Incompreso (Vita col figlio)

Since 1966, when I watched for the first time the beautiful "Incompreso - Misunderstood" of Luigi Comencini, I was moved to tears. I was 9 yo, had already red the book of Florence Montgomery and I was a little bit disappointed that Comencini had turned the story in Italy, in Florence, and adapted all the situations. During next years I grew up and I understood that the choice of Comencini was correct. I was always fascinated by the performance of Andrea (Humphrey), "actor" Stefano Colagrande... we are nearly the same age and I really felt in myself the same children's anxieties and passions that he shows so well, and acts perfectly, in this movie. I'm very glad that, thanks to internet, I found where Stefano Colagrande, who didn't act anymore, is today, and which is his job: he's a great Physician, and he's a Professor at the University of Florence. Sometimes life is grateful with sensitive persons! Thanks a lot for what you gave me, Doctor Stefano! GP

"It's not easy being a son"

These are the words Michael had to Fredo in "The Godfather Part II" and if there ever is a movie, fittingly an Italian one, that expressed to the fullest how tragically misunderstood a son can be by his father, it's Luigi Comencini's 1966 "Il Incompresso" or "Misunderstood".

I'm recollecting the two movies because I discovered them at the same time, 23 years ago during an Italian-themed month on TV during which Italian as much as Italian-American classics were aired, and while I wasn't mature enough to get into the "Godfather" films, I remember discovering "Cinema Paradisio" and "Misunderstood". And ever since that day I saw it with my father and my grandmother, I never forgot how upsetting it was. I hate situations of misunderstandings, so I really got my share during the film, not that it prepared me well for the ending. Like another Italian masterpiece, "Bicycle Thief", a father-and-son relationships is the inspiration of an extraordinary tearjerker, this time set in a rich and wealthy background as if the theme transcended any cultural and social barriers.

And now that I saw the film again and that my tears dried, I'm realizing one thing, I was sad at the age of 11 because I constantly rooted for little Andrew, especially since I had a little brother too, but now, I sympathized with the father, maybe because I became one. Or because there might be something more tragic than being misunderstood by someone you love: it is misunderstanding the one you love. In fact, it's not easy to be a father either. And the tragedy of the father, Sir John Duncombe, an English diplomat in Florence, is that he didn't understand his son at the worst possible time, when he announces him that his mother is dead and takes his silence and absence of tears as toughness while the kid is devastated inside and only let it go in his father's absence.

But Cinema is a tricky medium, because you never see any real interaction between John and Andrew, John can only observe the troubles Andrew causes, and Andrew, no matter how hard he tries to please John, puts himself in worse situations. The judo scene is a brilliant and quite realistic example: resigned not to see his father, Andrew actually wins the match until his father's last-minute arrival distracts him and he's immediately defeated. This is Andrew's story in microcosm, because he can't communicate properly with his father, even the positive moments end with incidents. "Misunderstood" is the chronicle of this failure of communication and as viewers, we're put in an extremely uncomfortable position because we know the problem, and we wish they knew how easily they could be closer to each other.

Andrew is played by one-hit actor Stefano Colagrande and is absolutely heartbreaking in that role, trying to cope with the loss of his mother, the quest for understanding from his father, and a bratty little brother, Miles, played by Simone Giannozi. Miles obviously idolizes his big brother but is too young to 'understand', being in a constant need of a playmate so when he doesn't get what he wants, pull some capricious tantrums and puts his brother in difficult situations. Anthony Quayle displays some remarkable dignity as a quiet, decent fatherly figure trying to instill some adult maturity and responsibility to his older son, like any father. He's certainly not an antagonist, and perhaps as much a victim as Andrew, blinded by his judgment, overestimating the toughness of Andrew's heart while it's his most vulnerable spot.

And the mother is a memory that haunts the three of them, maybe the sole force to unify them. From this woman, only a recorded voice and a picture are left but the voice is erased when Andrew accidentally types on the wrong button… causing his father to be more estranged to him. But the film relieves us from all this sadness and takes an interesting path when Uncle Will (John Sharp) comes. This is a pivotal character because he can see the father and the son separately, and the vulnerability of Andrew strikes him like a flash of light. He then gives a cynical yet wise advice to his brother: kids are like dogs, they need authority, don't tell your son you love him, have something to do with him. I mentioned Fredo Corleone, didn't he complain that he had nothing special to do?

The Uncle visit pays off and things go well until the little brother's jealousy starts the tragic chain of event. Resigned about his status as the ugly duckling, alienating himself for his father's love and endangering his life more and more, Andrew's self-challenging habit to hang on a dead tree above a river ends in tragedy, forever wasting the opportunity of a magnificent reconciliation. It's not totally wasted as John, as if God wanted to give him and Andrew a break, gave them one last moment of complicity, and the object of this final intimate interaction is just so painful I can't even write it without feeling a pain in the chest. I just have that face of Anthony Quayle in mind, a poor man who realized his mistake when it was too late. There is no bad guy in the film, only misguided people.

And if there is one thing to learn from Luigi Comencini's film is that 'understanding' is perhaps more important than loving and respecting, both depend on understanding and without it, they're just empty shells. And how sad that a film delivering such a poignant and powerful message is not more known... 50 years after it was released, there is only one thread on IMDb, eleven reviews (well, twelve now) and zero critic on Rotten Tomatoes, I want to say this is as tragic as the story itself.

In the history of professional film-making,death of a charming family member is a serious yet innocent theme.It is a common knowledge that an amateur director will butcher the look and shape of the film by turning it into a shameless tear jerker.But things would surely be different if the same matter is passed on to a veteran cinéaste.In the hands of versatile Italian director Luigi Comencini death of a family member theme has become a film almost close to a masterpiece.He has shown that his film has no place for melodrama as he depicts human side of people who cope up with the death of a family member.This sad event has been portrayed in the character of a diplomat who has to look after his two young sons after the demise of his wife.Incompreso is an Italian film about the intellectual growth of people both young and old alike who have to face their daily lives in the wake of a death in their midst.Comencini must be felicitated for the manner in which he portrays how life goes on as people must become strong even if there is a somber event of death around.This is because there is nothing in this world for weak people. Everybody must find own ways of dealing with the loss of family members.This is the only sensible message of this film.

Excellent movie about a dumb father...

After the lost of his beloved mother a child has to bear that his father didn't die, too: "Everybody can't be an orphan." (Jules Renard) Better have wise enemies than stupid friends.

Among Comencini's movies how much more enjoyable is Bette Davis' sadism in " The Scientific Cardplayer" than Anthony Quayle's helplessness here.

Quayle's renowned ability to (dis)play an everlasting blubbering face was most important to directors, like: J. Lee Thompson for "The Guns of Navarone" Cyril Frankel for "No Time for Tears"

i have just seen this movie on a dvd, and i am astonished by the way childhood crisis is evoke in this masterpiece. there must be something invisible in every frame that is captured to reveal every pieces of the relationship between a father and his son. In fact this movie is about the loss. The loss of a mother, the loss of a kid who turns into a man, the loss of a father who refuse to assume his son as a child, and also the pain of a man who is so sad of the loss of his wife that he can't see and feel the pain of a son who looses his mother. Even if it sounds like a tragedy, this movies has to be seen by anyone, because we were all the son or the daughter of our parents, and we suffered too of this relationship, and we might be parents some day, so let's enjoy again the beauty and sadness of life in this movie that looks deep inside us : our childhood. Incompreso is among the movie that make you feel as a human being, able to feel and react, this movie shows us how a movie can touch you and change your life.