It seems that some Italians love Art more than their own image.

Last month, filmmaker Martin Scorsese was named the honorary president of Italy’s David di Donatello Academy, which runs Italy’s equivalent of the Academy Awards.  As a quasi-government institution, the choice of honoring “Goodfellas” Scorsese was made by Italy’s Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli.  (By the way, the Italian title of Goodfellas is “Quei bravi ragazzi.” The film is dubbed in Roman street dialect— flessione romana— to fit the coarse characters.)

Over the decades, Italian American organizations have made it abundantly clear to the Italian government that honoring mob-moviemakers and mob-stars sends the wrong message to the public and Italic people globally.  Yet, both left-wing and right-wing Italian politicians have honored these defamation artists with awards and Italian citizenship, despite our impassioned pleas.

For a people who cherish “una bella figura,” you would think that Italians would understand the negative effects of “una brutta figura.”  Apparently, the bella figura doesn’t apply to ethnic dignity.  If Martin Scorsese has earned any title, it is Defamer-in-Chief. 

Imagine Bela Lugosi being awarded by Romanians for vampire movies, or Boris Karloff honored by Egyptians for transforming their history into a mummy horror show.  How about Italy’s “Pizza Police” naming the Domino’s CEO as its honorary president?  Or the Slow Food Movement proclaiming Chef Boyardee products as “Veramente italiano?” 

Scorsese’s world is one of degenerates, thieves, and murderers.  Both Goodfellas and Casino had scenes of murdering and burying victims—more the stuff of zombie movies.  His movies should be rarely seen cult films, instead, they are a scheduling bonanza for cable channels like TNT, AMC, or Paramount which can repeatedly license showings at an affordable cost to fill lengthy broadcast blocks.  In short, Scorsese and Coppola movies are the “bread & circuses” of the American public.  Scorsese has earned some $100 million from repeated showings of Goodfellas.

Professor Dana Renga of the Ohio State University, who studies Mafia depictions, notes that writers and producers in Italy have learned from the American market how profitable movies and series with “heroic” thieves and murderers are.  “Italian films and TV shows have started to glorify criminality, crafting and portraying mafiosos as alluring antiheroes,” writes Renga.  “The change began in 2005, director Michele Placido released Romanzo Criminale, a film about the Roman Mafia that featured a cast of young, attractive mobsters.”  The TV series Gomorrah, is a hit in Italy and distributed in over 190 countries, including the U.S.  The new film, Traitor, continues this Italian descent into the anti-hero starring an actor known as “the Italian George Clooney.” It’s heading here in January 2027.

Not everyone in Italy is swallowing this Scorsese and Sopranos perversion of ethnic image.  Unlike here, organized crime is not idolized by the Italian public.  Prof. Renga cites the Mayor of Naples who believes that Gomorrah corrodes “the brains, minds and hearts of hundreds of young people,” and one judge accused the series’ creators of “excessively humanizing crime.”

Welcome to our world!  Scorsese and his ilk have conned three generations (and counting) of Italian Americans out of their noble heritage and replaced it with a Scarlet Letter of criminality.  Next to Chicken Parm, mob movies are considered our endearing contribution to American culture.

Sadly, this descent into una brutta figura for Italy and its offspring overseas now carries the official government imprimatur.  It wasn’t always that way.  If you ever watched both versions of the movie Farewell to Arms (1932 and 1957) you’d see how the Italian government directly fiddled with Hemmingway’s book in the 1957 film to remove the Italian military’s summary execution of 750 deserters in the First World War.  But Italy’s bella figura meant something in 1957. Now, it’s only about entertainment.

At what point is “art” really about profit? When does the “artist” admit he has gone too far? –JLM