Hawks and Sparrows - plus Pigsty

We get a treat from Eureka with two earlier releases by multi-talented Italian director Pasolini – all on one disc! The first, Hawks and Sparrows is a picaresque and absurd fable with Marxist undertones, whilst the second film, Pigsty, ranks among Pasolini’s most controversial works.

HAWKS AND SPARROWS (Uccelacci e uccellini - 1966) stars the then popular comic-actor Totò as he, shabbily dressed, roams the outskirts of Rome together with his son Ninetto (Ninetto Davoli). Along their journey they first witness the removal of two dead bodies, a woman and a man, following a murder in a nearby house. As father and son continue their journey on foot they encounter a crow which not only follows them wherever they go but the bird can talk: “For the benefit of those who were not paying attention or are in doubt, we remind you that the Crow is – as you say – a left-wing intellectual of the kind found living before Palmiro Togliatti’s death.”
Togliatti was the long-standing leader of the Italian Communist Party and his name comes up again toward the end of the movie.
The film then strays from the present narrative as the crow tells the tale of two medieval Franciscan friars (bizarrely they are also played by Totò and Ninetto) and their fruitless efforts to preach the commandment of love to both the hawks and the sparrows and yet the two types of birds continue to kill each other. After the tale we’re back again in the present where Totò and Ninetto encounter all sorts of characters along the way, from landowners to families who cannot pay their rent, from people on the margins of society to the wealthy. Ironically in one scene, Totò himself orders a family to pack their belongings, as they cannot pay the rent for a house that belongs to him, while in a later scene Totó meets with a rich man in order to pay debts that he owes the man. Things take unexpected turn yet again when archive news footage of Palmiro Togliatti’s funeral is shown, together with prominent leaders and the mourning public. This is followed by the continuation of Totò and Ninetto’s journey who encounter a pretty prostitute sitting next to a field and they all end up frolicking about. Before father and son carry on with their journey they kill and eat the crow (who has followed them everywhere) for being boring company.
The film is a delight to watch even when one is not familiar with the state of Italian politics and struggle of the poorer classes at the time. Totò, with his unique face that exudes warmth and humour, is perfectly cast in the tragi-comic role of the father who tries to teach his son about life as he knows it. Equally interesting are the unique opening credits which are sung to a tune by renowned composer Ennio Morricone.

PIGSTY (Porcile – 1966) in contrast is considerable less accessible and the two parallel stories, although related in one way or another, are rather difficult to decipher both in message and meaning unless one is acquainted with the political goings-on at the time (specifically Italy and Germany in the mid-60’s). The first story concerns a young man called Julian (Jean-Pierre Léaud), the son of Herr Klotz (Alberto Lionello) – a wealthy German industrialist. Julian prefers to spend time with pigs in the pigsty to spending time with his fiancée Ida (Anne Wiazemsky), a flame-haired woman with politically radical ideas (and yet wearing a fur coat!). Meanwhile Papa Klotz, together with the aide of his loyal sidekick Hans Günther (Marco Ferreri), attempts to solve the on-going rivalry with fellow industrialist Herdhitze (Ugo Tognazzi). Eventually the two industrialists come to an agreement and join forces while Julian gets eaten by the pigs (luckily we are spared any graphics). When a local man rushes to the house to reveal what happened, Herdhitze is hell-bent on keeping the unpleasant event under wraps. This part of the story attempts to link the Third Reich with the German Economic Wonder that followed.

The second parallel story is set in an unspecified time although the primitive outfits suggest a period around the Dark Ages or Middle Ages and concern a young savage (Pierre Clémenti) who wanders about the volcanic landscape around Mount Etna in search for potential victims and food, for the man is a ruthless cannibal. Eventually he too joins forces, namely with a thug (Franco Citti) and together they see to it that the countryside remains savage and unsafe until they are captured. Just before the execution (they are tied to the ground and left to the elements and straying wolves) the young cannibal utters the words, "I killed my father, I ate human flesh and I quiver with joy" whereas Citti’s character goes to pieces with remorse and his fear of looming death. Here, the main topic is the capacity of human destruction and somehow this is linked to the actual story about Julian and Herr Klotz, although it seems so far-fetched it might be difficult to draw the parallels.
Pigsty feels altogether too long with it’s drawn-out and stilted, intellectual and occasionally pretentious dialogue although once again the actors perform well and the lot is atmospherically photographed, courtesy of cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli.