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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows the clash between Josie (Pia Miranda) and her grandmother Nonna Katia (Elena Cotta) over values and culture. On her way to her grandmother’s house after school, Josie imagines the local street is full of elderly Italian women whom she calls 'Nonna’s spy ring’. At Katia’s house the two have a heated exchange that ends with Katia ordering Josie to leave. At the front door Josie encounters Michael (Anthony LaPaglia) who, although she has not previously met him, is her father. The clip includes music and Josie’s voice-over narration.

Educational value points

• The clip shows how exaggeration can be used in film for comic effect. A succession of black-clothed Italian women on the street are depicted through Josie’s eyes as being part of 'Nonna’s spy ring’, armed with mobile phones to report her movements or hidden cameras to take surveillance photographs. Newspaper banners such as 'BLACK WIDOW SPY RING CLOSES IN’ report the success of the surveillance, while Josie’s narration is full of overstatements.

• The first half of the clip humorously draws attention to the self-absorption, common in adolescence, of someone who believes the world revolves around them. Josie’s subjective voice-over guides the audience through a scene in which she believes that her every action is observed and, by implication, judged.

• Tensions that can exist between generations as a result of changes in fashions or modes of behaviour are highlighted in the clip. Josie’s hair, fashionable to her, is a mess in her grandmother’s eyes. Similarly, Josie’s blunt language (for example, 'Nonna I’m not eating. Do you understand English!’), aggressive body language and general irritability are seen by her grandmother as showing lack of respect. Conversely, Josie sees Katia’s complaints as nagging.

• The use of both Italian and English in the clip symbolises the different cultures that the two women inhabit. Although Katia and Josie understand both languages, they use the one with which they are most comfortable, only making use of the other for emphasis. For example, their last exchange ends when Katia says, in English, 'Go home Josie, I do not want you here’. Ultimately, as Katia suggests, their relationship is one of misinterpretation.

• Early scenes in films can indicate future plot developments, as this clip shows. The extreme and prolonged close-up of Katia’s stony face after Josie says she has 'cursed’ her daughter Christina implies that Josie has touched a raw nerve, and later the film reveals Christina is the product of an extra-marital affair.

• Film and acting techniques used to convey tension between characters are illustrated in this clip. When Josie arrives she barely acknowledges her grandmother, looks down or away to avoid her gaze and leaves her headphones on. The camera follows her as she continually moves from room to room, seemingly to evade Katia. They come face to face during the final heated confrontation, when the camera cuts between extreme close-ups of each of them.

This clip starts approximately 18 minutes into the feature.

We see Josie walking up the street and a woman runs out of the delicatessen on the other side of the busy road waving and yelling at Josie for her attention. Josie rolls her eyes and waves back at her. Josie joins the woman on the same side of the road and we see the woman holding Josie’s face and kissing her cheeks with affection. Josie screws her face up.
Josie (voice-over) The ritual of having to go to my Nonna’s every afternoon drives me insane.

Josie is inside a shop buying an ice-cream from the shopkeeper.
Josie So I try to dawdle.

As Josie walks out of the shop door, an old lady enters the shop and turns around watching Josie’s every move. Her brooch flashes like a camera and takes snapshots of Josie walking away from the shop eating her ice-cream looking back at the old lady. The old lady is seen walking out of the shop and talking into her jacket like a spy.
Josie But there’s always Nonna’s spy ring.

We see another woman walk past talking on the phone and looking towards Josie. An old lady is sitting on a bench watching Josie walk away and another woman pretends to read the newspaper but it has two peeping holes cut out of the front of the newspaper and she uses this to spy on Josie.
Josie It’s the biggest and most thorough in the Southern Hemisphere.

A school boy crosses the street, smoking a cigarette and joins Josie walking up the street.
Schoolboy Hey Josie.

The woman sitting on the bench and holding the newspaper spying on Josie sees the boy and she slowly puts her newspaper down to get a better look at what is happening with Josie and the boy.
Josie It usually takes them anywhere between 18 minutes and two days to get back to her.
A camera flashes and takes photos of Josie and the boy as they walk up the street. Josie takes a puff of the boy’s cigarette and looks back at the lady spying on her. The boy and Josie walk around the corner and a black car full of men stops to pick them up. The two old ladies take a peek from behind the shop. One lady is on the phone and the other is taking photographs of Josie as she hops into the front passenger side.
Josie You know once it only took them 12 minutes because three of Nonna’s CIA operatives were in the same house having a Bessemer party.

We see a shot of several newspaper advertisements on a shop front. One of the old ladies spying on Josie dials a number on her mobile and starts talking.
Josie Phone companies would go broke if it wasn’t for the Italians.

The sound of a phone ringing and we see Nonna in her house talking on the phone and speaking in Italian. The front door closes and we see Josie walking into Nonna’s home after school. She waves hello to her Nonna and walks past her. Josie opens the fridge and grabs some drinks. Nonna picks up some placemats and places them on the dining table.
Josie I’m not hungry. It’s too hot.
Nonna When you go to McDonald’s you are always hungry.
Josie Nonna! I’m not eating. Do you understand English?!
Nonna I was taught to speak English before your mother was born. (Speaks Italian). Why you cannot be like Roberto I never understand.
Josie You just wish he was your grandson.
Nonna (in Italian) Look at your hair.
Josie It’s the fashion! I’m putting the air-conditioning on, I’m dying!
Josie makes her way to the living room, turns the air-conditioning on and sits on a couch. Nonna speaks in Italian and follows Josie to the living room and turns the air-conditioning off. Nonna grabs Josie’s arm and pulls her up off the couch.
Nonna (in Italian) Who do you belong to?
Josie Who do you think I belong to? Go on, who? Yeah, I bet you wish I didn’t belong to you.
Josie storms off and leaves Nonna standing there.
Nonna You misinterpet everything!
Josie goes to another couch in the other living room and plonks herself on it, sighing deeply.
Josie It’s misinterpret!
Nonna (in Italian) What did I do to deserve a grand-daughter and a daughter who talk to me like I’m a dog in the street?
Josie Don’t bring Mama into this. She’s good to you Nonna. You just nag her to death.
Nonna (in Italian) I am an old woman and I deserve respect. Go and get me my tablets. You’ve given me a headache already!
Josie gets up off the couch, storms into the kitchen and grabs a glass from one of the cupboards.
Nonna (in Italian) You are cursed this way because of Christina. All the curses come from the mother.
Josie walks towards her Nonna and puts the glass on the dining table, staring into Nonna’s eyes.
Josie (in Italian) So that’s why Mama’s life turned out the way it has because of her mother.
Nonna raises her hand as if to slap Josie in anger, but then puts her hand down. Josie squints expecting to be hit by Nonna.
Nonna Go home Josie. I do not want you here.

Josie leaves the kitchen and opens the front door ready to leave. But she is startled by Michael Andretti who is standing outside the front door. Nonna follows Josie to the front door. She is happy to see him. Nonna speaks in Italian greeting Michael and Michael speaks in Italian back to Nonna and kisses her twice on the cheek.