Nuovomondo – The Golden Door (2006)

Directed by: Emanuele Crialese | 112 minutes | drama, romance, history | Actors: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vincenzo Amato, Aurora Quattrocchi, Francesco Casisa, Filippo Pucillo, Federica de Cola, Isabella Ragonese, Vincent Schiavelli, Massimo Laguardia, Filippo Luna, Andrea Prodan, Ernesto Mahieux

As in Crialese’s magical-realistic ‘Respiro’, in his ‘Nuovomondo’ there is an important role for a mysterious, alluring woman. At least for the male characters, who all become fascinated by her and dream of her. However, the background and function of this character, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, is this time even less clear than in the case of Valeria Golino’s role in ‘Respiro’. At first it seems like a rather meaningless distraction from the real story, namely the journey, both physical and mental, of Salvatore and his family, to the land of possibility, America.

When the British Lucy joins Salvatore and his followers at the end of the first act, the whole dynamic of the film changes. Until then, it was all about empathizing with the predicament of the Italians, who were preparing for the arrival in “The New World”, but from the arrival of the British beauty, the focus of the story and the characters shifts to this woman , which diminishes the power of the central narrative. If her story were still well developed or the relationship with her passengers on the boat still had a lot to offer, this wouldn’t have been such a problem, but this is not the case either. It’s interesting in itself how the passengers deal with this odd man out, but it doesn’t teach us much about them or her.

You could, however, accept her presence in a symbolic sense. As a beautiful, rich-looking woman that every man on the ship would like to marry, she is a symbol of America, which is romanticized in a similar way. Through dream sequences, in which we see Salvatore swimming in rivers of milk or walking across the country with life-sized vegetables, America is presented as a true utopia and it is no different with the red-haired beauty. The men are constantly fantasizing about who she is – a princess, perhaps? – and who she will marry. Now she allows a character to marry her, but unfortunately it is only a marriage of convenience on her part, in order to properly enter America. Likewise, the love for America is not mutual. The immigrants are inspected on Ellis Island and extradited as if they were cattle and thus retain little respect as human beings. While some would rather go back to where they came from, appalling living standards or not, most people don’t really have a choice and endure all the humiliations in order to have hope for a better future.

One of the most beautiful scenes is undoubtedly the one in which the boat, loaded with immigrants (then emigrants) very slowly departs from Italy, while the stragglers stand on the quay in equally large numbers. Filmed from above for a long time it looks like one large group, but gradually you can see how the two groups are separated from each other as the boat moves away from the quay bit by bit. It is saying goodbye to the Old World, while embarking on the journey to the New, which causes different feelings, from pitying to hopeful to fearful. The latter is amplified by the ominous deep sound of the steamboat which is repeated repeatedly. These kinds of breathtaking moments are unfortunately not very many and the story, although fascinating, sinks in too much in the middle on the boat and keeps the characters too superficial to be able to speak of a really impressive film. Still, the harrowing reception on Ellis Island, with even below-average intelligence being seen as a reason to send people back, is yet another good opportunity to reflect on the importance of humanity and mutual respect.