The second Radiance release this week is Pietro Germi’s 1956 film The Railroad Man, or Il ferroviere in its native Italian. As well as directing and having a hand in the screenplay, Germi also stars in the lead role of Andrea Marcocci, the train operator of the title and patriarch of a working-class Italian family who, across twelve months – from one Christmas to the next – will be buffeted by the cruel and relentless winds of fate.
At first glance, the Marcocci family are a relatively happy and average Italian household. Muscular, tough-as-old-boots Andrea is married to Sara (Luisa Della Noce), and together they have three children: unemployed son Marcello (Renato Speziali), their pregnant daughter Giulia (Sylva Koscina), married to shopkeeper Renato (Carlo Giuffre), and their youngest son, the cherubic Sandrino (Edoardo Nevola), whose narrative voice tries to make sense of the adult world around him and serves as our guide to the unfolding events. And events begin to unravel rather quickly. Firstly, Giulia loses the baby, creating an irreparable rift in her marriage to Renato. Then, further tragedy strikes when a suicide steps in front of Andrea’s train. Though rocked by what he has seen, Andrea is sent immediately back to work, whereupon he misses a red light further along the tracks. As a direct result, he is suspended and relegated to the menial work of shunting trains around the yard at a much lower rate of pay.
Taking his case to the union, Andrea argues that he has been overworked and that the company provides no support for railwaymen who witness a suicide on duty. But the union doesn’t care and refuses to proceed with his case. Despite doctors advising him to quit drinking, Andrea sinks further into alcoholic oblivion as a means to escape his cruel fate – both at work and at home. His daughter becomes estranged – first from her husband, then from the rest of the family when, hearing of her plans to divorce and her acquaintance with another man, Andrea unwisely disowns her in a fit of rage. Matters worsen when the feckless Marcello develops a taste for gambling, bringing debtors to their door.
The film’s real triumph is how it challenges Italy’s sacrosanct perceptions of family, depicting one torn apart by social conditions and cruel fate.
When the railway workers go on strike, Andrea agrees to operate a train – partly to reclaim some semblance of his former life, partly to spite the union that betrayed him. However, his strike-breaking brings its own problems. Ashamed and unable to face his community – particularly his loyal colleague and best friend Liverani (Saro Urzi) – Andrea goes off alone on a series of benders with disastrous repercussions for his health. It’s left to the innocent, uncomprehending Sandrino to try and reunite his family and restore the happiness he misses so much.
Given its place in post-war Italian cinema and its emphatically working-class subject matter, you’d be forgiven for thinking The Railroad Man is an example of neorealism. While it’s true that – in mining the poignant relationship between a working-class father and his young son in extremis – the film owes a debt to De Sica’s 1948 neorealist classic Bicycle Thieves, Germi’s style here is altogether more conventionally melodramatic. The Railroad Man unashamedly tugs at the audience’s heartstrings, much like classic Hollywood (which presumably explains its international success upon release). Though I normally find such emotional manipulation too on-the-nose, I have to confess Germi’s film moved me.
It’s especially remarkable that Germi elicits sympathy for Andrea – a wife-beater and scab – but as a performer, he delivers a standout study of a flawed man: a hard-worker who turns to drink to unwind, only to realise too late that the alcohol he sought as a reward is, in fact, a penalty – a literal poisoned chalice. Ultimately, it is easy to sympathise with the character of Andrea because he feels real, and the trials Germi places at the Marcoccis’ door are ones working-class audiences will recognise. The film’s real triumph is how it challenges Italy’s sacrosanct perceptions of family, depicting one torn apart by social conditions and cruel fate.
This limited-edition Blu-ray from Radiance includes a new 4K restoration by Cineteca di Bologna and Surf Films at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory. Extras feature new interviews with Germi biographer Mario Sesti and actor Edoardo Nevola. The limited edition booklet featuring new writing by John Bleasdale, alongside an archive piece from Simone Starace on the film’s chief writer, Alfredo Giannetto, who took the memory of seeing a small boy walk his railwayman father home from a bar one evening as inspiration for this film.
The Railroad Man is out now on Radiance Films Blu-Ray
Mark’s Archive – The Railroad Man (1956)
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