HEY, GOOMBAH! MAMBO ITALIANO

“A girl went back to Napoli
Because she missed the scenery
The native dances and the charming songs
But wait a minute, something's wrong

“Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Go, go, go you mixed up Siciliano
All you Calabrese-a do the mambo like a crazy with a”

Songwriters: Bob Merrill

Mambo italiano lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

We went to see “Green Book” last night, and we loved it!  I know there’s been a lot of controversy about the film.  Owen Gleiberman, writing a tour de force piece for Variety, asked whether the film is “woke” enough and whether it needs to be.  He concluded, no and no. (https://variety.com/2018/film/news/is-green-book-woke-enough-viggo-mortensen-mahershala-ali-1203035102/amp/.)   While others, like Spike Lee, may disagree vigorously about the film’s place in the cinematic canon, no one can disagree about Viggo Mortensen. 

Whaddaboud Viggo?  The reason I loved “Green Book” was Viggo’s mastery of the unmistakable New York / New Jersey working class Italian (pronounced “Eyetayan”) accent.  Having grown up in New Jersey (the name of which State, by the way is always followed by the phrase “F&ckin’ A!”), I believe I can speak with authority on this matter.

Viggo had it down, paisan!  I could barely sit still in my seat for laughing as his Tony Lip mangled malapropisms and slurred words like he was sippin’ a zuppa.  I was right back in the NJ of my yout’, thinking of my Uncle Jimmy De.  (My mother had a considerably more colorful nickname for him, which I won’t repeat here, as it would be an ethnic slur to do so, and I am inordinately fond of Italians.  Suffice it to say, however, that it rhymes with “Jimmy.”)  

Like Tony Lip, Uncle Jimmy De never actually joined the mob, but there were certain recurring oddities connected to his work that made one wonder what he was really up to.  He worked for the city school system and we would often see sitting around his kitchen single serving 8 oz. cartons of milk, or cases of cookies, and at Thanksgiving and Christmas, even frozen turkeys.  These were all said to “have fallen off a truck,” but we had our doubts.  Uncle Jimmy De once invited my husband and me to his Italian social club for “coffee and,” to speak a little Italian with his friends, and to watch them play scopa.  Damn good espresso, as I recall.

Speaking of speaking Italian, Tony Lip’s friends spoke an Italian dialect in a few scenes.  I’m pretty sure this was not Sicilian, as we spend a fair amount of time in Sicily, and I’m familiar with the cadence.  Not the words, of course.  Sicilian is an actual language and not a dialect.  Once, at the museum in the Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo, I saw a Sicilian – Italian dictionary on display among the guide books and art posters.  I swear on my mother, it was at least 4 inches thick!  No, I think Tony Lip’s friends were speaking in either a Neapolitan or possibly Calabrese dialect.  Either way, it seemed totally authentic and I absolutely loved it! 

If you want to accustom your ear to Neapolitan dialect in preparation for Elsa Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend,” I recommend “Sud(s)” by Renzo Arbore l’Orchestra Italiana.  And just as you can never eat too much pasta, here is a fabulous YouTube video of film clips from Sophia Loren movies synched to “Mambo Italiano.”  (Bear with it, there is a 1-minute commercial at the top.) As my friend H said, “The film cutters did an amazing job matching the footage with the sound.”  I think youse are really gonna love it!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGGU5NPknYw&feature=youtu.be

Keep it Real!
Marilyn