Most of Martin Scorsese’s nonfiction films are set in the music world, such as the concert documentary of The Band‘s swan song performance in The Last Waltz or an exploration of an inflection point in the life and career of Bob Dylan in No Direction Home.
In contrast, Italianamerican is Scorsese’s personal mediation on his Italian heritage, juxtaposing his own profession as a filmmaker with the hardships his parents faced growing up in a poor neighborhood.
An early documentary, this 49-minute memoir of his family heritage and Italian origins, featuring a subplot about making homemade meatballs, stands out as a most personal film.
Italianamerican, now distributed as part of “Scorsese Shorts,” the Criterion Collection’s short films by the director in the 1960s and ’70s, centers around his parents, Charles and Catherine Scorsese. The father is camera-shy and reserved, while the mother is more affable and expressive.
Interviewed by their son in their home in Lower Manhattan, they discuss their experience as Italian immigrants, family heritage, post-war life in Italy, the hardships of growing up impoverished, marriage, and religion.
Up until they died in 1993 and 1997, respectively, Charles and Catherine appeared as cameos in their son’s films.
Catherine reveals her meticulous preparation and cooking process for her prized meatballs. Scorsese’s father can be seen stirring the tomato sauce in the luxury prison suite in Goodfellas and sitting at a table at the Copacabana in Raging Bull.
Scorsese’s mom can be heard yelling at Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) to quiet down as he indulges in his fantasies in The King of Comedy and the mother of a Wiseguy at a local market who is reprimanded for his excessive profanity in Casino.
The definitive cameo is Catherine’s brilliant performance as Tommy Devito’s (Joe Pesci) mother in Goodfellas, who cooks her son’s crew a full dinner in the middle of the night after, unbeknownst to her, they had just brutally murdered Billy Batts (Frank Vincent).
Scorsese’s docu is authentic: His mother improvised most of her lines in the scene. In one brief scene, she earnestly conveys that she is Tommy’s mother.
Her “performance” in this documentary is an expansion of her scene-stealing appearance 16 years later. Early on in the film, Charles reprimands his wife for putting on a theatrical performance for the camera, imploring her to talk naturally. However, viewers quickly get the sense that her boisterous personality is genuine. Charles, while not as effusive on camera, delights in telling stories to his son about his childhood.
The director’s mother begins speaking before the film technically starts, as Scorsese’s crew is still configuring the sound system and lighting. There is abrupt title card once Catherine begins to prepare the tomato sauce.
When Catherine excuses herself to check on the meatballs and sauce in the kitchen, a sidebar conversation begins between her and Martin. This intercuts with Charles continuing his monologue on the living room couch.
The film’s loose structure is evident by the background of Martin directing his mother in real time, asking her to backtrack and start the story at a specific point before she rambles on uncontrollably. During one anecdote of Catherine’s, she is distracted by the sound of someone running down the hallway of their apartment complex.
In Italianamerican, Scorsese establishes the warmth of his settings. Through minimal direction, he makes viewers feel at home when Scorsese and his parents are sitting on the couch or at the dinner table.
Family photos and archive footage of the neighborhood are sporadically inserted in the film while stories are being recited.
He and we learn about his parents’ marriage and their upbringing in Italy and Manhattan.
Through the framing of his parents’ storytelling, Scorsese reflects on his Italian heritage and the hardships they faced growing up in a poor neighborhood.
Charles and Catherine’s own parents had to work grueling labor just to put food on the table for their kids. The idea of Martin pursuing film, or any form of art, as a profession was incomprehensible.
Charles represents the sobering reflection of one’s identity. He is vulnerable about how his environment shaped him. Charles often romanticizes storytelling as the art form of his pastime. In his childhood, living in tight quarters with eight other people, storytelling was the sole art form and only method of expression.
Upon hearing story after story of the struggles of blue-collar life and the influence of Catholicism and family values, Catherine and Charles reveal themselves as the two sides of Scorsese as a filmmaker. The director’s attention to detail, evident in the ways his characters dress and behave, is indebted to Catherine’s proud heritage.
Italianamerican takes its most solemn turn when Charles and Catherine discuss all the shops and markets that were forced to shut their doors due to the Depression, as well as the sobering realization that the house that Charles’ father built vanished.
Catherine reciting an anecdote about a time when her mother was frustrated by the presence of a fig tree in her yard after Catherine’s father fell from it, wishing that the tree would die. “And then, of course, my mother became ill,” Catherine said, “and the next winter she passed away, and the trees never bloomed anymore. It was just like she took them with her, and that was that,” she said, as the story concludes with a freeze-frame of her face in a portrait.
A variation of that phrase, “and that’s that,” is uttered in Goodfellas by Vinnie (played by Charles Scorsese) after the revenge-slaying of Tommy.
Italianamerican is a companion piece of Mean Streets, as both films embrace Scorsese’s cultural legacy. He displays the warmth and comfort of his Italian family. Quite suitably, the recipe of Catherine’s tomato sauce is included in the film’s end credits.
