Two Cents Worth of Hope
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
This review is a part of the Palme d’Or Project: a review of every single Palme d’Or winner at Cannes Film Festival. This is a Grand Prix winner: what the Palme d’Or was originally called before 1955. Two Cents Worth of Hope won the Grand Prix award in 1952, which it shared with Othello.
The film was selected by the following jury.
Jury President: Maurice Genevoix.
Jury: André Lang, Chapelain-Midy, Charles Vildrac, Evrard De Rouvre, Gabrielle Dorziat, Georges Raguis, Guy Desson, Jacques-Pierre Frogerais, Jean Dréville, Jean Mineur, Louis Chauvet, Madame Georges Bidault, Pierre Billon, Raymond Queneau, Tony Aubin.
After the 40s and early 50s, Italian neorealism was set in stone as a wave of cinema that was palpable and moldable. The fundamentals were set: where could directors go with these visions? There's always the comedic route, and that's the topic of discussion regarding Renato Castellani's Two Cents Worth of Hope: do neorealist comedies work? The answer is yes, but like any other genre, style, or movement, everything is contextual. I like a lot of neorealist comedies, but I do have to wonder if Two Cents Worth of Hope was maybe a lot funnier or wittier for its time. When I think of neorealist comedies and the genre’s offshoots, something like the ruthless Divorce Italian Style comes to mind: persistent, scathing, witty hilarity. Two Cents Worth of Hope is fun, but it isn't quite as daring as what the blend of these voices would once become.
Here we have a pair of lovers, where the female (Carmela) strives to win over the stubborn man (Antonio) via the proving of self worth (as a woman of desire). Antonio then tries to accomplish the same through the securing of job based security. This is a one-noted kind of relationship that is obviously intentionally vapid (what better purposes do people serve other than to benefit one another as providers?), but it's also been done better (Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd made entire filmographies doing this sort of thing, and this was decades before and mostly accomplished in the silent era; you can apply this logic to a number of films and filmmakers that came after). Nonetheless, there is an interest in the neorealist angle of such a gimmick: a misappropriation of the values of people when everyone is striving for a better life.
While not as strong of a blend as it could have been, Two Cents Worth of Hope has enough neorealist and comedic stylings to at least carry a large personality.
What isn't profound is instead charming and full of character with Two Cents Worth of Hope, and at least this film has personality in spades. Acting staple Maria Fiore pairs up nicely with Vincenzo Musolino, and the one-time actress Filomena Russo (acting as Antonio's mother) steals the entire picture when she wants to. This is a bombastic, lighter take on the more serious financial and class-based themes that neorealism tackles more directly, but there is enough seriousness here to also try and round out what is going on. We've been blessed before and since with even stronger depictions of couples struggling to get by in their own idiosyncratic ways, but Two Cents Worth of Hope seems harmless enough that it may be your thing (even if it doesn't leave a lasting impression).
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.