You Laugh

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing tales
Review: This Taviani Brothers film is actually a two-part work in which both pieces are based on stories by famed Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.

In the first, from which the title comes, an accountant--formerly an opera singer, now humbled by the sudden degradation of his voice--has peculiar laughing fits in the middle of the night. His wife thinks these are his outbursts of elation based on him having an affair. But in fact, the reason for his laughter is more psychologically complex and ultimately leads to tragic consequences.

In the second tale, a young boy, son of an infamous political radical, is kidnapped. This scenario is juxtaposed with that of another kidnapping, 100 years earlier, of an esteemed town doctor held by poor townspeople for ransom from his relatives. Again, the outcome of this tale is not at all a happy one.

The Tavianis are skilled filmmakers whose emphasis, at least judging by this more recent of their films, is on the unexpected consequences of human behavior. As emotional beings, humans cause things to happen, both to others and themselves, that are absolutely unpredictable and this, of course, is based on just that--the unpredictability of our behavior. Thus, this cycle of unpredictability is endless, inevitable, and ultimately tragic. Is this Pirandello or the Tavianis speaking? Here it seems to be both.

This is an intriguing film, unique in the cinematic repertory, and definitely recommended.