A Girl in Australia
Encyclopedia
A Girl in Australia is a 1971 Italian comedy film
directed by Luigi Zampa
, with stars Alberto Sordi
and Claudia Cardinale
.
, one of those emigrants, middle-aged Amedeo, a lineman in the remote New South Wales
settlement bearing the (fictional) name of Bun Bun Ga, several kilometers from the outback
city of Broken Hill, is about to meet Carmela, his prospective bride from Rome
, with whom he has been corresponding. Each of them, however, misrepresented facts to the other — Carmela, a very attractive woman in her early thirties, is a semiliterate prostitute seeking an opportunity to get away from her brutal pimp, with the letters ghostwritten by her friend Rosalba, while Amedeo, feeling inadequate about his ordinary appearance, sent Carmela a photograph, taken about twenty years earlier, of himself between Bampo and Giuseppe, two Italian immigrant friends. The arrow in the photo, however, is over Giuseppe because, when Amedeo visited the tall, handsome, muscular Giuseppe for advice, Giuseppe erased the arrow over Amedeo's head and penciled it over his own head.
Amedeo drives nearly 1600 kilometers to Brisbane Airport
, where Carmela's flight, filled with other Italian (as well as those from neighboring Yugoslavia
) mail-order bride
s will land. Sitting at the airport lounge with numerous Italian men awaiting their future wives, they pass around the outdated photographs that the women had sent to their prospective mates and speculate whether their appearances had changed. Still uncertain whether Carmela really looks like her old photo, he examines and questions some of the newly-arrived women and then is hit with realization as she slowly comes into view on the down escalator. Becoming disconcerted by her beauty, he retreats to the airport's bar where, sharing a drink with a balding Italian who sent a photo of himself with a full head of hair, he expresses his own self-doubts. Thinking that she will reject him, he returns to the main lounge, introduces himself as Giuseppe and hands her a note, purportedly written by Amedeo, explaining that he is ill with the flu and requests that Giuseppe, a trustworthy friend, provide an escort to her new home.
Planning to reveal the truth at a later opportunity, Amedeo explains that the return to Broken Hill would take three days, but as the drive starts, they are no longer in the vicinity of Brisbane
, but thousands of kilometers off-course in the city of Cairns, a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef
in Queensland
's tropical far north. The brightly-colored lush greenery provides a picturesque background for an eventful multi-day journey across eastern Australia, with one of the stops near the Reef at Dunk Island occasioning the rental of a rowboat and, as Amedeo rows, Carmela strips to her underwear and dives into the warm water, revealing her skill as an expert swimmer, as she speedily maneuvers amidst brilliantly-colored fish and corals, while Amedeo waits for her in the boat, peering downward with concern. As the long trip to Broken Hill continues, they become better acquainted and she learns of his hardships as an immigrant and also inadvertently finds out that, due to a years-earlier bout of malaria
, he is subject to occasional epileptic-like convulsions which leave him unable to function for a few hours. One of the stops along the way includes a visit to a nursing home where Bampo is a long-term patient, having become unresponsive as a result of malarial damage to his brain and nervous system.
As Amedeo's small auto, unable to withstand the long journey, breaks down, they try to sell it and run into some hostile Italians who force Carmela into their car and drive away with her while Amedeo hangs on to their door handle as the car runs off the road and flips on its side. Shaken but unhurt, they board a train, but when he has another malarial attack and she hurries off the train to get help, it pulls out of the station, leaving her behind. Seeing no other recourse, she decides to briefly take up her former profession in order to earn enough for continuing the journey. Now on her own, she takes the next train and, as it stops at the small town of Menindee, she sees Amedeo waiting at the station, Reunited, they continue to Broken Hill, which is a little over a hundred kilometers further. Upon arrival, Carmela meets Giuseppe, whom Amedeo, still pretending to be Giuseppe, introduces as her betrothed, Amedeo. After a few pleasantries, Giuseppe who, as it turns out, is himself a pimp, escorts Carmela to the back entrance of what at first appears to be her new apartment, but is quickly revealed as a prostitute's walk-up house situated in the city's red light district amidst numerous other such dwellings, each with its own resident "working girl" sitting on the porch. Amedeo, who has followed them, approaches her, hoping to offer an explanation, but she attacks him with a switchblade
, inflicting a stab wound in his shoulder. Eventually, Carmela and Amedeo, with his arm in a sling, are on a train, as he is still trying to convince her of his honorable intentions by offering to pay for her trip back to Italy, while she begins to cry that she was a prostitute there and, upon returning, would be beaten by her pimp. As the train stops, she sees from the window the remoteness of the outback or "desert", as she calls it, refuses to disembark at the Bun Bun Ga request stop
, and has to be pulled off the train, while the welcoming committee of local English-speaking residents, hold a "WELCOME CARMELA" sign, with one of them extolling the greatness of Italy which produced Julius Caesar
, Michelangelo
, Galileo, Guglielmo Marconi
, Caruso, Bartali and Pope Giovanni
, as Amedeo translates for Carmela. Through the window of the train, as it leaves the station, Amedeo can be seen carrying Carmela bride-style into his/their house.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by Luigi Zampa
Luigi Zampa
Luigi Zampa was an Italian film-maker.- Biography :Son of a worker, Zampa studied film making from 1932 to 1937 at the Italian film school Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome....
, with stars Alberto Sordi
Alberto Sordi
Alberto Sordi, also known as Albertone, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian actor. He was also a film director and the dubbing voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian version of the Laurel & Hardy films....
and Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale
Claudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...
.
Plot
As Italy descended into poverty and social unrest in the aftermath of World War II, the promise of good-paying jobs lured many thousands of young men to faraway Australia. In 1971, after living about twenty-five years Down UnderDown Under
The term Down Under is a colloquialism which is variously construed either to refer to Australia and New Zealand, or Australia alone. The term comes from the fact that these countries are located in the southern hemisphere, below many other countries on the globe.The persistence of the media use of...
, one of those emigrants, middle-aged Amedeo, a lineman in the remote New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
settlement bearing the (fictional) name of Bun Bun Ga, several kilometers from the outback
Outback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
city of Broken Hill, is about to meet Carmela, his prospective bride from Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, with whom he has been corresponding. Each of them, however, misrepresented facts to the other — Carmela, a very attractive woman in her early thirties, is a semiliterate prostitute seeking an opportunity to get away from her brutal pimp, with the letters ghostwritten by her friend Rosalba, while Amedeo, feeling inadequate about his ordinary appearance, sent Carmela a photograph, taken about twenty years earlier, of himself between Bampo and Giuseppe, two Italian immigrant friends. The arrow in the photo, however, is over Giuseppe because, when Amedeo visited the tall, handsome, muscular Giuseppe for advice, Giuseppe erased the arrow over Amedeo's head and penciled it over his own head.
Amedeo drives nearly 1600 kilometers to Brisbane Airport
Brisbane Airport
Brisbane Airport is the sole passenger airport serving Brisbane and the third busiest in Australia, after Melbourne and Sydney Airports. Brisbane Airport has won many awards. Located in the suburb with the same name, the airport serves the city of Brisbane and the surrounding metropolitan area...
, where Carmela's flight, filled with other Italian (as well as those from neighboring Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
) mail-order bride
Mail-order bride
Mail-order bride is a label applied to a woman who publishes her intent to marry someone from another country. This term is considered offensive by some people. The mail-order bride industry is the economic trade of contracted domestic partnerships, often between citizens of different countries or...
s will land. Sitting at the airport lounge with numerous Italian men awaiting their future wives, they pass around the outdated photographs that the women had sent to their prospective mates and speculate whether their appearances had changed. Still uncertain whether Carmela really looks like her old photo, he examines and questions some of the newly-arrived women and then is hit with realization as she slowly comes into view on the down escalator. Becoming disconcerted by her beauty, he retreats to the airport's bar where, sharing a drink with a balding Italian who sent a photo of himself with a full head of hair, he expresses his own self-doubts. Thinking that she will reject him, he returns to the main lounge, introduces himself as Giuseppe and hands her a note, purportedly written by Amedeo, explaining that he is ill with the flu and requests that Giuseppe, a trustworthy friend, provide an escort to her new home.
Planning to reveal the truth at a later opportunity, Amedeo explains that the return to Broken Hill would take three days, but as the drive starts, they are no longer in the vicinity of Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, but thousands of kilometers off-course in the city of Cairns, a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
's tropical far north. The brightly-colored lush greenery provides a picturesque background for an eventful multi-day journey across eastern Australia, with one of the stops near the Reef at Dunk Island occasioning the rental of a rowboat and, as Amedeo rows, Carmela strips to her underwear and dives into the warm water, revealing her skill as an expert swimmer, as she speedily maneuvers amidst brilliantly-colored fish and corals, while Amedeo waits for her in the boat, peering downward with concern. As the long trip to Broken Hill continues, they become better acquainted and she learns of his hardships as an immigrant and also inadvertently finds out that, due to a years-earlier bout of malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
, he is subject to occasional epileptic-like convulsions which leave him unable to function for a few hours. One of the stops along the way includes a visit to a nursing home where Bampo is a long-term patient, having become unresponsive as a result of malarial damage to his brain and nervous system.
As Amedeo's small auto, unable to withstand the long journey, breaks down, they try to sell it and run into some hostile Italians who force Carmela into their car and drive away with her while Amedeo hangs on to their door handle as the car runs off the road and flips on its side. Shaken but unhurt, they board a train, but when he has another malarial attack and she hurries off the train to get help, it pulls out of the station, leaving her behind. Seeing no other recourse, she decides to briefly take up her former profession in order to earn enough for continuing the journey. Now on her own, she takes the next train and, as it stops at the small town of Menindee, she sees Amedeo waiting at the station, Reunited, they continue to Broken Hill, which is a little over a hundred kilometers further. Upon arrival, Carmela meets Giuseppe, whom Amedeo, still pretending to be Giuseppe, introduces as her betrothed, Amedeo. After a few pleasantries, Giuseppe who, as it turns out, is himself a pimp, escorts Carmela to the back entrance of what at first appears to be her new apartment, but is quickly revealed as a prostitute's walk-up house situated in the city's red light district amidst numerous other such dwellings, each with its own resident "working girl" sitting on the porch. Amedeo, who has followed them, approaches her, hoping to offer an explanation, but she attacks him with a switchblade
Switchblade
A switchblade is a type of knife with a folding or sliding blade contained in the handle which is opened automatically by a spring when a button, lever, or switch on the handle or bolster is activated A switchblade (also known as an automatic knife, pushbutton knife, switch, Sprenger, Springer,...
, inflicting a stab wound in his shoulder. Eventually, Carmela and Amedeo, with his arm in a sling, are on a train, as he is still trying to convince her of his honorable intentions by offering to pay for her trip back to Italy, while she begins to cry that she was a prostitute there and, upon returning, would be beaten by her pimp. As the train stops, she sees from the window the remoteness of the outback or "desert", as she calls it, refuses to disembark at the Bun Bun Ga request stop
Request stop
In public transport, a request stop or flag stop describes a stopping point at which trains or buses stop only on an as-need or request basis; that is, only if there are passengers to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, infrequently used stopping points can be served efficiently.Trains save...
, and has to be pulled off the train, while the welcoming committee of local English-speaking residents, hold a "WELCOME CARMELA" sign, with one of them extolling the greatness of Italy which produced Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
, Galileo, Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
, Caruso, Bartali and Pope Giovanni
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
, as Amedeo translates for Carmela. Through the window of the train, as it leaves the station, Amedeo can be seen carrying Carmela bride-style into his/their house.
Cast
- Alberto SordiAlberto SordiAlberto Sordi, also known as Albertone, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian actor. He was also a film director and the dubbing voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian version of the Laurel & Hardy films....
as Amedeo Battipaglia - Claudia CardinaleClaudia CardinaleClaudia Cardinale is an Italian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French...
as Carmela - Riccardo GarroneRiccardo Garrone (actor)Riccardo Garrone is an Italian film actor. He has appeared in over 140 films since 1949.-Selected filmography:* Two Nights with Cleopatra * Woman of Rome * Doctor and the Healer...
as Giuseppe Bartoni - Corrado Olmi as don Anselmo, Italian priest in Broken Hill
- Angelo InfantiAngelo InfantiAngelo Infanti was an Italian film actor. He appeared in over 90 films between 1961 and 2010.He was born on 16 February 1939 in Zagarolo, Italy...
as Carmela's pimp - Tano CimarosaTano CimarosaTano Cimarosa was an Italian actor, screenwriter and film director from Sicily. He participated in more than fifty movies.He played the "Blacksmith" in the Oscar-winning film Cinema Paradiso from 1988....
as Italian Australian who, when Amedeo and Carmela try to sell their broken-down auto, takes out his switchblade
- Marisa Carisi
- John Cobley
- Elli Maclure
- John Guarino
- Silvana D'lapico
- Joe Sofia
- Tony Thurban
- Betty LucasBetty LucasBetty Lucas is an Australian actress, best known for her roles on television. She played prominent roles in Prisoner as Clara Goddard in 1979, Taurus Rising as Faith Drysdale in 1982, and Richmond Hill as Mavis Roberts in 1988....
- Nick Buttaro
- Fred Cullen
- Noel FerrierNoel FerrierNoel Ferrier AM was an Australian television personality, stage and film actor, raconteur and theatrical producer. He had an extensive theatre career which spanned over fifty years.-Biography:...
- Paul Kamsler
- Alex Ciabo
- Frank Martorella
- Giovanni Portale
- Roger Cox
- Luigi Antonio Guerra
Awards
- Claudia Cardinale won as 1972 "Best Actress" at Italy's Oscars, the David di Donatello Awards.