Italian Spring

(Congratulations to all of Italy!)

They/we are calling it the Italian Spring. After Silvio Berlusconi's long years in power, the Italian electorate rose up and said they had enough, overturning laws passed by his government to revive nuclear energy, privatize the water supply and help him avoid prosecution.

The Italian government tried everything possible to delay, compromise and negate the possibility of Italian people expressing dissent. It wasted €300m preventing a high turnout at the ballot for a referendum on three crucial issues. It even passed a decree in the hope of nullifying one of the referendum's counts. In addition, it attempted to prevent adequate television cover of the ballot. Yet the referendum held on 12-13th June succeeded. The result constitutes another huge setback for Silvio Berlusconi's government, after the May local election where even Milan, Berlusconi's home city – rejected his party's candidate for mayor.

Italians were called to the ballot box to give their verdict on three crucial government policies: first we had the opportunity to reject the (in)famous "legitimate impediment’, the law that gave Berlusconi automatic immunity from trial proceedings. Second, we had the chance to stop another controversial reform brought in by Berlusconi's government: water privatisation. And last but not least, we were able to vote against Berlusconi's energy policy, which goes against the current European trend in proposing the construction of nuclear plants in high-risk seismic Italy.

And Italians have spoken. We said no to the current government's most controversial policies. We said no to an undemocratic law that placed the prime minister above the law and prevented him from ever coming to trial. We said no to water privatisation and, again, no to nuclear energy.

And for the first time in many years I am very proud of my country. Forza Italia! (And this is not intended as a pun!)

Burlesque

So, all of my friends shrieked in horror when asked to accompany me to the movie Burlesque. With all this silly snobbery around me, I opted to wait for the DVD, but now I regret not having seen it at the cinema.

BURLESQUE, written and directed by Steve Antin, is a terrific cinematic definition of what the word 'burlesque' means: 'a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. The word derives from the Italian burlesco, which itself derives from the Italian burla - a joke, ridicule or mockery.' This is a riot of color and good fun and sassy production numbers à la Bob Fosse. The story is predictable and silly and the script borders on mediocre, but with the talent of the cast, none of that matters!





Ali (Christine Aguilera) flees Iowa in hopes of a career in show biz and happens into a Sunset Strip Burlesque House run by 'still not down' Tess (Cher) who knows her business is failing, despite the solid help from her gay assistant Sean (Stanley Tucci) and the warnings of her ex- husband/partner Vince. Tess has problems with some of her lip-synching cast, namely Nikki (Kristen Bell), and is being hounded to sell her club to the wealthy boyfriend of Nikki - Marcus (Eric Dane). Ali observes, wants to be in the show, but is offered the job of waitress in the club by bartender/songwriter Jack (Cam Gigandet), a guy so kind that he shares his little flat with her. Ali is persistent and when given a chance to audition she gets into the cast. Her trump card is that she is such a terrific singer that she converts the club away from lip-synching into a full-blown song and dance place. Romance of course flutters in as do other little side funny episodes, but the main attractions are the glitzy stage numbers by a surprisingly fine Christina Aguilera and by Cher herself. It is all very corny and very wonderful entertainment. Definitely worth an evening's pleasure.