User Reviews

(Some spoilers) VIVERE! Was one of the most popular films of the Italy of the fascist period. The title song by Cesare Bixio is heard over the opening credits and at the end and became a smash hit in Italy and elsewhere. Though hardly one of the best Italian pictures from that time, it had some things going for in, notably in the screen presence of legendary tenor Tito Schipa (1889-1965) and the songs and operatic arias he sings in his portrayal of Tito Di Lauro, night club singer become operatic tenor. These help transcend the banal schmaltz of the story. The veneer of the film is also very appealing too, with its art deco trappings, starting with the credit sequence lettering style, and with furnishings that suggest a Gregory LaCava film from that period. Caterina Boratto plays Tito's daughter Paola, his "bambinona," - big little baby -who falls in love with a playboy impresario Mario, played by Nino Besozzi. What little plot there is revolves around dad's not approving his daughter's choice of a fiance'. Yes, you can marry, he tells them, but I don't want to have anything to do with you afterwards. Tito goes off on his European concert engagements, stubbornly refusing to be reconciled with his daughter and son-in-law as he sings arias from the works of Donizetti, Scarlatti, and Cilea. When Mario faces the prospect of financial ruin, Paola decides to go to dad for help but is injured in a car accident on the way to the train station. Word is brought to Tito and he sings to her in a radio broadcast another song by Bixio, "Torna, piccina" (return, little one) and effects a tearful reconciliation, with the daughter getting well, and with the three spending time on a yacht in the Italian sun as we hear more of "Vivere!" ("To Live") The movie was shot pretty much in direct sound, quite unusual in Italy where post-synchronization of domestic films and dubbing of foreign ones were the norm. The film played New York in 1938 at the Broadway Cine' Roma, an Italian house near Times Square and has probably never been publicly seen here ever since. Unsubtitled video copies have been sold in opera sections of music recording outlets.