Review: Happy As Lazzaro

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Alice Rohrwacher's beguiling fable "Happy as Lazzaro" joins the pantheon of movies that successfully play with the concept of time. It's an unusual movie that combines Italian neorealism with an enigmatic second half that takes on the form of a fairy tale, albeit a tragic one.

As the film opens, it's difficult to tell in which era the picture is taking place. A group of Italian peasants are celebrating the engagement of a young couple in a dimly lit shack, where dozens of them are crowded in a circle. Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo), a young man from the group who seemingly has no family, is called upon to do all manner of tasks. As the film's first half continues, we recognize that the young man - who is portrayed as an innocent - willfully takes on any work that his fellow peasants throw his way.

The group lives on the property of the Marchesa (Nicoletta Braschi), who is known as the "Queen of Cigarettes. They are exploited and barely paid for their work. Although the film is seemingly interested in the Italian class divide, the Marchesa makes an interesting point when she notes that she exploits the workers and, in turn, the workers exploit Lazzaro. It's a vicious cycle, although innocent Lazzaro probably doesn't notice such things.

Lazzaro befriends the Marchesa's scheming son, Tancredi (Luca Chikovani), who tasks Lazzaro with making him coffee and carrying his pet dog, but eventually attempts to rope him into a fake kidnapping plot, to which Lazzaro reluctantly agrees. All the while, the Marchesa's operation has been shut down, and the peasants are forced to leave. A freak accident then occurs and Lazzaro lives up to his biblical name.

During the film's second half, Lazzaro has ventured into a city, where he finds the peasants - who are in a slightly altered state, shall we say, for the purpose of not giving away the film's peculiar twist - living a ramshackle existence and pulling scams on unsuspecting people on the street. Lazzaro, although seemingly confused about the scams, joins the group and, shortly thereafter, runs into Tancredi, who invites the group to his house. The film ends on a tragic note, but also one that emphasizes the movie's parable-like nature.

At times, "Happy as Lazzaro" reminded me of such classics as Robert Bresson's "Au Hazard Balthazar," in which a donkey was portrayed as a saint amid a group of rogues, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Fox and His Friends," in which the titular character is left for dead after he has been literally taken for everything he has. Similarly, "Lazzaro" is a film that ponders how a pure soul can survive in a world ruled by greed and cruelty. 

Rohrwacher's film also has a distinctly mystical nature to it. You can't rationalize large parts of the movie, but it marches to its own enigmatic drum. The film surprises at its every turn - you can sort of spot where it's going at times, but you'll be clueless as to how it will get there. It's a mysterious film that worked a strange magic on me.