Ciao, Professore!

For a time in the 1970s, Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller was the bee's knees of critical darlings — even managing to snare the admiration of that most hateful and hated critic John Simon (who makes Armond White look like a dilettante in the troll department). One wag even commented that had Wertmüller not existed, Simon would have had to invent her. But her period of greatness was short-lived. By the end of the decade, her luster had dimmed. Today, even her most famous works are rarely revived — which may or may not suggest that they were a little over-praised in the first place. She continued to work, but her popularity was long gone by 1992, when she made Ciao, Professore!, which was a calculated attempt to recapture her international filmmaker status. While it at least secured U.S. distribution, it hardly restored her reputation — probably because it was about as far removed from what we think of as a Lina Wertmüller film as possible. Taken on its own merits, Ciao, Professore! is a modestly entertaining movie of the "teacher who made a difference" school. It panders to every trope known to that sub-genre, and throws in the "hilarious" addition of 8-year-olds swearing — something wears out its amusement value by the fifth or sixth abitrary injection of "f**k." (This is worlds away from the creative vulgarity of Peter Bogdanovich's 1973 Paper Moon.) It's really little more than To Sir, with Love (1967) with subtitles, a hefty Italian star (Paolo Villagio), younger students, and more swearing. ... It's more or less inoffensive, but also predictable and uninspired. The premise is simple — due to a clerical error, Marco Sperelli (Villagio) ends up with a teaching position in a crummy, rundown school in an equally crummy, rundown town. While he's appalled by what he finds there and anxious for a transfer, he, of course, comes to care about his young charges and...I'm sure you can take it from there. [This review by Ken Hanke was originally published on Sept. 9, 2014.] Classic World Cinema by Courtyard Gallery will present Ciao, Professore! Friday, Sept. 9, at 8 p.m. at Phil Mechanic Studios (109 Roberts St., River Arts District, upstairs in the Railroad Library). Info: 828-273-3332, www.ashevillecourtyard.com