Mambo Italiano

TAKE ONE, Sept-Dec, 2003 by Susan Tolusso

SUPER-PRODUCER DENISE ROBERT RIDES THE CREST OF ONE SUCCESS AFTER ANOTHER

IT would be misleading, wrong even, to draw a straight line between the word "producer" and the word "money" where film in Canada is concerned. It would be misleading because that would reinforce the tightly held notion that producers are only about financing and profit. It would be wrong because such strict parameters have no place in discussions of art, even so-called commercial art, because there are no straight lines in Canadian filmmaking and, more importantly, because we have so many creative producers among us, although few of the calibre of Denise Robert.

It's true that as far as the Montreal-based Robert is concerned, going to the movies is a relatively expensive pastime and so films should be entertaining and offer value for the money: for the $12 ticket, the cost of parking, babysitting and, heaven knows, the snacks. But with this deceptively simple declaration--"audiences need to respond to films"--that at once speaks to a marketplace truism and obscures the complex formula for success with Canadian fare in Canada, Robert proves why it's no oxymoron to be known as a creative producer.

In fact Robert, who has been reinventing Canadian filmmaking for 15-odd years as a Renaissance presence whose tastes span more genres and subject areas than most, has done so by being "very, very hands-on. I consider myself as somebody who has to support the creative process. I want to make sure everybody has what they need." Take, for instance, the production process on Robert's latest release, Mambo Italiano, adapted from Steve Galluccio's comedic stage play. Compared to Nia Vardalos's sleeper sensation My Big Fat Greek Wedding for months before its launch, Mambo offers a witty, insider point of view on the emotional tangle wrought by a second-generation Italian-Canadian who tries not only to live outside the silken, sticky web of community and famiglia expectations but also to do so as a gay man. From the day she "fell in love" with Galluccio's play and decided to make the movie, Robert knew she had innumerable challenges to overcome: should the cast have authentic accents, how many scenes should differ from the play, how to find the line between making fun of an ethnic group and just making funny?

Then too, what about finding a director? Fortunately, the play came to Robert's attention courtesy of a known quantity, director / writer Emile Gaudreault. Robert had produced his debut feature film, Nuit de noces, a new take on the Quebecois romantic comedy and a major box-office hit that won the Golden Reel for highest box office gross in 2001. Although Mambo Italiano would be Gaudreault's first foray in co-scripting and directing an English film, Robert expected him to be up to the challenge because he would be co-writing with Galluccio, and the pair had written together for such Quebec series as sitcom Un gars, une fille and "dramedy" Ciao Bella.

Robert knew both writers were strong on comedy. But how well would the Gaudreault/Galluccio combination succeed while writing a script that bad not only to move outside the francophone milieu, but also to resonate with Italian audiences? Also, casting for Mambo produced a type of melange a trois effect, melting three "national" groups, French- and English-Canadians and a lone American star, into the scenario's Italian-Canadian pot. Key cast include Canadians Luke Kirby (Angelo), Peter Miller (Nino), Ginette Reno (Quebec's mega-star as Angelo's mom), Claudia Ferri (Angelo's sister), Mary Walsh (Nino's mom), Sophie Lorain (Nino's sister) and U.S. recruit Paul Sorvino (Angelo's dad).

Because Galluccio is Italian-Canadian, however, the dialogue is authentic as are the temperaments and sensibilities of the characters. "As Steve was our real authentic Italian," Robert explains, "we kept him involved throughout the production." Still, a little trial and error was required to determine how to approach the bits and pieces of Italian dialogue in the script. "We hired a dialogue coach," Robert says. "But eventually we decided that imitating an Italian accent doesn't work. It just sounded imitation. There are not too many accents even in The Godfather. Most people from ethnic origins don't have an accent."

While observers may not expect producers to have much creative influence on the set, let alone on the entire metamorphosis of idea to film, Robert's choices and influence are apparent throughout the process. She says although she was delighted when Gaudreault brought her Galluccio's unfinished manuscript of Mambo, the stage version, she was nonetheless clear-eyed about the many changes that would be required to make it work for the screen. "The film is totally different. There are many locations, and only some of the same characters," including the two lead characters, Angelo and Nino. And the film genuinely looks and feels Italian, ethnicity seeping from its aural and visual pores. On the sound side, the pitched battles within and among stereotypical (and very genuine) Italian families gloriously evoke a culture coming to grips, through the sensibilities of its first- and second-generation offspring, with the ways of a new homeland.