Totò and his son Ninetto embark on a journey into the poor surroundings of Rome. On their journey they meet a talking raven. They talk about life and death and the raven, a moody and know-it-all guest, gives them a moral, equivalent to the rational philosophy of a Marxist intellectual.
Pier Paolo Pasolinis Uccellacci e Uccellini – a poetic Operette in prose of energising quality – proposes in short fables and poetic anecdotes a reflexion over the problems of the 1960s: the crisis of Marxism, the destiny of the proletariat and the role of the intellectual. With his evangelic-franziscan digressions, it becomes a humoristic apologetic as well, that has the humility and density of a masterpiece.
Some kind of surrealist fairy tale, full of bitterness towards an ending epoch (the funeral of the significant Italian communist Togliatti is emblematic). One could declare everything as a “parable of the lower class”, since it embodies the distance between the classes and the relationship between intellectuals and the people. Finally though, Uccelcaci e Uccellini is a poetic film to enjoy and not to explain, which the opening credits promise.
Federico Schembri
