Raffaello Matarazzo was a successful Italian filmmaker who had specialized in comedies during the 1930s and historical dramas during the 1940s. But with his hit film CATENE (CHAINS) in 1949, he began making a series of popular melodramas, the most successful ones pairing Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson.
Matarazzo's technique could be compared to Rossellini or DeSica, since he favored a more naturalistic approach in the postwar period. But unlike those neorealist auteurs, Matarazzo wasn't as focused on political or economic points; instead, he was more interested in depicting overheated passion and religious symbolism. He liked to elevate drama that would pull tears from viewers, even when his plots became convoluted.
The convoluted aspects, which are still be quite satisfying for the audience, play on coincidences and overwrought emotions. Typically, the conflicts involve class divisions. In I FIGLI DI NESSUNO (NOBODY'S CHILDREN), Amedeo Nazzari plays the owner of a quarry. His family, the Canalis, are headed by a ruthless matriarch (French actress Francoise Rosay, expanding her repertoire of international roles). Mama spends hours in bed barking orders.
One of mama's henchmen (Folco Lulli) visits to go over accounts. While he's there he tells mama that her son is having an affair with a quarry worker's daughter (Sanson). This is like a dagger in the heart. Since mama does not intend for her son to marry down, she does everything in her power to thwart the relationship. Never mind the fact that the couple is deeply and completely in love.
Mama works night and day to break them up. And she succeeds, except for one loose end. Sanson has become pregnant and gives birth to a child that is a short time later is thought to have died in a fire. After the "death" of the child, Sanson decides to become a nun much to Nazzari's displeasure.
Meanwhile the baby, which is still alive, and is now nobody's child, has been raised in an orphanage. The story advances, and we see Nazzari has married a more socially acceptable woman (Enrica Dyrell) and has a young daughter in this marriage. But he still thinks about Sanson, and mama still knows there is a grandson out there somewhere who's been denied part of the family heritage.
This leads into the second half of the story where that long-lost child, Bruno (Enric Olivieri) leaves the orphanage and comes to the quarry looking for clues about his parentage. Ironically, Olivieri bonds with Nazzari, neither one knowing they are son and father. Olivieri also has a scene in which he meets Sanson the nun, not knowing she's his mother. The film is full or great irony.
But instead of providing a happy resolution- since Sanson cannot turn back on her vows and leave the convent, and since Nazzari already has a wife and another child- tragedy escalates. Young Bruno (Olivieri) gets caught in the middle of dynamite being detonated at the quarry. Yes, Matarazzo is going there...and the boy so close to learning about his real family is fatally injured in a blast.
This sets us up for the huge scene at the end where Sanson and Nazzari have learned the boy now dying in the hospital, is their long lost son. You cannot help but cry watching this stuff. The performances are so pure and so affecting, despite the more operatic aspects of the plot, that you feel moved by these characters and weep for their terrible losses. On some level, it's kind of therapeutic in a very emotional way. And when NOBODY'S CHILDREN seems to have come full-circle, it really hasn't. Four years later, Matarazzo produced a sequel even more melodramatic and terrific.
Matarazzo's technique could be compared to Rossellini or DeSica, since he favored a more naturalistic approach in the postwar period. But unlike those neorealist auteurs, Matarazzo wasn't as focused on political or economic points; instead, he was more interested in depicting overheated passion and religious symbolism. He liked to elevate drama that would pull tears from viewers, even when his plots became convoluted.
The convoluted aspects, which are still be quite satisfying for the audience, play on coincidences and overwrought emotions. Typically, the conflicts involve class divisions. In I FIGLI DI NESSUNO (NOBODY'S CHILDREN), Amedeo Nazzari plays the owner of a quarry. His family, the Canalis, are headed by a ruthless matriarch (French actress Francoise Rosay, expanding her repertoire of international roles). Mama spends hours in bed barking orders.
One of mama's henchmen (Folco Lulli) visits to go over accounts. While he's there he tells mama that her son is having an affair with a quarry worker's daughter (Sanson). This is like a dagger in the heart. Since mama does not intend for her son to marry down, she does everything in her power to thwart the relationship. Never mind the fact that the couple is deeply and completely in love.
Mama works night and day to break them up. And she succeeds, except for one loose end. Sanson has become pregnant and gives birth to a child that is a short time later is thought to have died in a fire. After the "death" of the child, Sanson decides to become a nun much to Nazzari's displeasure.
Meanwhile the baby, which is still alive, and is now nobody's child, has been raised in an orphanage. The story advances, and we see Nazzari has married a more socially acceptable woman (Enrica Dyrell) and has a young daughter in this marriage. But he still thinks about Sanson, and mama still knows there is a grandson out there somewhere who's been denied part of the family heritage.
This leads into the second half of the story where that long-lost child, Bruno (Enric Olivieri) leaves the orphanage and comes to the quarry looking for clues about his parentage. Ironically, Olivieri bonds with Nazzari, neither one knowing they are son and father. Olivieri also has a scene in which he meets Sanson the nun, not knowing she's his mother. The film is full or great irony.
But instead of providing a happy resolution- since Sanson cannot turn back on her vows and leave the convent, and since Nazzari already has a wife and another child- tragedy escalates. Young Bruno (Olivieri) gets caught in the middle of dynamite being detonated at the quarry. Yes, Matarazzo is going there...and the boy so close to learning about his real family is fatally injured in a blast.
This sets us up for the huge scene at the end where Sanson and Nazzari have learned the boy now dying in the hospital, is their long lost son. You cannot help but cry watching this stuff. The performances are so pure and so affecting, despite the more operatic aspects of the plot, that you feel moved by these characters and weep for their terrible losses. On some level, it's kind of therapeutic in a very emotional way. And when NOBODY'S CHILDREN seems to have come full-circle, it really hasn't. Four years later, Matarazzo produced a sequel even more melodramatic and terrific.