It's been a while since foreign-film fans have been treated to a Lina Wertmuller film. Not that the Italian director of "Swept Away" and "Seven Beauties" hasn't been cranking out pictures during the past two decades. It's just that since the virtual collapse of the Italian film industry, those pictures don't come over to America nearly as often these days.
"Ciao, Professore" is something different for Wertmuller (the only female director to ever receive an Oscar nomination, until she was joined this year by Jane Campion for "The Piano"). Would you believe a light comedy populated with children?
The story has a rumpled, middle-aged, elementary-school teacher (Paolo Villaggio) inadvertently being transferred from northern Italy to the poverty-ridden slums of Corzano, in the south. Once there, he discovers that the school-age children are working in the town instead of going to classes.
So, on his first teaching day, when hardly anyone shows up in his classroom, Villaggio marches into town and starts pulling the kids away from their workplaces one by one.
Eventually, as you might expect, Villaggio finds himself drawn to the children as individuals, involving himself in their soap opera lives and trying to show them the value of education. But the children have ideas of their own, and to his own surprise, Villiaggio finds himself learning as much about life as he dispenses.
This is familiar territory, of course, a movie staple since "Boys Town," on through "To Sir, With Love" and dozens of others over the years.
In this case, a major saving grace is the performances of the children, who are a rough-and-tumble lot, foul-mouthed and hard-nosed, without much of the sentimentality we tend to associate with this genre. And Villaggio is also quite good, a veteran Italian actor who lends dignity and humor to his character.
The aforementioned foul language, however, seems at odds with the film's tone. Wertmuller is blatantly aiming for a feel-good family picture, but the R-rated dialogue belies that intention.
Still, there is much to enjoy in this atypically warm-and-fuzzy Wertmuller project.
"Ciao, Professore" is rated R for profane and vulgar language, along with some violence.