Happy as Lazzaro

 

I don't think there's much mystery why Alice Rohrwacher's superb 2018 film Happy as Lazzaro, streaming on Netflix, is so beguiling: it's the face of the movie's title character played by Adriano Tardiolo.
Tardiolo's face is always open and accepting, utterly free of guile or irony. He is by every indication a "good boy," as several other players tell us.
Lazzaro is a young peasant, of uncertain parentage, in a large extended family that works the Tuscan fields and flocks of an Italian noblewoman (Nicoletta Braschi). He labors steadily alongside the others, who take full advantage of his good nature, calling his name incessantly for help, which he offers without hesitation, especially to young mother Antonia (Agnes Graziani). Yes, a good boy.
His goodness leads him to befriend the marchesa's rootless and resentful son, Tancredi, played by Luca Chikovani, and to conceal the son's plot to fake his own abduction. The marchesa is indifferent to news of Tancredi's disappearance, giving attention only to the tobacco crops that sustain her wealth and keep the peasants tied to the land.
Rohrwacher's story is a mix of naturalism and fantasy, with the former rooting the first half of the film and the mystical taking flight in the second half. The presence of a lone howling wolf is a unifying element between the two sections of the film.
Some will no doubt find Happy as Lazzaro's message of innocence in the face of nearly universal cynicism and exploitation inspiring and energizing. Others might well wish the story offered Lazzaro more for his unflagging goodness. But maybe it was the young man's knowledge that goodness is its own reward that carried him through. Quite a lesson.