Writers: Giuseppe Piccioni, Gualtiero Rosella and Annick Emdin
Director: Giuseppe Piccioni
The Shadow of the Day begins with a teacher reminding an orderly crocodile of children to “stay in line.”
As the manager of a smart restaurant in Fascist-controlled Italy Luciano Traini is responsible for keeping staff and patrons in line. In the kitchen he overrides objections when a Party reunion means a previous booking must be cancelled; he quietly reminds an elderly regular to order brodo ristretto, not consommé. The local Party leader approves of him because of his bravery (or savagery) in the First World War, as a result of which he walks with a limp and is in constant pain.
Luciano looks after his staff, to the point of buying items of doubtful provenance from his ever-hopeful wheeler-dealer chef. He shares out tips generously and hands over a substantial sum to an ex-girlfriend in difficulty. When someone needs a job, he usually finds one. He is a mensch.
One person he helps is a young woman called Anna who is desperate for any kind of work. She claims to have been a nursemaid in Rome but has no references. Offered a job in the kitchen, she quickly becomes indispensable. The elderly professor remarks that she is “educated;” she’s efficient and organised and turns out to be an expert at book-keeping, a skill she learnt in her family’s drapery business . It is not a surprise when she eventually admits that her name is really Esther. This is not her only nor her most dangerous secret. Luciano finds himself stepping out of line, organising a bold escape plan. Meanwhile he and Anna have fallen in love.
At this point the story becomes rather reminiscent of Casablanca. That film, however, has some humour. This one contains a single joke; only one person laughs, and the teller is soundly rebuked. Serious as it is, The Shadow of the Day is a touching and historically interesting drama, but it’s not entirely satisfying. For one thing, while both Riccardo Scamarcio (Luciano) and Benedetta Porcaroli (Anna) are convincing in their roles , it’s hard to understand what the two characters really see in each other. She has youth, energy and vulnerability, and he is heroically kind, but they haven’t much in common. She berates him for his political views, while asking unreturnable favours, and she knows she would be “bored to death” with him.
For another thing, there are a few holes in the plot, including a puzzling lucky escape with no explanation. Time passes without acknowledgement– the new young waiter Corrado is safely at work in one scene and hobnobbing with Fascists in the next. A shocking incident is the cue for some unnecessary exposition. Although visually enjoyable, mostly shot amid the glass and potted palms of an elegant restaurant looking out on a postcard-perfect piazza, the film literally descends into obscurity in the dimly lit cellar scenes.
As a portrayal of a particular time, the film is impressive. It’s realistic about the way stressful circumstances makes people mean (Luciano being an admirable exception). The story is occasionally interrupted by staged events in the piazza, which seem to reflect the changing mood of the country. The first of these is a perfectly drilled dance display by the Giovane Italiane (Mussolini’s version of Hitler Youth for girls), smiling athletically; the last is a lone boy in a gas mask amid swirling fog. In between, a woman poses proudly beside a notice stating that her business is ariano only. We come to recognise that propaganda was alive and well long before there was social media. Luciano’s favourable view of Mussolini comes straight from a cinema newsreel; Corrado’s enthusiastic antisemitism didn’t come from his own imagination.
The film leaves us all with the uncomfortable question -what would we do? The two young men in the story, politically poles apart, separately question Luciano’s commitment to Fascism. He is one of those rare people who quietly follow the reckless advice of the professor: “Disobeying a wrong law is sometimes an obligation, young man.”
The Shadow of the Day is screening at the UK Jewish Film Festival 2023.
