Constructing Italian vs. American identity in films: L'ultimo bacio vs. The Last Kiss

CONSTRUCTING ITALIAN VS. AMERICAN IDENTITY IN FILMS:

L’ULTIMO BACIO VS. THE LAST KISS

VERONICA BONSIGNORI AND SILVIA BRUTI*

Università di Pisa

Abstract

Il presente lavoro, a partire da una riflessione sulle differenze linguistico-culturali di lingue non particolarmente

distanti tra loro dal punto di vista genetico quali l’inglese e l’italiano, si prefigge lo scopo di mostrare le

motivazioni alla base di un’operazione di remake. Fatte salve le ragioni di natura commerciale, la rivisitazione del

film L’ultimo bacio (2001) per un pubblico americano – The Last Kiss (2006) – sembra fortemente legata

all’intento di creare un testo audiovisivo più consono alle aspettative del pubblico, mutando riferimenti culturali e

stereotipi, stili di vita e di espressione.

Introduction

Many of the papers discussed in the meeting Cultural stereotypes in English and

Italian were devoted to conflicts of various types between lingua-cultural pairs, mainly

English and Italian. The two languages and the two native-speaking communities – the

Italian and the English – are not very far from one another, both because the two

languages have a common ancestor – i.e. Indo-European – and share a large amount of

Latin-derived vocabulary, and because both belong to the Western world, where a

heritage made of social norms, ethical values, religious beliefs, political organisations,

specific artefacts and technologies is largely shared. Among the recognised values that

define modern Western societies are, for example, the existence of political pluralism,

laicism, the generalisation of the middle class, the presence of several subcultures, and,

especially in recent times, a certain cultural syncretism deriving from globalisation and

human migratory movements. In terms of popular culture, the last half of the XX and the

first decade of the XXI century have shown an evident influence of the United States

over the culture of other countries, in domains such as cuisine, technology, business

practices, political techniques, media and entertainment. Yet, also in the case of a

common background, interactions across culture are always prone to more or less serious

obstacles or hitches, which range from miscommunication and interaction failure to

awkwardness and pragmatic blunders. In fact, even though communicative functions

appear to exist across languages, the ways in which a given function is realised may

differ from one language to another (Trosborg 1995:39). Studies in cross-cultural

pragmatics have tried – since the pioneering work by Shoshana Blum Kulka, Juliane

House and Gabriele Kasper (1989) on requests and apologies, and that by Anna

Wierzbicka (1991) on the differences between English and Polish, to name just two of

the most famous – to shed light on the differences in the speakers’ attitudes, their

hierarchies of values, and the way speakers construct their discursive identities. The

cultural norms reflected in speech may differ or, to quote Wierzbicka (1991:26),

“different speech acts become entrenched, and, to some extent, codified in different

languages”. Trosborg (1995) explains that different pragmatic norms mirror different

arrangements of values typical of each culture, or to borrow Brown and Levinson’s

expression, dating back to Bateson (1958), they display a different cultural “ethos” – i.e.

a different “quality of interaction characterizing groups, or social categories of persons,

in a particular society” (1987:243). In the ‘80s a project aiming to investigate contrastive

pragmatics in England and Italy on service encounters was carried out in both countries

(Aston 1988) with a view to comparing interaction in the two lingua-culture sets in

identical situations, namely bookshops. The analysis of a considerable number of

interactions evidences how the roles of bookshop assistants and customers are

constructed in completely different ways. In English conversations, customers are more

independent and only ask for the assistant’s help when they cannot find what they are

looking for, whereas shop assistants, in those cases when they have to tell customers that

they do not have the book they are looking for, preface their answers with a series of non-

verbal signs to somehow hedge the bad news. In an Italian setting, customers rely much

more on the assistant’s help and assistants show no hesitation in giving the customer a

negative answer.

Starting from these premises and from the ever increasing centrality of ethnic

diversity and representation in our multilingual and multicultural society, with a still

more or less evident tendency of American English language and culture to ‘cannibalize’

diversity, we set out to investigate how Italian and American identity are constructed in

films. In particular, we chose to analyse the Italian film L’Ultimo bacio (G. Muccino,

2001) and the American The Last Kiss (P. Haggis, 2006), intrigued by the fact that the

latter film displays an identical fabula, but different actors, language and setting. The

starting questions were, therefore, the following: in what relation do the two films stand

to one another? Can the latter be considered a remake of the former? What is the purpose

of such an operation, and, more importantly, how are the two groups – i.e. Italians and

Americans – represented?

1. The remake

The notion of remake has been much debated and its status is somewhat

controversial, at least in fiction, where intertextuality rests on the reader’s recognition,

and in drama, which is intrinsically repetitive, but is perfectly applicable to cinema. In

fact, in this domain, similarly to what occurs in other fields such as industrial design,

which uses re-designing and re-styling procedures, it includes various types of

adaptations, revisions, sequels, deviations, alterations of a certain model, pastiches and

several phenomena of self-reflection (Bussi 1999:14).

As Bussi (1999) suggests in her useful review of the remake, quoting La Polla’s

essay (1999), there seem to be three main usages of the term: 1) it applies to cinema,

which draws heavily on literature (inter-media relationship) in order to issue new

products that tell well-known stories, but project them onto different scenarios and

contexts; 2) it is a more extended notion of ‘remake’, according to which the fabula is

kept unvaried, but considerable variations are introduced. They can affect genre, space-

time coordinates, characters, rhythm, and narrative sequences. A very clear example is

Clueless (A. Heckerling, 1995), very loosely based on Jane Austen’s Emma (1815), the

story of Cher, a popular West Coast high-school girl, who spends much of her time

playing the match-maker, helping her friends become fashionable and trendy in order to

find a boyfriend; 3) a final, even vaguer, notion involves the appropriation of important

myths at the basis of our culture (La Polla 1999:23-24), e.g. that of the “star-crossed

lovers”, which has been broadly re-used in literature and cinema, but has also been

extended to ballet, musicals, songs, and parodies.

Dusi (2006) notices that “anche per le operazioni di remake si potrebbe parlare di

‘forme d’azione’ complesse, di processi comunicativi transculturali, orientati alla cultura

che li riceve, con un approccio dinamico e funzionale”1 (2006:100). Here he establishes a

parallelism between remake and cultural adaptation, which is all the more true for our

example, in which the lingua-culture set is changed.

What is undoubtedly true is that a remake always entails both similarity and

transformation, because the extent of modification does not jeopardise a certain “alta

riconoscibilità strutturale”2 (Dusi 2006:154). One of the typical problems of this strategy

is the ratio between the recognisability and the autonomy of the remake, but this does not

apply to our example, since it is quite obvious that L’ultimo bacio and The Last Kiss are

intended for different audiences, who most probably are not aware of the foreign

counterpart. The genre barely undergoes any alteration at all, but the changes are dictated

by the desire to adapt the film to American linguistic and cultural habits. This is

confirmed by La Polla’s words: “l’operazione del remake […] diventa spia epocale,

testimone del momento storico di cui fa parte, e naturalmente della cultura nazionale che

l’ha prodotto” (1999:29)3.

2. The films

Apart from the fabula, the two objects of this analysis, L’ultimo bacio (2001) and

The last Kiss (2006)4, also share some professional figures: Muccino, the director of the

Italian film, also produced the American movie, which was directed by Tony Goldwyn

but with a screenplay written by Oscar-winner Paul Haggis. Both films star a group of

famous young actors: Stefano Accorsi, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Martina Stella, Claudio

Santamaria, Pierfrancesco Favino for the Italian version, and Zach Braf (one of the

leading stars in the TV series Scrubs), Jacinda Barrett (Rebecca in Bridget Jones: the

Edge of Reason), Rachel Bilson (Millie in the film Jumper, also starring in the TV series

The O.C. and the more recent Hart of Dixie), and Casey Affleck (starring in Ocean’s 11,

12, 13, American Pie and American Pie 2) for the American version.

The storyline is very similar in both films, although with some significant differences

especially in the ending. The plot revolves around the story of a young man in his thirties

whose long-time girlfriend suddenly gets pregnant, thus forcing him to face adulthood

and responsibility, which he does not feel ready to do. When he meets a younger girl at

his best-friend’s wedding and falls for her, he puts what had so far been a stable

relationship in danger. His friends also have their share of problems in their romantic life:

one is obsessed with an ex-girlfriend, one is incapable of having a healthy and stable

relationship with women, limiting to use them as sexual objects, and another has issues

with fatherhood and a wife who is so attached to their child that she neglects their

marriage.

Remakes, especially of successful Italian films, seem to be quite popular in the US

(Bigi 2008), partly because some of the most creative and innovative brains have moved

from cinema to television (see, for example, the case of the writers of Lost and Breaking

Bad in Cecchini 2012). Therefore, instead of embarking on hazardous new projects,

directors prefer to invest in different forms of reduplication like remakes, sequels,

prequels, reboots, etc. Furthermore, in this case, the remake was also prompted by great

popularity enjoyed by the Italian film L’ultimo bacio after it won the “Audience award

world cinema” at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002. And, last but not least, Italian

director Muccino moved to Los Angeles some years ago and started working there,

directing a number of successful films featuring major American film stars like Will

Smith (The Pursuit of Happiness, 2006, and Seven Pounds, 2008) and, more recently,

Gerald Butler and Jessica Biel (Playing for Keeps, 2012).

Despite the abundance of linguistic, cultural, figurative and narrative transformations

which figure in the remake, script writer Paul Haggis stated that it was not his intention

to alter the original, because the film was brilliant as it was: “Non ho ritoccato il copione

per niente, l’ho semplicemente tradotto perché era un film così bello che non occorreva

modificare nulla. I produttori poi hanno cambiato qualcosa ma io non credo che l’abbiano

migliorato. Credo che la versione originale sia davvero brillante”5

(http://www.cinemadelsilenzio.it/index.php?mod=interview&id=1615). So the changes

therefore took place in the working phases, while the film was being shot, and were

probably decided on by the producers or the distributors so as to better meet the

audience’s taste and expectations.

3. Cultural stereotypes

According to the OED, a stereotype is “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified

image or idea of a particular type of person or thing”. Stereotyping is one of the strategies

employed by human beings to deal with reality and filter all the information that

surrounds us (Goddard 2002). Only those details that are considered salient are singled

out in order to form categories that are used to fit people’s experiences into

comprehensible patterns. On the one hand, stereotypes do have a connection with the

idea they represent, but on the other, such categories are so unrefined and blunt that they

hamper individual variations and the possibility to identify the subtle complexities that

actually exist. A vast array of stereotypes, ranging from sexual to racial and linguistic,

may be identified. For example, in the language of advertising, the stereotyping process

plays a crucial role: in British TV adverts it is conveyed through accent variation, which

contributes to building up several class stereotypes, the aim of which is to facilitate

identification on the part of the target audience. Some examples are given by Goddard

(2002) such as “the Yorkshire-accented stolid voice that stands for tradition and

wholesomeness; the smooth RP (Received Pronunciation) accent that tells us about

business and financial management” (2002:48). Another frequent type found in

advertising is the sexual stereotype, through which men and women are locked into fixed

sexual roles, the woman often portrayed either as a sexual object or a home maker6.

However, in the present paper we will concentrate on cultural stereotypes, which are used

to represent certain identity features in the films under investigation. To this end, we have

selected some of the most widespread stereotypes from the Xenophobe’s Guides, a series

of short books aiming to give the reader the most important information about a

particular country or region in a humorous way, by describing its culture and history and

something of the values held by its people. For instance, the volume on Americans (Faul

2012) describes them as extremely friendly, but with no sense of style, since they wear

very bright colours and mixed patterns, as well as sporting summer clothes even in

winter. It is reported that the typical American “native dress” is jeans, cowboy boots and

a cowboy hat. Italians, instead, are known for their tax evasion, intricate bureaucracy,

their obsession for eating and drinking, religion, superstition, clothes (these, especially in

Italy, appear to make the man), their campanilismo, that is their parochialism and narrow-

mindedness, for being ‘mummy’s boy’ and, last but not least, for the art of getting by. It

is reported that “Italians are past masters at arrangiarsi. This is due to the fact that, more

often than not, they have to” (Solly 2012:18).

4. Analysis

On the basis of these preliminary considerations, the two films object of the present

study will be analysed by paying specific attention to all those elements that contribute to

portraying the American and Italian identity. The ‘relocation’ of the same story to a

different socio-cultural scenario offers significant insight into the variation and

adaptation of certain elements, both linguistic and cultural.

4.1. An Analysis of The Last Kiss

Comparing the original Italian film with its American counterpart, The Last Kiss, five

main areas that contribute both linguistically and culturally to building up the American

identity and, thus, to a sort of ‘Americanisation’ of the original story can be identified.

The first has to do with relationships and the way they are experienced. For example, the

phrase ‘I love you’ is repeatedly employed in The Last Kiss either to express the

speaker’s feelings or, more frequently, as an expression to take the leave between friends,

family and boyfriend or girlfriend, as can be seen in (1) below, where it is used by Jenna

and her father Stephen.

(1) Jenna: It’s a girl! We’re having a baby girl! Say something!

Stephen: I’m… I’m so happy. I got to go now, sweetheart, okay?

Jenna: Okay. I’ll see you later. I love you.

Stephen: I love you.

The phrase ‘I love you’ occurs several times in the film, and it may be defined as a

“pragmatic routine” (Bardovi-Harlig 2013), namely a conventional expression, with

strong social connotations, which is expectedly used in certain situational contexts.

Pragmatic routines, in some way frozen in form and content, are thus formulaic, and

therefore the “knowledge of their use and the contexts in which they occur is part of

sociopragmatic competence” (Bardovi-Harlig 2013:1). It is worth mentioning that in

dubbing often these formulae are automatically translated with certain “translational

routines” (Pavesi 2005), that is fixed expressions that are automatically employed by the

translator/adaptor that do not sound natural in the target dialogue – the translational

routine for “I love you” is the Italian “ti voglio bene”.

Such a tendency to express one’s feelings is typically American and constitutes a

distinctive trait with respect, for instance, to the British culture, which is much more

discreet. An example of this is when Chris, Michael’s friend who is having problems

with his wife’s excessive attachment to their baby boy, interrupts one of his colleague’s

speech during a work meeting to publicly confess that he has just decided to leave her.

Similarly, in the name of American honesty and outspokenness, when, after

continuous quarrelling and clear incompatibility, Chris finds the courage to face his wife

and tells her about his decision to split up, instead of fighting back on the same argument,

as happens in the Italian film, she immediately accuses him of adultery.

Another interesting element is the way in which the characters in the American film

deal with honesty, which becomes a crucial element of difference with respect to the

Italian film, as it determines a totally different ending. More specifically, when Jenna

finds out about her fiancé’s love affair and questions him to understand how deeply he

was involved, at first he is reticent, but later he admits the truth, even though he does so

through an implicit statement:

(2) Jenna: Were you telling me the truth last night? You didn’t sleep with her?

Michael: I was telling the truth. But then I went back.

Another difference between the American and Italian version of this story is the

explicit reference to sex, which is almost absent in the Italian film: in example (3) below

Michael humorously comforts his girlfriend Jenna, who is worried about getting fat

because of her pregnancy:

(3) Michael: Baby, no matter how fat you get, you could never be ugly. And as long as I

can find these perfect breasts amidst all the rolls, I'll be happy. And this ass!

You have the greatest ass in the world!

Humour is present in both films, but it is used differently. In the American remake,

comic effects are often obtained through vulgarity, as in example (4), where Jenna is

trying to have a serious conversation with Michael about their feelings on impending

parenthood, while he exploits her words to make a pun, thus showing his childish and

immature attitude.

(4) Jenna: What are you holding inside, you feel like you want to let out?

Michael: (he farts) What? What? You asked!

Jenna: Oh, my God!

Michael: I’ve been holding that in all day!

Jenna: You’re disgusting! Michael! I don’t want your farts on me. Come on, turn the TV

off. I’m serious. I want to know what you’re feeling.

The second area relates to the American way of thinking, which often verges on

Puritan and conservative ideas, an example of which is that marriage should come before

parenting. Let us compare the two extracts below, from the two films, in which the same

event in the plot is represented, namely when, at the beginning of the story, Jenna/Giulia

and her fiancé Michael/Carlo tell their parents that she is expecting a baby.

The Last Kiss L’Ultimo Bacio

(5) Jenna: So, what do you think?

Stephen: Well, I think it’s a… It’s a

very big thing. Traditionally,

not the first big thing of your

adult life.

Giulia: E tu, papà, non dici niente?

Emilio: Ho bisogno di qualche minuto

per metabolizzare.

Noticeably, while the news elicits similar reactions of astonishment, the answer the father

gives his daughter is radically different in the two versions: in the Italian film, Emilio just

says it will take him some time to soak it in and does not give his opinion, while in the

American version, after a moment of hesitation, Stephen finally gives voice to his

thoughts, showing his strong attachment to traditions. Such a change in the remake

suggests that the reason may be an adjustment to the socio-cultural values of the

American audience.

The third area of interest in the comparison between the two versions of the same

story refers to some cultural stereotypes. For instance, in the American remake, during

the bachelor party thrown for the protagonist’s friend who is getting married the

following day, a party with strippers is organised, while in the original story all friends

celebrate with the stronger experience of bungee jumping, which is seen as an

opportunity to live life to the full and as a way to fight the boredom and banality of social

conventions. Other culturally-bound references in the American version are prom night,

mentioned by Izzy, Michael’s friend who is obsessed with the high school sweetheart

who left him, and which is discussed as a crucial event comparable to some sort of

unbreakable promise of faithfulness and devotion; the frequent references to college life

and to fraternity membership; and, finally, the popular habit of drinking beer, even at a

wedding, and getting drunk. Differently, beer is hardly ever served at Italian weddings,

where more sophisticated kinds of drinks are preferred such as champagne or the various

types of Italian spumante (roughly, ‘sparkling wine’). The wedding party is much more

lively in the American version, with music and dancing, people moving about more

unconstrictedly outside.

Differences between the two film versions can also be found in geographical

references. More specifically, when the character of Izzy/Paolo, the protagonist’s friend

who is obsessed with his ex-girlfriend, decides to solve his personal issues by leaving the

country and taking a road trip to South America, Tierra del Fuego, by motorcycle. In the

Italian version of the story, at first, Paolo suggests a whole range of escape destinations:

Africa, where he proposes to do some voluntary work, Polynesia, where he plans to open

a scuba-diving school, and finally, Patagonia, Argentina. But eventually the group of

friends choose to travel through Africa and, maybe from there, go on to Australia.

Finally, just one example of some linguistic stereotypically American expressions

pertaining to the semantic field of war. Example (6) shows an exchange between Michael

and his friends during the reception at Mark’s wedding. Suddenly, they see Arianna,

Izzy’s ex-girlfriend, among the guests:

(6) Michael (to Jenna): Oh, no! I’ll be back.

Kenny (to Michael): Two o’clock.

Chris (to Michael): Thought she wasn’t coming.

Michael: I know. You think he’s seen her yet?

Dreading Izzy’s potentially overdramatic reaction to Arianna’s impudent and tactless

behaviour, the group of friends discuss the matter using a special code, and adopting a

technical expression used in military action to locate the position of a target7.

4.2. An Analysis of L’ultimo bacio

As the preface to our analysis of L’ultimo bacio, it may be worthwhile to remember

that this is the original film narrating the original story. One of the first things that mostly

stand out in this film, especially in comparison with its American remake, which

conversely is devoid of it, is the tight and supporting relationship between female friends.

Let us compare the example below from the two films, in which Anna, Giulia/Jenna’s

mother, calls her daughter to tell her that, after the umpteenth argument with her

husband, she has decided to leave him:

L’ultimo bacio The Last Kiss

(7) Anna: Questa volta è per sempre.

Vado a stare da Luisa. Chiamami

sul cellulare, bambina mia.

Chiamami quando vuoi. Sono felice

per te e per la bambina che porti

dentro. Sono felice e non t’invidio,

sono felice, sono felice!

Anna: I’ve left your father.

[…]

Jenna: You’re staying in a motel?

Anna: No, it’s a hotel. And it’s really

very nice. They’ve got a gym--

As shall be noted, in the Italian film, Anna tells her daughter that she is staying at her

friend Luisa’s house, while in the American version, Anna simply chooses a hotel where

to stay by herself. Such a change in the storyline also contributes to depicting the

character of Anna as an independent and self-confident woman who has the courage to

live her life alone, without relying on anyone, whereas in the original story she appears

more fragile and anxious. However, there are other episodes8 in which the alliance

between female friends is totally and repeatedly omitted in the American film, a

voluntary and self-conscious choice that may be explained by the fact that this type of

relationships is not as meaningful in American culture.

Anna tends from the very beginning to rely on other people’s suggestions and

judgement. In (8) she is discussing her marriage problems with Luisa, who encourages

her to meet somebody else. It is through Luisa that she meets Michele at an art

exhibition, but it will turn out to be a failure.

(8) Anna: Quanti anni ha?

Luisa: Più o meno come noi.

Anna: È da molto che si sono lasciati?

Luisa: Saranno sei mesi.

Anna: Lei sta con qualcun altro?

Luisa: No, non ancora, cioè, c’ha avuto una storia ma è già finita. Adesso è alla ricerca di

qualcuno di cui innamorarsi. Chi è che non è alla ricerca di qualcuno di cui

innamorarsi?

Anna: Gli innamorati. Loro stanno a posto così. Eh!

What is instead common to both films is Anna’s determination to see once more a

man who used to mean a great deal to her. In both versions, this man is a teacher and

Anna waits for him in front of the school. The man is now happily married and the father

of a very young child. While in the Italian version Anna tries to ascertain whether he is

truly happy and even asks him to make love to her, in the American film the scene is

more controlled and quiet, and Anna never loses her composure and instead wishes him

happiness before leaving.

L’ultimo bacio The Last Kiss

(9) Anna: Ma-- non senti più niente per me?

Eugenio: La mia vita è tanto cambiata!

Anna: E perché? Perché-- perché sono tre

anni che non ci vediamo? Perché stai

con un’altra? Perché hai un

bambino? Perché?

Eugenio: Perché…

Anna: Certo che faccio delle domande

stupide pure io, eh? Ti sto

sembrando patetica, vero? Guarda, io

comunque ti devo dire che se

potessimo tornare indietro, io ti

seguirei ovunque. Potrei lasciarlo in

questo momento esatto. Veramente,

sono molto molto più forte, adesso!

Eugenio: Siamo fuori tempo massimo.

Anna: Dici così perché adesso i nostri

anni di differenza si vedono, vero?

Quanti anni ha la tua donna? È una

ragazzina? Ti sei messo con una

ragazzina, Eugenio?

Eugenio: Perché non ti calmi?

Anna: Certo che mi calmo. Mi devo

calmare, certamente che mi devo

calmare. Anche perché-- perché

questa situazione è diventata patetica

e fuori controllo. Ti saluto, eh!

Comunque devi sapere che io ti ho

voluto bene per tutto questo tempo.

Eugenio: Anch’io t’ho voluto bene, Anna.

Anna: Ti andrebbe di-- di fare ancora

l’amore con me?

Eugenio: Anna!

Anna: No, no, no, no! No, no,

dimenticati-- dimenticati di questa

domanda. Mi rifarò una nuova vita

e-- vedrai, ci riuscirò. Addio, amore

mio, addio!

Prof. Bowler: Anna, Anna. I'm married.

Anna: You are what?

Prof. Bowler: With a two-month-old baby

boy.

Anna: You can’t be serious.

Prof. Bowler: Yeah, I'm serious.

Anna: How old is your wife?

Prof. Bowler: What's the difference?

Anna: Tell me. How old is she?

Prof. Bowler: No, it doesn't matter.

Anna: Tell me! How old is she?

Prof. Bowler: She's 35 years old.

Anna: My God, she could be my

daughter.

Prof. Bowler: What's the difference? You

were never going to leave him,

anyway.

Anna: Be happy.

Prof. Bowler: Anna. God damn it, Anna!

As can be seen in (9), the ‘American’ Anna is much more controlled, does not lose

her dignity and is a better judge of situations: once she discovers that her former lover

has started a family with a younger woman, she immediately decides to leave things as

they are. She is neither excessively lavish in describing her emotions nor as inconsistent

in her arguments as her Italian counterpart, who instead, perfectly in line with the

stereotypical image of the passionate Italian woman, is more than ready to make an

emotional public scene for her love, Thus although Americans do express their feelings,

certainly more openly than the British (Fox 2004)9, they are more controlled than

Italians: in other words, the expression of feelings of each of these national groups could

be located on a gradient ranging from the pole of extreme reserve (the British) to that of

excessive explicitness (the Italians), passing through intermediate positions (the

Americans).

In general, women in the American film are depicted as stronger, more independent

and self-reliant. Jenna is finishing her studies as she mentions that she is completing her

dissertation, while Giulia is shown at home, busy with preparations for the child’s arrival;

Kim lives alone at college and is a musician, whereas Francesca is still in high school and

dreams of becoming an actress. Incidentally, music has a relevant role in The Last Kiss,

as the soundtrack includes very meaningful pieces, which strengthen and underscore the

emotional highpoints in the plot, ranging from classical pieces, like Schubert, to modern

pop music, like Coldplay or Snow Patrol. On the other hand, in the Italian original the

soundtrack consists of Paolo Buonvino’s instrumental pieces.

Examples of Italian cultural stereotypes are the importance of TV, which is often in

the background, deployed as a way of representing the typical Italian daily life, and of

religion, with frequent references to religious rituals, like weddings, holy communion,

confirmation, christening, and funerals. Even the family business of one of the characters

(Paolo) is connected to the Vatican, as they own a shop that sells a wide range of

religious items such as ecclesiastical vestments for clergymen and votive images, while

in the American version, the corresponding character, Izzy, and his family own a cheese

company. Another crucial value in Italian culture is family. Examples of this are the

importance given to buying a new house before the arrival of the baby and the strong

attachment between a mother and her child. In this last case, when Adriano tells his wife

Livia that his decision to leave her is final and he is moving to his friend Alberto’s house,

her reaction is simply to carry on quarrelling and accuses him of being an awful father.

On the other hand, in the American version, in the corresponding scene, when Chris

leaves his wife Lise, promising her that he will still be their son’s father, she literally

takes him at his word and gives the child to him, saying that she is tired and needs some

rest, so they will see each other again the following Monday.

Finally, one last example refers to the several cases of overt rebellion such as the

choice to go bungee jumping before getting married (cf. 4.1, in opposition to the

American way of celebrating with strippers), as well as having a piercing – this is the

way Adriano reacts to his wife’s continuous angry outbursts and to the feeling of

oppression brought about by his marriage. After receiving a phone call from Livia, who

has suddenly calmed down after one of their fights, Adriano goes back home where he is

welcomed by his wife, who calmly prays him to keep trying and fighting for their

relationship. But when she sees his eyebrow piercing, she relentlessly gets angry again

and accuses him of being childish and immature, expressing also her disgust for what he

has done. Differently, in the American film, in the corresponding scene, Chris simply

tells his wife Lise that he wants to leave her whereupon she accuses him of having an

affair with another woman (cf. 4.1).

In both films the male protagonist Carlo/Michael works with one of his closest

friends, Adriano/Chris. In a conversation with the young girl he meets at the wedding

banquet, Carlo specifies that he works in advertising. Later on in the film, Carlo calls

Francesca from his office and she asks him where he works, so he mentions the name of

the firm, Sothens & Sothens. In the parallel scene in the American film, Michael also

calls Kim from work and explains to her that he works for an architecture and interior

design firm, whose name is Zander-Cohen. Brand names as recognisable icons of status

and social class tend to be utilised in the American film: in this scene, Michael is sitting

at his desk, on which a huge white Mac stands out. A similarly skilful exploitation occurs

towards the beginning of the film, when the two young people tell their parents they are

going to have a child. In the Italian film they have quite a formal dinner with both sets of

parents, whereas in the equivalent scene in the American film only Jenna’s parents are

present. In both cases, the wonderful news is acknowledged and there is a proposal to

celebrate, with spumante in the original film, and with champagne in the remake, where

the camera zooms in on a bottle of Mumm, a famous French brand for champagne.

An interesting intertextual scene occurs in the Italian film: Carlo is shown at work

presenting a commercial he created for an ice-cream, Stecco Regina.

(10) Carlo: Ma siccome non è il sapore a rendercelo diverso ma la densità, abbiamo

pensato ad uno slogan che accompagnerà l’intera campagna, pensato anche

come teaser: “Cremoso da ingoiarlo intero!”

Direttore Creativo: “Cremoso da ingoiarlo intero!”

Carlo: Dopo due mesi di riempimento degli spazi, sveliamo che si tratta dello stecco

Regina!

This scene is very effective, as it is meant to activate an intertextual reference that the

audience will probably recognise. The actor who stars as Carlo, Stefano Accorsi, became

famous thanks to a hilarious and extremely popular series of TV commercials for an ice-

cream, Maxibon. In one of the commercials he played the role of a young Latin lover

who tries to pick up some beautiful girls at the beach. Presuming that they are foreigners,

he improvises a speech which is a mixture of Italian, English and, most of all, Italiese or

Italenglish: “Ohi miss, you Maxibon? The best del mond. Very, mmm, mitic. Mitic? Yes,

granel, stracciatel, two gust is megl che one. Maxibon is bon, com you (pointing at the

girls)”. The situation is solved by the waiter, who calls one of the girls and asks her

“Irene, un altro Maxibon?” to which she replies with a thick accent from the Romagna

coast “Sì, dai, offre… mo come ti chiami?”. The ad, available on Youtube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKHbscGAy98, became extremely popular and others

followed in the same vein, all under the revealing umbrella term “abbordation”. Even

later, when Stefano Accorsi was no longer employed in the Motta campaign for

Maxibon, the catchphrase “du gust is megl che one” was still used.

5. Conclusion

There are some aspects that are prioritised in each lingua-cultural representation as

more immediately recognisable by the audience as an index of identity. This has clearly

emerged in the choice of more typically American habits (e.g. celebrations, jobs, etc.), in

foregrounding certain personal characteristics of the individual (e.g. greater

independence, both for men and women; greater honesty, even when they have to reveal

unpleasant episodes such as a betrayal or the break-up of a relationship). These choices

do not depend on translational constraints of the original dialogues, but are intentional

choices with a view to presenting a more convincing lingua-cultural scenario. Yet it

would be interesting to investigate how different translating modes may further affect the

representation of culture by analysing the English subtitled version of L’ultimo bacio and

also the Italian subtitles for The Last kiss. Translation is an act of manipulation and

subtitling is a very constrained type of translation, whose restrictions mainly affect the

expression of socio-pragmatic values, favouring instead the transmission of factual

information.

References

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Bologna.

Bardovi-Harlig K., 2013, “Pragmatic routines”, in C.A. Chapelle (ed.), The Encyclopedia

of Applied Linguistics, Wiley Blackwell, London, electronic version, pp. 1-7.

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and Apologies, Ablex, Norwood, N.J.

Brown P., Levinson S., 1987, Some Universals in Language Usage, Cambridge

University Press, London.

Bussi G.E., 1999, “Introduzione”, in G.E. Bussi, D. Chiaro (a cura di), Letteratura e

cinema: il remake, CLUEB, Bologna, pp. 13-21.

Bussi G.E, Chiaro D. (a cura di), 1999, Letteratura e cinema: il remake, CLUEB,

Bologna.

Dusi N., 2006, “Replicabilità audiovisiva”, in N. Dusi, L. Spaziante (a cura di), Remix-

Remake. Pratiche di replicabilità, Meltemi, Roma, pp. 95-154.

Dictionary of Military and Associated Term. US Department of Defense, 2005.

Faul S., 2012, Xenophobe’s Guide to the Americans, Oval Books, London.

Fox K., 2004, Watching the English. The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour, Hodder &

Stoughton, London.

George S., 1995, Getting Things Done in Naples, CLUEB, Bologna.

Goddard A., 2002, The Language of Advertising. Written Texts, Routledge, London.

La Polla F., 1999, “Parlare a Ninotchka, ovvero: quale Remake?”, in G.E. Bussi, D.

Chiaro (a cura di), Letteratura e cinema: il remake, CLUEB, Bologna, pp. 23-30.

Pavesi M., 2005, La traduzione filmica. Aspetti del parlato doppiato dall’inglese

all’italiano, Carocci, Roma.

Solly M., 2012, Xenophobe’s Guide to the Italians, Oval Books, London.

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Web references

Bigi, E., Remake italiani film italiani,

http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/SoleOnLine4/Tempo%20libero%20e%20Cultura/2008

/06/remake-film-italiani2.shtml?uuid=ea8f77a0-3176-11dd-9186-

00000e251029&DocRulesView=Libero2008, 11/06/2008, last accessed 2 February

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Cecchini, C., La grande stagione dei remake, http://www.today.it/media/remake-film-

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* The research was carried out by both authors together. The introduction and paragraph 5 were written

jointly; Veronica Bonsignori wrote paragraphs 3., 4. and 4.1., Silvia Bruti wrote paragraphs 1., 2. and 4.2. 1 “Also for remakes we could talk about complex ‘forms of action’, transcultural communicative

processes, oriented to the target culture, with a functional and dynamic approach” (our translation). 2 “High structural recognition” (our translation).

3 “The practice of the remake […] becomes a time index, an indicator of the precise moment in which it is

produced, and obviously also of the national culture that has produced it” (1999:29; our translation). 2

L’Ultimo bacio (2001) was written and directed by Gabriele Muccino, Italy, 115’. The transcript of the

dialogues amounts to 13.064 words. It is available in DVD, with English subtitles. The Last Kiss (2006)

was written by Paul Haggis and directed by Tony Goldwyn, USA, 112’. The transcript of the dialogues

amounts to 9.104 words. It is available in DVD, with Italian dub, and subtitles in both English and Italian. 5 “I didn’t alter the screenplay at all, I simply translated it because the film was so beautiful that it didn’t

need to be modified. Then, the producers changed something, but I don’t think they improved it. I think

the original version was brilliant” (our translation). 6 Examples are American print adverts during the ‘50s and ‘60s, the era of the so-called ‘white picket

fence’ lifestyle, characterised by consumerism and strong family values, where the woman was supposed

to take care of the house. An instance is the 1961 Kenwood advert that reads: “The Chef does everything

but cook - that’s what wives are for!”. 7 This is the so-called “clock code position”, defined by the Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms.

US Department of Defense (2005:90), as “the position of a target in relation to an aircraft or ship with

dead-ahead position considered as 12 o’clock”. 8 For example, when Francesca, the girl whom Carlo has had a crush on, desperately calls her best friend

Mariposa to get some advice because she cannot reach him by phone. 9 The anthropological study conducted by Fox (2004) has shown the typical pragmatic behaviour of the

British in various situational contexts. For example, as regards leave-takings, she states that they are quite

embarrassing and awkward as “no-one has a clear idea of what to do or say, resulting in the same aborted

handshakes, clumsy cheek-bumping and half-finished sentences as the greeting process. [...] Partings, as

if to compensate [the quickness of introductions], are often tediously prolonged” (2004:57).