mother wonders if he is eating it. For English-speaking audiences, the title was changed to ''The Icicle Thief'', playing on the English title of De Sica's film. This title was justified by changing the wording of the English subtitles when the characters talk about some chandeliers and one is stolen. In the original Italian dialogue they are said to sparkle like pearls (''pèrle'') and drops of water (''gocce''), but in the English subtitles, they look "like icicles" (which in Italian would be ''ghiaccioli'').


Critical reception

Reviewing the film for the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', Sheila Benson wrote, "Bless the Italians and their obsession with movies. Having created a permanent niche in the hearts of the world's movie sentimentalists with ''Cinema Paradiso'', they now let loose their secret weapon, writer-director-actor and comic extraordinaire, Maurizio Nichetti". She found ''The Icicle Thief'' to be an "ingenious comedy", adding, "Pirandello rarely did it better and in ''The Purple Rose of Cairo'' Woody Allen didn't get this nuttily complex", before concluding that the film is "a lot like its creator--slight, ingenious and sneakily irresistible". In ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', Desson Howe was less impressed, beginning by noting, "The TV thing, right? It slices our sense of reality into 15-minute chunks. Its commercials ruin the dramatic integrity of the programs they interrupt. It turns us into dumb couch potatoes. It gives us limited attention spans. I said it gives us limited attention spans. These and other TV-loathing observations, as most of us have asserted in everything from organized junior-high class discussions to alcohol-induced dorm-room rantings, are inarguably true. But in ''The Icicle Thief'', a satirical fantasy about the way television butchers the movies it puts on, Italian film director Maurizio Nichetti 'discovers' these insights as though for the first time". Howe goes on, "The parts of ''Icicle'' that bash the boob tube comprise the film's least enlightening elements; they're facile, almost sophomoric. But the parts which reveal, without self-conscious underlinings, the trashy TV culture in which we live, as well as the TV commercial switcheroos, are where it's worth watching". Overall, however, Howe concluded that: "things become a little too convoluted and ''Icicle'' joins that crowded group of Italian movies with an apparent inability to understand the concept of excess. But, as with many such films, the inner spirit frequently carries you over, and although Nichetti tells us practically nothing new about the global village, he certainly has fun with the possibilities".


References


External links

* * *
The Icicle Thief on moria.co.nz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Icicle Thief, The 1989 films 1989 comedy films Italian comedy films 1980s Italian-language films Films directed by Maurizio Nichetti Films scored by Manuel De Sica Films set in Milan Films partially in color 1980s Italian films