Michael Neumann
The idea, at least, was intriguing: to recreate the magic and decadence of early Hollywood as seen through the eyes of two innocent, impoverished Italian stone cutters working on the set of D.W. Griffith's monumental 1916 epic 'Intolerance'. It's the perfect setting for a meditation on the end of Hollywood's precocious adolescence (Griffith's film was the first and most ambitious megabuck box-office flop), but rarely has a film launched with such promise landed with such a thud. In their first English language feature the Taviani brothers evoke none of the heady freedom that followed movie-making out West. Their Hollywood is a pitiful facsimile, patched together from a few myths and daydreams into an artificial costume drama, with cardboard characters mouthing dialogue that (one hopes) suffered in translation. The brief glimpse of footage from 'Intolerance' itself only underlines how little the Tavianis aspired to and how limited their resources were.
Jackie Scott-Mandeville
I loved this film for its artistic beauty, its romance rooted in realism, for its characters and story, and for the lovely acting and cinematography. After sculpting a perfect elephant relief in a panel of one of the colonnades of Pisa Cathedral which their family is restoring, twin brothers Andrea and Nicola, temperamental and emotional, but talented and artistic stonemasons, find themselves without jobs as the restoration project finishes, their father retires, and they fall out with their five brothers. They decide to try their luck in America and, after a descending series of menial jobs, they throw caution to the winds and join a group of Italian artists travelling to Hollywood to create scenery for the infant film industry. Luck now favouring the brave, they end up working for D.W. Griffiths, the maestro of early Hollywood, albeit in dogsbody occupation. However, their burgeoning relationships with two likely girl film extras, Mabel and Edna, make their lives more interesting and then, hearing Griffiths wants elephants for the stage-set of his new project 'Intolerance', they create a brilliant elephant effigy. This is burnt by a jealous bureaucrat in Griffith's employ but, fortunately, they and friends had filmed the elephant and found an opportunity to show the film to Griffiths who commissions the brothers to make him 8 elephants for his film. Fortune shines on the brothers as they ascend into prime popularity with Griffiths for their marvellous elephants, marry the two lovely girls, and look set for a great future. Unfortunately, Edna dies in childbirth and Nicola, heartbroken, decides to join the Italian forces fighting the Germans in the First World War. Fortune's wheel turns full circle, as Andrea also joins the army and finds his brother dying on the battlefield. Nicola had taken up the army cameraman's job and the brothers film themselves before dying in the hope that someone will find the film and take it back to show their sons.The film works as a fairy tale, a combination of romance, comedy, and tragedy. On one level, the deceptively simplistic story is a metaphor for the destruction of war fictionalising the making of, with actual footage from, Griffith's anti-war film 'Intolerance', and the death of the brothers at the end in a surrealistic montage of battle with an image of an Italian church, similar to Pisa Cathedral, in the background. But on a parallel level, the film is a delightful story of two imaginative and ambitious brothers who achieve an impossible dream. The vivid settings are historically interesting from the restoration of one of Italy's finest cathedrals, to the depiction of early Hollywood. Edna's death and the death of the brothers in the war add tragic grandeur to the film's Italian operatic style. The wonderful acting, especially from the two brothers, but which includes an excellent performance from Charles Dance as D.W. Griffiths and a lovely early performance by the beautiful Greta Scacchi, contribute to the 'Commedia del Arte' bravura of the whole film scheme. Metaphors abound, and the directors' attention to detail (the double wedding of Andrea and Nicola to Edna and Mabel is just one example) makes this a meticulous piece of film craftsmanship, echoing the craftsmanship of the stonemasons which the whole film is about. The final scene, the brothers filming themselves, emphasises the power of film and celebrates the art of film-making as one of the world forms of artistic expression, up there with painting, sculpture, and music.The film is one of my favourites, and I was delighted to see the fictional story of the creation of elephants for Griffiths' famous film re-created in the giant elephant replicas in the new Mall in front of the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars ceremony is held in Hollywood. Viewers may also like to note that the backdrop for the title sequence is part of the Pisa Cathedral complex, the wall of the burial ground. One could continue to comment on the layers of metaphor, filmic reference, and artistic quality of 'Good Morning Babylon' but I will end by simply thoroughly recommending this film. It is a period piece and deserves to be remembered.
Ralph Michael Stein
Entertaining and interesting without much depth, "Good Morning, Babylon" never decides - through directorial eyes - whether to parody or chronicle the early silent cinema dominated by D.W. Griffith. However, directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani deserve much credit for turning a fantasy about early Hollywood into an attractive film.Two brothers, Nicola and Andrea (check the IMDb page for this film for the actors' names) leave their aging father after he closes their family historical renovation business in Italy. Their outstandingly fine, craftsman attention to detail won't keep the wolf of bankruptcy at bay. The father and brothers, along with other relatives and assorted laborers, have done yeoman work restoring the glorious facades of an Italy alive in memory and lost in reality. But their time won't come again until Perillo Tours rediscovers Italy.So Nicola and Andrea come to the Promised Land, arriving in Tinseltown after enduring the hardship of common work, including pig herding. Given their pedigree as artisans it's little surprise that they are attracted to the gaudy and slightly wacky Hollywood in its infancy.Enduring but escaping crude bigotry ("wops" is the strongest epithet in the film), the brothers get to meet and be hired by D.W. Griffith, well-played by Charles Dance. He has Griffiths' Southern accent and mannerisms cold - must have read a biography of the autocrat of the Silents.The brothers prosper enough to land two beauties, one played by the young Greta Scacchi, as brides. The women exchange their jobs as extras for leading roles in their beloveds' lives.Griffith is shown agonizing about turning his long germinating idea of an anti-war film into reality. That was (and is) the great "Intolerance" and brief scenes from this masterpiece of the early days of cinema are provided. If you haven't seen "Intolerance," shame on you!An unfortunate but not uncommon for the time domestic problem clouds the relationship of the brothers who then separate in anger, winding up later in The Great War on opposite sides. Somehow they fortuitously meet on the battlefield and resolve their differences in a denouement that challenges the war-hating viewer not to laugh.Intentionally or not, the war scenes are a caricature of early cinema's depiction of combat. Audiences that are used to the dynamic proto-realism of, say, "Saving Private Ryan" (where real amputees were used as extras so all got the point that having a leg blown off hurts), may find these scenes very plasticized. But we didn't live in the age of D.W. Griffith.Well worth renting. The score is interesting, halfway between Puccini and an organ grinder's playlist.6/10.
