Italianamerican/The Big Shave

Who is Martin Scorsese? Part of the answer lies in Italianamerican, Scorsese's wonderful tribute to his parents Charles and Catherine. Filmed in their Little Italy apartment this 50-minute documentary is an interview appropriately woven around the making and eating of a big Italian meal. Scorcese's mom works on the meatballs and the sauce, while his dad talks about growing up on the tough city streets. Unsure about the filming process (Catherine asks her son if she's supposed to talk to him directly or the camera), the elder Scorsese's are right at home talking about the past. Reminiscing about their parent's journeys to the new land, their own early years in America, and peccadilloes of being Italian-American, the Scorsese's memories (often accompanied by film footage and still photographs) suggest that life was much harder in the old days, but it also had much more meaning. In this garrulous, yet charming, couple, son Martin obviously had a wealth of material to draw from which would infuse his later films with his characteristic streetwise Italian point-of-view. Fun, funny, and engaging, Italianamerican is also an insightful look into days gone by. The Big Shave, by contrast, is an experimental short in which a young man shaves himself into a bloody lather to the background tune of Bunny Berrigan's "I Can't Get Started." Clever, and perhaps shocking, for its time, the short today just looks dated and trite. Fortunately, however, Italianamerican has aged like fine wine. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)