She, Her, Pro-vita and the Pope

Safe on his home turf, Pope Francesco wasted no time in telling the faithful about what he really thinks of gays and their old fashioned desire to get married. At this wek's synod, gay marriage was described as a nothing more than a"passing fad" by the pontif who still finds mature consenting adults in monogamous relationships a threat to the institute of marriage while paedophiles preying on vulnerable children and protected by a powerful tax exempt religious institution remain unworthy of papal comment let alone censure. The Pope's comments come after his promo turn of the U.S. was hijacked,  by a gatecrashing (now ex) mayor of Rome and the Kim "I'm a bigot get me out of here" Davis sideshow. Obviously the Vatican spin machine weren't quite expecting the social media shitstorm of biblical proportions that the clandestine meeting with Davis created as they were rather quick to follow up with the revelation that the Pope had also met with a gay couple as well. Oooh, wow what a cool dude he really is. This token gay person turned out to be the Pope's old student meaning that the whole story ended up looking like the Pope Frank version of the "some of my best friends are nig nogs so I can't be a racist"argument.

That groovy Pope Frank has shown his true conservative colours shouldn't come as any surprise. His comments after the Charlie Hebdo attack amounted to nothing less than special pleading for religious based terrorism, rather inconsistent for someone nominated for a peace prize and a far cry from turning the other cheek and all that other non violent engagement stuff that Jesus stood for. For many liberal non Catholics (gays included) Frank's appointment came as welcome relief after Ratzinger; finally here was a Pope who recognised that the world was massively unequal and threatened by climate change,  conveniently forgetting all about the institution he was head of and unlikely to change. The real surprise was actually the speed with which the Vatican hype machine tried to contain Davisgate, signalling both how keen they are to preserve the Pope's social media friendly image and how much they had under estimated the pro marriage sentiment. It will be interesting to see how much the Pope can sway the equal marriage debate here in Italy where it is far from a done deal. He certainly didn't need to go all the way to America to find idiot bigots to embrace, there are plenty of them here in Rome, including a group called Pro-vita (Pro-life) who have blanketed the capital with posters denouncing gay marriage (see photo left). Pro-vita say they are "defending the family and children" from tolerance and common sense it would seem, judging by the content of their billboards. Apart from getting all its references to the Constitution wrong, the biggest howler in this rabid piece of hateful propaganda is confusing equality with sameness. According to their poster, gay marriage is in conflict with the concept of equality because "different" situations should be treated "differently". This shit would be hilarious if it weren't so offensive. The group are also a little unsure as to weather they are talking about civil unions or gay marriage though it doesn't really matter as they believe that "almost" all the rights of co-habiting couples are already protected by law - complete and utter bullshit as anyone denied a say in their partner's medical treatment or basic succession or pension rights will tell you. Pro-vita (even the name sounds like a diet cracker which gives you the shits) argue that the new law will discriminate against cretins who want to express intolerance and bigotry on religious grounds and warns that marriage equality will teach people that the "unnatural" is"good".

It was against this background that I went to see Maria Sole Tognazzi's new film Io e Lei (Me and Her) a drama-dy featuring Margherita Buy (Mia madre) and Sabrina Ferilli (La grande bellezza) as a lesbian couple going through a crisis in their relationship. The film's opening sequence takes place at a Catholic christening as one of the main characters struggles with her public identity as an Italian gay woman conditioned by traditional expectations of family and church. While the film plays like a soft version of The Kids Are Alright (2010) albeit without all that messy sperm donor stuff, there is something admirable about two of Italy's most popular actresses taking on these roles and bringing their mainstream audience with them - maybe even winning over the odd Pro-vita supporter in the process. The Sunday afternoon screening I went to was a near capacity multiplex crowd and they clearly enjoyed the film. Io e Lei is hardly ground breaking and rather chaste with nothing more risque than a climactic kiss. What's more, like a lot of liberal issue cinema, it has its fair share of lifestyle porn with two wealthy protagonists living a life that few Romans can afford with nary a collapsing metro station ceiling in sight. It is a far cry from Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013) which was not only sexually frank but also made the salient point that working class gay women are under more pressure to conform. Despite Italy's revolutionary art house past, which includes the truly radical work of Pasolini (who gets an a tribute at this month's Rome Film Festival) Visconti and Bertolucci, Italian mainstream cinema is yet to reach its Philadelphia phase.

Io e Lei is a small step in the right direction though and Buy and Ferilli are an entertaining double act. It's a shame then that while the film is a pains to avoid stereotyping its central couple, a racial stereotype (lifted quite clearly from one of the director's father's films) is trotted out as comic relief. It seems you can't treat all people equally after all. Yes, signora, the women are kissing but at least they're white.