The Italian Character: The Story of a Great Italian Orchestra Directed by Angelo Bozzolini (review)

This is a documentary about a particular Italian orchestra, emphasizing the strengths and lightly touching on the weaknesses of the quintessentially Italian nature of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Somewhat unfortunately, the filmmaker follows the same formula as the orchestra in presenting the material; it is all about heart and soul, and lacks some details and precision. This may be fine for the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia, but in the filmmaker’s art, one must capture the essence and provide a certain level of detail to help the viewer understand the film’s message. In this film, writer and director Angelo Bozzolini does a wonderful job of describing the soul of this great orchestra, but often does not identify the featured performer, conductor, musical work, or its composer. Do not look for this documentary to tell you factual details such as how much the orchestra rehearses, how many concerts a year they perform, or to describe all its conductors in some chronological fashion. Its greatest strength is that it isn’t boring. Its weakness is that it doesn’t fully document. If you want to get this kind of detail, the orchestra’s website at http://www.santacecilia.it/en/chi_siamo/orchestra_e_coro/orchestra.html is excellent. There are also three books about the orchestra, all published by the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome: “80 anni di concerti dell’Orchestra e del Coro dell’Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia” by Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Gestione autonoma dei concerti (1988), “Gli anni dell’Augusteo: cronologia dei concerti, 1908–1936” by Emilia Zanetti, et al. (1990), and “100.101: i primi cento anni dell’Orchestra dell’Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia” by Annalisa Bini, Roberto Grisley, and Umberto Nicoletti Altimari (2008). This last book cited has a discography and a chronology and is accompanied by a DVD. It would be good for the world of music if independent scholars rounded out the literature with a book or another documentary.

I thought the film lacked a certain focus and coherence; e.g., a double bass player is featured when she journeys to pick up her instrument after a modification is made to it. Other footage is inserted, and then the filmmaker returns to that scene. The focus seems scattered to an American audience, but it is typically European to include the type of nonmusical footage that was included in this film, such as a rugby match, gathering honey, eating with family, and a fishing boat on the water. These scenes are meant to illuminate the Italian character, so what at first seems odd to an American audience becomes delightful.

The sound quality of the film is excellent. The subtitles seem a little fuzzy, and the credits particularly so, on a personal computer. Viewing it on a larger device, such as a television, enhances readability. There were some grammatical errors in the subtitles and some shaky camera scenes, but overall the production values were fine.

I wanted to hear this orchestra play a complete musical work. This documentary, like the Italian character it depicts, is passionate and engaging; however, I think the material was adequately presented in the bonus film. The 100-minute documentary, or just its 12-minute bonus, could be appended to an actual performance video or recording of the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia for a satisfying package. Alternatively, it would have been nice if this documentary was part of a series on great orchestras of the world.