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| Luigi Comencini: La finestra sul Luna Park / The Window to Luna Park (IT/FR 1957). The son meets his estranged dad. Giancarlo Damiani (Mario) and Gastone Renzelli (Aldo). |
Tu es mon fils.
IT/FR 1957. Prod.: Antonio Cervi per Noria Film.
Director: Luigi Comencini. Sog., Scen.: Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Luigi Comencini, with the collaboration of Luciano Martino. F.: Armando Nannuzzi – b&w. M.: Nino Baragli. Scgf.: Pek G. Avolio. Mus.: Alessandro Cicognini. Int.: Giulia Rubini (Ada), Gastone Renzelli (Aldo), Giancarlo Damiani (Mario), Pierre Trabaud (Righetto), Calina Classy (Aida), Giselda Mancinotti (Antonietta), Luigi Russo (Spartaco), Remo Galli (Niccodemo).
90 min
Not released in Finland.
Restored in 2025 by Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Surf Film, at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.
DCP from Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna
By courtesy of Surf Film.
Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2025: Life First! The Cinema of Luigi Comencini.
Introduced by Francesca Comencini e Paola Comencini, hosted by Gian Luca Farinelli.
Viewed with subtitles in English by Eoghan Price at Cinema Modernissimo, 22 June 2025.
Emiliano Morreale (Bologna 2025): "A commercial failure on its release, La finestra sul Luna Park is one of the hidden masterpieces of 1950s Italian cinema and the most personal of the films Comencini made during that decade. Aldo, a workman who has emigrated, returns home following the death of his wife and attempts to rebuild a relationship with his son, Mario. During his absence, Mario has found a substitute father-figure in the very different Righetto, a weak and mild-mannered member of the underclass (a character who recalls Il Matto in Fellini’s La strada, another fool who sends a brutish male into crisis – a parallel reinforced by the fact that both characters are dubbed by the same voice actor, Stefano Sibaldi). Righetto lives day-to-day but is able to offer the child the kind of affection he cannot find elsewhere (“The little I earn is enough for me,” he says, “Why should I work more if it would deprive me of time I can spend with Mario?”) It is the vision of this different kind of emotional relationship which opens the eyes of Aldo who brings to mind the protagonist of another film made the same year, Antonioni’s Il grido, played by one of the non-professional actors from Visconti’s Bellissima, Gastone Renzelli."
"The film is structured as a low key, everyday (or realistic) male weepie. Aldo wanders through the new districts of Rome, often holding his son’s hand like the protagonist of Bicycle Thieves (the locations are the popular districts of Ostiense and Centocelle), in an attempt to reclaim spaces that have been dramatically transformed while he was away. The end result is a coming of age story focusing not on a child, but an adult who learns to let go of his identity as a working class man with bourgeois aspirations when confronted by a son drawn to a member of an underclass who lacks his work ethic and displays a “feminine” model of paternity. As the economic miracle beckoned, Comencini presents us with a point of entry into affluence which does not sacrifice the warmth of ordinary people and of a child." Emiliano Morreale (Bologna 2025)
AA: In La finestra sul Luna Park, Luigi Comencini displays exceptionally sophisticated and profound psychological wisdom in portraying the world of childhood. On that topic he belongs to the greatest, together with Mary Pickford, Jacques Feyder, Astrid Lindgren, Carol Reed in The Fallen Idol and the Iranian masters of the Kanoon school.
When mother Ada dies in a tram accident, the dad Aldo, who has always been away on business, returns to take care of his little son Mario. The boy now lives with his grandparents, who have designs of their own about the future of the family home and how to save money from childcare by taking the boy out of school to work as soon as possible. It is the age of reconstruction, after all, and the nation needs builders.
When Aldo returns, he realizes that he has become estranged from Mario, and that is just for starters. In successive stages he learns how absolute his ignorance is. Indeed, Mario has acquired a surrogate father, the kind carpenter Righetto, who has been the true emotional mainstay of Ada and Mario. Many have even supposed Righetto to be Mario's father.
Aldo experiences a belated crisis of jealousy, but he soon realizes that Righetto has been a true and loyal friend, even though he may have harboured unrequited feelings towards Ada. Righetto also mourns Ada more than Aldo.
The drama plays out in borgate surroundings. Comencini evokes this world in rich and vivid detail, a precarious existence in which Mario is learning to navigate, guided by his good friend Righetto. There is nothing naive in Comencini's vision. Aldo is a well-meaning man, but in his career obsession he has remained blind to the circumstances of his own family.
Righetto (interpreted by Pierre Trabaud, familiar from films by Becker and Tavernier) is a real life saint, and Comencini displays a grandeur of spirit in his ability to portray him so memorably. There are people like Righetto among us. They pursue good deeds anonymously, avoiding attention.
Late during the movie we get a crucial flashback about a trip to the beach. Righetto takes Mario and his mother there to cure the boy. They share a true family experience, but Righetto does not abuse the situation. The happiness culminates in a visit to the circus. Having been absent from work, Righetto is fired, but he does not regret anything. "These were the most beautiful days of my life". Having taken the place of the father, Righetto would now also need to give Mario a whipping, but that he is not able to do.
Aldo finally understands the truth about Righetto, Ada and Mario. He urges Righetto to start a family of his own. A transference of fatherhood takes place in a powerful finale covered by an extreme high angle shot with a moving camera.
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