Tutto a posto e niente in ordine

ALL SCREWED UP is an Italian comedy with serious overtones, made by Italy's "bambina terribile", Lina Wertmuller, in 1974 just before beginning SWEPT AWAY. It is a colorful and lively story about a group of young migrant workers and the problems they encounter after moving from southern Italy to northern Italy's bustling metropolis, Milan. They include two country yokels played by Luigi Diberti and Nino Bignamini. They all live together in a sort of commune. Some work in a slaughterhouse, others in a huge hell-hole of a pizzeria kitchen run by an exploiting wheelchair-ridden old crone. The place is itself an image of that crazy carnival called Italian urban life. Luchino Visconti's ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS had similar situations. A few of the migrants end up as thieves. Santo, the father of seven children, gets mixed up with some neo-fascists and goes to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Some of the girls are waitresses and chambermaids who moonlight as prostitutes, The film is a whirlwind of action, and its scenes have a frenzied quality. Its energy and Italianate charm produce many good moments (those wonderful old men who shout "hungry, hungry!" in front of a store.) Yet the characters never emerge as anything more than interesting stereotypes, and Ms. Wertmuller's social criticism is schematic and superficial. The original Italian title translates as "Everything in place, nothing in order."