REALITY

Italy, 2012, 117 minutes, Colour.
Aniello Arena, Loredana Simioli.
Directed by Matteo Garrone.

Despite Luciano’s laugh at the end of the film, this is, overall, a rather sad film.

Director, Matteo Garrone, has won awards by dramatising the main myth of Naples, the Mafia. Now he goes to a much more mundane, but no less prevalent, myth: reality-TV.

The reality of the title refers to reality TV, specifically the Big Brother program, so popular all around the world. At the time of the making of this film, it was in its 12th season in Italy.

There is a symbolic beginning as we watch a long the aerial shot over the outskirts of Naples, the background of Vesuvius, finally passing the cars in the streets to focus on an ornate carriage, carrying a bride and groom and going into a theme park called Le Sonrisa where marriages are celebrated, celebrities flown in, locals dressing up in costumes to be part of the background to the celebrations. We see ordinary people dressed up in a fantasyland.

But, then they go home, to very ordinary homes where they are very ordinary people. Not exactly poor, but not exactly well-off. And while the father works at a fish market, he is also involved in scams with a new product of robot-cookers.

But it is the Big Brother program that preoccupies him. Persuaded to do an audition, Luciano is called to Cinecitta in Rome for a second audition. But then there is the long wait for a phone call to ensure that he is a candidate to go into the Big Brother House. This long waits turns into an obsession, as he sells his fish market shop, as he broods, watches Big Brother on the television, moves out of reality to the concern of his wife, thinking that the producers are secretly watching him and thinking that he should do charitable deeds, including giving away his furniture, to ensure his being chosen for the Big Brother House.

Aniello Arena is completely persuasive as Luciano, the very ordinary man, very ordinary-looking man, who gets caught up in the atmosphere of contemporary pop media, the reality shows, thinking that he will become famous, thinking that he will make money, thinking that his family will esteem him more. Another character, Enzo, sweeps in and out of the film to great acclaim, the celebrity for the masses.

The film offers a lot of background detail for life in the suburbs of Naples. It also has the highly emotional outbursts of the Neapolitans. It is interesting to note that there are a couple of church scenes, elderly ladies pray the rosary in church, a brief sermon from a sensible priest on appearances and reality, Luciano and his friend Michele working in a soup kitchen of the parish and, finally, the going to the stations of the cross on good Friday at the Coliseum. These scenes seem to indicate that finding a place in the Big Brother House is a secular alternative to going to heaven.

Just as the film opened with an aerial shot into Naples, the film ends with a long rising tracking shot from Luciano in the Big Brother House laughing, but giving us plenty of time to wonder what is the nature of his laugh, satisfaction in getting into the house or a mad giggle.


1. An Italian story? Naples? Universal story? The interplay of reality and fantasy?
2. The opening with Naples, the long sweeping overhead shots of the city and Vesuvius, focusing on the ornate carriage, following it to La Sonrisa
3. A fantasy world? Costumes and décor along with the modern? The celebration? The visitors? The wedding ceremonies? Enzo and his arrival, his celebrity? Luciano and his drag act with Enzo? The group arriving home, the very ordinariness of their homes? The markets? The malls and the auditions? The visit to Cinecitta? The town, the marketplaces, the bars, the church? Rome and the Coliseum? The Big Brother House? The musical score and songs?
4. The film as a fable, sad, contemporary hopes, contemporary madness? The role of the media and celebrity? Secular goals, alternatives to religious goals?
5. The opening, the cars, the carriage, the mix of the old and the new? People in fantasyland, costumes, their roles, Enzo?
6. The popularity of the Big Brother series, all over the world? In Italy? The value of this reality television? The numerous contestants? Their behaviour, eagerness to be participating, hopes for payments? To what purpose?
7. Luciano as the focus of the film? Initially costumed, with his wife, the make up for the drag act with Enzo? The photos for his daughters? At home, his wife, love for her, the children? Working at the market, selling fish? Friendship with Michele? The con with the robots? The lady pretending she did not have one? Their following her to the church, the arguments during the recitation of the rosary? Taking her home, her lies? The taking the machine, other deals? Luciano and his working for more deals? The phone call from his wife, the children wanting him to audition for Big Brother? Arriving late, asking Enzo for the favour, the audition? His anticipation, the preoccupation, being called to Rome, going with the family, the hour-long audition, his becoming more and more obsessed, selling the fish market? His wife’s anxiety? The false call at the beach, his brother pretending? Wanting to belong the program consuming him, watching the program for hours, his wife wanting him to come back to reality, his changing, embarrassment at not being called, trying to avoid his friends? The beggar, going to the bar, paying for food and drink, the poor coming to his house, giving away the furniture, thinking that this would get him points, thinking that the producers were spying on him, his wife’s upset about the furniture, his spiel about giving to the poor? Watching TV all day? His wife leaving? Her going to his family, bringing the food? Going to the cemetery, asking the advice of the elderly ladies, their thinking he was asking about death and going to happen? Michele and his help, going to the church, the sermon by the priest, appearances and reality? His helping at the soup kitchen? Going to Rome, with Michele, the stations of the cross? Going away, finding the Big Brother House, watching the inhabitants, going in, at last inside the house, sitting, laughing? The meaning of this laugh people? Maria, strong, love for her husband, participation in the events at La a song resell, at home, at work selling the robots, going to Rome with her husband, her being realistic about his prospects, talking to him plainly, his obsession, her response to his giving way the former chair, leaving, going back to his mother, taking into the church?
8. The children, their watching TV, loving celebrities, Enzo and Big Brother?
9. The family, his mother’s kindness, sister, his big brother and the trick, the large sized family? The close family?
10. Michele, Neapolitan? The mixture of the religious and being involved in fraud? His devout behaviour in the church? At the fish market? Carrying the statue of the Madonna? His hopes, taking Luciano to the church, the sermon, the soup kitchen, to the stations of the cross in Rome?
11. Ciro and his bar, the friends of the bar, Luciano’s fear, being mocked, the beggar and the food?
12. Enzo as a celebrity, his reputation, the crowds, favours, swinging from the roof at the club, the encounter with Luciano in the toilet, his disdain of him?
13. The glamour of the TV world, the girls, the contestants, producers? The scenes in the Big Brother house?
14. A comment on Italian society, society in general, the media, popular media and its effect? Reality TV and the reality TV-consciousness?