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Italian/American Performance Style in My
Cousin Vinny and Jungle
Fever In her article, “The
Essence of the Triangle or, Taking the Risk of Essentialism Seriously:
Feminist Theory in Italy, the U.S., and Britain,” Philosopher Teresa DeLauretis
calls for American feminists to acknowledge their object-centered position
contextualizing women in relation to men as opposed to women in relation to
each other. Ethnographers George Marcus and Michael Fischer claim in their
book Anthropology as Cultural Critique
that ethnography is a cultural critique made by observers from their
subjective experiential worldview. These theorists, in challenging these operating
values, thus join personal accountability to the researchers’ definition of
the self being studied. I define the self in
this article as the Italian/American self, seeking further how that self
translates in performance is based on the assertions of DeLauretis and Marcus
and Fischer. The essentialist argument proposed by DeLauretis is that by
taking a subject-centered position, researchers must argue for what they
are, not comparatively or “in relation to.” The post-modern position taken by
Marcus and Fischer introduces the concept of personhood, “the grounds of
human capabilities and actions, ideas about the self and the expression of
emotion” (45). Personhood, a tool intended to yield cultural understanding,
allows indigenes to share their cultural experience as they understand it. To
begin, I would like to share two examples that illustrate that some Italian/American
performers use their ethnicity to inform their performance style. In Scent of a Woman, Al Pacino starred as
an intimidating Anglo/American former military officer. He barks orders at
his family members, his new friend and caretaker, and finally at a high
school disciplinary board. When Pacino received an academy award for his
performance in Scent of a Woman, he
acknowledged his roots—being raised in an Italian/American neighborhood in
the South Bronx. Even though, ironically, Al Pacino never won an award for
portraying an Italian American, I experience his Italian Americanness in his
work. For me, it was implausible to imagine Pacino as a white military
officer. In the film, his interactions with others and his characterization
are essentially Italian American, rather than being white. Being Italian
American implies having and displaying a unique set of behaviors that are
based on Italian/American cultural experience. Being “white” implies the
Protestant ethics of having and maintaining emotional control at all times.
The dramatic, emotive qualities in Pacino’s portrayal oppose Anglo/American
communication style. He was bringing his ethnicity to a completely white
role. The term “olive” has been used by several Italian/American writers and
critics to distinguish Italian Americans from Anglo Americans. Such a
distinction refers to the olive complexion (particularly of southern
Italians) as well as to a host of accompanying behaviors. Another case in point
of an Italian American portraying a white person would be Marisa Tomei’s
performance in Untamed Heart. Tomei
portrays a midwestern misfit who gets involved with a co-worker, also a
misfit, who has a heart condition. Again, while Tomei portrays a white woman
in this movie, she brings her ethnicity into the film. In my opinion, her
ethnicity completely changes the complexion of this film from what might have
been a trite simplistic romance to something deeper and more powerful. She
adds an emotional depth and dimension to the role, which again, I understand
as Italian American. Viewing Pacino’s and
Tomei’s performances has led me to question how Italian/American ethnicity
informs performance style. However, these aforementioned examples are comparative—looking
at Italian Americans in non Italian/American portrayals. I would like to
limit this discussion to two films that represent Italian/American culture, My Cousin Vinny and Jungle Fever. Examining Italian
Americans portraying Italian Americans is a starting point for discussion and
formation of Italian/American performance style. I have selected these two
movies because they are not tainted by predictable Mafia themes, but instead
give some degree of insight into Italian/American performance style. Prior to
talking about these movies, I would like to give some background information
about a current paradigm in performance studies, a faction of the Speech
Communication discipline, known as “performative ethnography” because the
work of performative ethnographers has fueled my interest as a playwright who
writes from her cultural experience. After integrating my subject-centered
approach with performative ethnography or cultural per-formance, I will
describe my understanding of being Italian American, what is meant by Italian/American
performance style. Finally, I will illustrate Italian/American performance
style in My Cousin Vinny and Jungle Fever. Performative Ethnography Performance Studies,
often referred to as “Oral Interpretation” took a turn in the 1980s. As a means
of asserting the place of Performance Studies in the discipline,
Communication scholars theorized that all communication acts are acts of
performance (Pelias and VanOosting). To study performance acts implies a
study of communication acts and vice versa. One by-product of this tenet is
an argument created by a variety of anthropologists and performance studies
scholars known as performative ethnography or cultural performance, where
performers and ethnographers (anthropological researchers who study culture)
represent a cultural group through embodiment (Conquergood; Schechner;
Turner). A primary intention of performative ethnography was to confront the
hegemony of positivism by demonstrating that performance is a methodology
and an alternative to traditional ethnographic discursive strategies. Absent
from this formula of performative ethnography, where the performer embodies
a culture or a culture is represented through performance, is the cultural
member. While these theorists have taken great pains to work out the
intricacies of performative ethnography only for those individuals who have
not been a cultural member, the notion of a cultural member embodying his/her
own culture has been overlooked. The “other,” a term commonly used to
capture the experience of a cultural member, undermines individuals with the
skills and the ability to render their own cultural experiences. I struggled
with this issue while writing a dissertation that demonstrates how creative
writers can represent their own cultural experience. In my attempt to explain
being Sicilian American through a variety of self-authored short stories and
texts, I was struck by the insensitivity of the two disciplines ignoring
that members may actually have the key to explaining their experiences. I
was also struck by the lack of information on the experiential understanding
and knowingness of being ethnic, and in my case, of being Italian American.
Such methodological insensitivity coupled with a lack of information about my
beingness aggravated by the stereotyping of Italian Americans in the media
as fighters or lovers has only intensified my feelings of marginalization. Turning away from
this “other” to the self, seeking answers for one’s own creative expressions
as cultural manifestations, I have developed a profile of the
Italian/American persona, derived from a variety of anthropological and
sociological sources, but primarily and
fundamentally from my experience of being Italian American. Italian
American here refers to individuals of southern Italian descent, the segment
of the Italian/American population depicted in most American films. I will
present this profile as criteria for demonstrating Italian/American
performance style. Italian
Americanness and The Italian/American
traits I wish to render are those which dominate my own cultural
understanding. While there are numerous behavioral traits of both northern
and southern Italians, the traits I discuss are specific to my understanding of
Sicilian and Sicilian/American culture. The Italian/American (southern Italian/American)
persona is distinguished by three traits—mistrust, fatalism, and
emotionalism. Mistrust is a lack of faith, belief, or confidence in others.
The fear that others are out to inflict harm stems from the history of
Sicily, which was invaded by numerous countries throughout its history.
Joseph Lopreato captures this lack of trust in his study of Sicilian
folklore. Lopreato uncovers rules of conduct present in the folktales. One
such rule is, “One never trusts others, for in trusting, one is bound to be
chastised” (116). Luigi Barzini explains mistrust through the Italian expression
“non farsi far fesso,” or never be made a fool. The “fesso” can be deceived
or bribed but is also one who obeys laws and pays taxes. Mistrust often
manifests itself as cynicism or silence. As mistrusting cynics, Italian
Americans might seem belligerent and inflexible to non-members. Actually,
this guarded behavior allows them to proceed through all interactions with
great caution. Another form of
mistrust is silence. Archeologist Ann Cornelisen, author of Women of the Shadows, observed the
women who worked the fields, cultivating Sicily’s farmland. Cornelisen, after
twenty years of study, began to understand something about these Sicilian
women that other sociologists and ethnographers have misunderstood—silence.
The women of the fields, considered “dour” and “crude” by outside
professionals studying the Sicilian culture, remained silent to those
outsiders. Cornelisen explains this silence: Tradition requires
that they offer what hospitality they can afford and they do with great
dignity, but their confidence comes slowly. Too often, they have learned, it
is a mistake to trust. (224) The
silence and mistrust of these women can be traced not only to the invasions
but to the poverty resulting from the invasions. Poverty gives little
recourse and silence becomes an instinctual defense, a coping strategy that
works on the assumption that others are out to cause harm. Also, the Mafia
operates through “omertà” the code of silence as a measure of protection from
outsiders. Fatalism, an
assumption that the worst will occur, also has its roots in the invasions. It
is a feeling of hopelessness that one will never surmount obstacles. Fatalism
often appears in the posturing of victim. In his book, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society, Edward Banfield describes
the fatalistic attitude and accompanying negativity among southern Italians.
Banfield writes, The southern
Italian is a despairing fatalist. He sic
believes that the situation is hopeless and the only sensible course is to
accept patiently and resignedly the catastrophes that are in store. (65) Fatalism
and mistrust are a powerfully negative combination that, when combined with
emotionalism, the third trait, create a highly combustible persona. With emotionalism, an
open expression of one’s feelings, interactions seem either candid and
direct or reactive. The traits of mistrust and fatalism converge as
preparation for verbal, openly expressive, snake-bitingly candid, reactive
combat. Otherwise, the candid, openly expressive manner of Italian Americans
invites personal disclosures from others. These disclosures are fuel for
future combat. Accepting this
profile as a foundation for understanding Italian Americanness,
Italian/American performance style can be determined by evaluating how
performers use this knowledge in their ethnic portrayals. Performance,
according to Richard Bauman, “suggests an aesthetically marked and heightened
mode of communication, framed in a special way and put on display for an
audience” (41). Extending this definition, performance style means a manner
or way of being in performance which would suggest an aesthetically marked
and heightened mode of communication. Italian/American performance style
means infusing a performance with the Italian/American persona. Performers
verbally and non- verbally embody a “highly combustible” persona in their
performances fueled by the traits of mistrust, fatalism, and emotionalism. Given this profile,
nonverbal and verbal behaviors that identify Italian/American performance
style include the following: 1. A hopelessness
about one’s place in the world. 2.
Emotionally-charged interactions with others. While parts of the
movie scripts of My Cousin Vinny
and Jungle Fever lend themselves to
the identification of the persona and this criteria, the delivery or mode of
communication distinguishes Italian/American performance style. A marked difference
in delivery exists when non Italian Americans portray Italian Americans.
Two such examples include Cher’s portrayal of an Italian/ American woman in Moonstruck and Matt Dillon’s portrayal
of an Italian/American man in Mr.
Wonderful. In both cases, these performers attempt to embody what they
perceive as Italian/American communication style, yet I experience these
portrayals as inauthentic. Being Italian American means more than waving
one’s hands furiously, emoting vocally, and seeming overly dramatic.
Authentic portrayals require a deeper understanding of the culture, an
understanding that some Italian/American performers are able to communicate
to an audience. My
Cousin Vinny In My Cousin Vinny, Vinny Gambini (Joe
Pesci) ventures to Alabama, bringing his fiancée, Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa
Tomei), to defend his first lawsuit, a murder charge brought against his
cousin. In this movie, driven by the comedic clash of cultures between the
Brooklynese and the southerners, Pesci and Tomei successfully demonstrate
Italian/American performance style. Throughout the movie, Vinny and Mona Lisa
antagonize one another. She doubts his ability to win the lawsuit, and he
doubts her ability to assist him. A marked contrast between movies made
portraying the dominant culture where men are supported by their women or
where women may buck slightly before yielding to their men, Mona Lisa and
Vinny barely budge towards being supportive of each other. The moment we meet
Vinny and Mona Lisa, they are lovingly snipping at one another. He arrives in
town, gets out of his car, and criticizes her for not fitting in: Mona Lisa: What? Vinny: Nothing. You stick out like a sore
thumb around here. Mona Lisa: Me? What about you? Vinny: I fit in better than you. At least,
I’m wearing cowboy boots. Mona Lisa: Oh yeah, you blend. Throughout
the movie, Vinny and Mona Lisa play off each other with antagonism. Yet, we
know as an audience that these characters are made for one another. It is a
new romantic precedent. They offer no support to each other, have little
faith in one another, but there is complete love between them. Not only do
Vinny and Mona Lisa react to each other, they invite emotionally charged
interactions with members of the community. In particular, Vinny’s delivery
attempts to engage a variety of community members that include a cook, a
judge, and a pool hall habitue. To the cook who scoops a pile of lard onto
the grill, Vinny invites conflict by saying, “Excuse me, you guys hear about
the on-going cholesterol problem in the country?” When the judge asks Vinny
to stand up while addressing him, Vinny accusingly points to the policeman
who led him into the courtroom and argues, “Well, he told me to sit here.”
When Vinny discovers that Mona Lisa has been “stiffed” over a game of pool,
Vinny confronts the man who refused to pay: Vinny: Do I have to kill you? What if I
was just to kick the ever-loving shit out of you. Man: In your dreams. Vinny: No, in reality. If I was to kick
the shit out of you, would I get the money? As
a result of Vinny’s attempts to create emotionally-charged interactions
between himself and southern community members, Vinny appears informal and
lacks both credibility and confidence. For example, Mona Lisa criticizes
Vinny after bailing him out of jail for his unprofessional conduct in the
courtroom: Mona Lisa: You got one huge
responsibility taking on this murder case. You screw up and those boys get
fried. Vinny: I know. Mona Lisa: So, you think you know what
you’re doing? Vinny: Yeah, I think I know what I’m
doing. Mona Lisa: Cause you didn’t look like you
knew what you were doing in that courtroom. While
these aforementioned lines could be read and interpreted several ways, Pesci
and Tomei interpret and perform them as Italian Americans. For example, there
are ways these lines could be interpreted that would make a huge difference
in the movie. Example 1 serves as an illustration of how non Italian
Americans might interpret and perform these lines, while Example 2 demonstrates
how Pesci and Tomei interpret these lines: EXAMPLE 1 Mona Lisa: (supportively, concerned,
almost subdued) You got one huge responsibility taking on this murder case.
You screw up and those boys get fried. Vinny: (silently, scared, upset) I know. Mona Lisa: (asking gently to see how
Vinny feels) So, you think you know what you’re doing? Vinny: (responding confidently
understanding her concern) Yeah, I think I know what I’m doing. Mona Lisa: (calmly, supportively,
attempting to get at Vinny’s true feelings) Cause you didn’t look like you
knew what you were doing in that courtroom. EXAMPLE 2 Tomei: (confrontationally, pointing out
Vinny’s failure to invite a charged interaction) You got one huge responsibility
taking on this murder case. You screw up and those boys get fried. Pesci: (angrily) I know. Tomei: (antagonistically, inviting
conflict) So you think you know what you’re doing? Pesci: (mimicking her, sing-songy as an
antagonistic response) Yeah, I think I know what I’m doing. Tomei: (invalidating him, more
antagonistically) Cause you don’t look like you know what you were doing in
that courtroom. Pesci and Tomei
demonstrate the Italian/American persona through their performances in My Cousin Vinny. Their skillful understanding
and embodiment of their own ethnicity makes this movie compelling and
authentic. The comedy thrives through their authentic ethnic portrayals. Non
Italian/American performers might err into a variety of pitfalls that Tomei
and Pesci skillfully avoid. The antagonism between Vinny and Lisa could be
portrayed as hate, dislike, or dissatisfaction with the relationship. Tomei
and Pesci know how to balance the traits of mistrust for one another so they
appear as caring versus unfeeling traits. Another pitfall might be to assume
a negative outcome in a melodramatic fashion. Pesci and Tomei show the
negative out come as an expectation, so they do not spend unnecessary time
displaying their fear of failure. Reaction or emotionalism might be exaggerated
by non Italian Americans. Exaggeration of expressions reduces the authentic
sense of portraying Italian Americans. Tomei and Pesci know when and how to
react so they seem to be responding genuinely. Over-response or
under-response would seem unnatural. Tomei and Pesci have a sense of this
distinction. The two criteria that
distinguish Italian/American performance style, hopelessness and
emotionally-charged interactions, are emphasized repeatedly throughout My Cousin Vinnie. Jungle
Fever Unlike My Cousin Vinny, Jungle Fever shows
another side of the Italian/American persona. In Jungle Fever, Angela Tucci (Anna-bella Sciorra) works as a
temporary secretary for an architectural firm. She gets romantically involved
with a married African/ American architect. While the story revolves
primarily around the experiences of the architect, a sub-plot appears as
Angie and her boyfriend Paulie (John Turturro) attempt to get out of their
bigoted, small-minded, painful neighborhood. Angie gets beaten up,
ostracized, and thrown out of her house when her father learns of her
romance. Paulie, meanwhile, tries desperately to escape from the clutches of
his overprotective father and a group of macho bigots who frequent the
neighborhood store where he works. Both characters seem trapped by their circumstances,
but it is their attempts to reach beyond the neighborhood that add the
element of tragedy to the movie. Jungle Fever
is surrounded by Angie’s and Paulie’s silence and despair. Angie works
over-time despite her insecure position in the work force. In the evening,
she tends to her father and her two brothers. Her only outlet appears to be
her relationship with Paulie. Like Angie, Paulie works long days managing a
small store and tending to his father in the evening. Both characters have
sad, despairing, painful lives. They seem trapped by their circumstances.
Sciorra and Turturro portray these characters as gentle, polite, lacking in
confidence, and not having the ability to fight back or stand up to their
families or friends. For example, Paulie reads a book over the counter when a
customer, Vinny, enters and challenges him: Vinny: You’re always readin’. What’s with
this readin’? Some guy makes up some story—fuck him. It’s a waste of time.
Tell me one thing I don’t know that’s important. Paulie: I’m reading this story right
here. Vinny: So what. Angie
and Paulie’s inability to fight back or engage in emotionally-charged
interactions with their friends and families results in an ironic twist.
Instead of engaging with other cultural members, they engage by getting
involved in emotionally-charged relationships with individuals from another
race. Their actions constitute charged behavior not only because their
partners are black but precisely because their partners are black. In this
sense, one might see a nexus between two groups of color: blacks and
“olives.” This notwithstanding and while it seems that Angie and Paulie are
ostracized for their interracial relationships, they are actually ostracized
for their inability to engage in emotionally charged interactions or their
inability to communicate as Italian Americans. Even when Angie breaks up with
Paulie, neither character attempts to engage in an openly expressive manner.
Instead, the scene is slow, silent, and painful: Angie: Paulie, sit down. Paulie: Alright. Angie: We’ve been going out for a long
time, Paulie. Paulie: Yeah. Angie: Paulie, I care about you too much
to bullshit you but, uh, I need to get away from here, as far as possible,
and I want to get out of here. Paulie: I don’t understand. What? Are you
moving? Angie: (hands him his ring off her
finger) Paulie, please. Paulie: What is this about? This is about
something else. Is there something else you want to tell me? Director
Spike Lee’s decision to single out members of the Italian/American community
to participate in a movie about interracial relationships between “whites
and blacks” was not coincidental. Lee recognized the pathetic, despairing,
hopeless traits of Italian/American cultural members. He purposely selected
Italian/American performers to create the sympathetic characters of Angie
and Paulie. Through their silent, despairing embodiment, Sciorra and Turturro
render authentic Italian/American characters. Sciorra, in particular, has
the extra chore of being true to the Italian Americanness of Angie even when
Lee makes decisions for her to behave out of character. For example, it seems
unlikely that an Italian/American female like Angie, who goes through life
with such hopelessness and low self-esteem, would willingly have sexual
intercourse on an architect table with someone she hardly knows. In Jungle Fever, Sciorra and Turturro
must take great care not to overplay their roles and appear melodramatic.
They lend their understanding of their culture to render authentically and embody
fully the Italian/American characters of Angie and Paulie. Conclusions With my own
knowingness of being Italian American, I have attempted here to demonstrate
the presence of an Italian/American performance style, which is comprised of
the Italian/American persona profile, that includes the characteristics of
mistrust, fatalism, and emotionalism thjat translate into the behaviors of
hopelessness and emotionally-charged interactions with others. Ethnicity
informs performance as illustrated in My
Cousin Vinny and Jungle Fever.
To explore further Italian/American performance style, a study of
Italian/American performers portraying non Italian Americans might give
additional insight into the argument created here. Furthermore, non Italian
Americans who have portrayed Italian Americans should be studied for
possible pitfalls. Pitfalls of non Italian/American actors, as already
mentioned above include the risks of stereotyped, melodramatic, exaggerated
performances. Purdue University Calumet Works Cited Banfield, Edward. The Moral Basis of a Backward Society.
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Dwight. “Performing as a Moral Act: Ethical Dimensions of the Ethnography of
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Books, 1977. De Lauretis,
Teresa. “The Essence of the Triangle or, Taking the Risk of Essentialism
Seriously: Feminist Theory in Italy, the U.S. and Britain.” Differences: A Journal of Feminist
Cultural Studies 1.2 (1989): 3–35. Lopreato, Joseph. Peasants No More. San Francisco:
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Michael Fischer. Anthropology as
Cultural Critique. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1986. Pelias, Ronald, and
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