A Fragile Urban Ecology
Movie Review of 'The Venetian
Dilemma'
Volume IV, Issue 11 | March 17 - 23,
2005FILMTHE
VENETIAN DILEMMADirected by
Carole and Richard RifkinIn Italian
with English subtitlesParnassus
WorksFilm
ForumCOURTESY:
Parnassus WorksIn a scene from Venice that
may soon disappear due to increased tourism and over-development,
a covey of gondolas awaits passengers, as
seen in “The Venetian Dilemma.”
A Fragile Urban
EcologyFilmmakers
looks at tourism’s threat to Venice’s centuries-old way of
lifeBy SETH J.
BOOKEYPerhaps ever since its setting by
Shakespeare for one of his most enduring plays, Venice has been a worldwide
magnet for tourists. The influx, which has now reached record levels, creates
tensions between commercial interests in the tourism industry and the people who
actually live and work in the city of canals, whose lament for decades has been,
“Venice is sinking.” Some of the city’s aggrieved citizens are
organizing to change the policies of a municipal government that they complain
puts tourism concerns over the daily needs of
Venetians.Filmmakers Carole and Richard
Rifkind are New Yorkers who live part-time in Venice and their new documentary,
"The Venetian Dilemma," shows both sides of a long-simmering problem that some
Italian officials would rather not have spoken of publicly. The Rifkinds
interview citizens and public officials caught in the conundrum of wanting the
best for their city but not at the expense of losing their way of
life.A glimpse at some statistical
markers highlights the problem. In 1950, Venice had 174,000 residents and
500,000 annual visitors; today its population has dropped to 64,000, while the
pace of annual tourist visits has skyrocketed to 14 million. Two-thirds of the
city’s residents work in tourism-related businesses, but left behind are
people like Danilo Palmieri, a produce vendor, whose fruit and vegetable stand
has to compete with ever-expanding bars and their outdoor table
areas.Also neglected are working mothers
like Michela Scibilia, who is fighting to get the Venetian city government to
provide day-care facilities. Paolo Lanapoppi is a writer who spends his free
time fighting to control the speed of motorboats, whose rough wakes damage the
fragile foundations of the landmark buildings lining Venice’s innumerable
canals.The film focuses on the pros and
cons of a municipal plan to diversify the city’s economic base by
developing the derelict Arsenale region, a former ship-building location, and
digging an underwater tunnel that for a subway connecting the city to the
mainland. Roberto D'Agostino, a charismatic deputy mayor, speaks convincingly of
the important urban development projects that would "bring Venice into the 21st
century," including projects like a convention center, a high-speed train link
to the airport on the mainland and other modernization efforts.
Opponents of these plans have their
doubts, though––doubts that the promised jobs will happen, and
doubts that these plans will do anything other than bring more tourists to
Venice, faster than ever before. The long-time residents are concerned out of
love for their city. As one woman points out, unlike Padua and Vincenza, two
mainland cities, Venice’s slower pace and idiosyncratic ways are what
makes the city unique. The Rifkinds help
these longtime residents make their point in part by the way they use their
camera. Palmieri, the produce vendor, tells how most of the people he grew up
with have moved elsewhere, and also talks about what growing up there was like,
as the camera shows schoolboys trying to play soccer in a piazza area shrunk by
the al fresco bars that ring it. Palmieri counts all the new bars that have
opened in the immediate area of his produce stands that now sit alone among
them. The bars, he explains, are run by managers, not owners, and cater more to
tourists and university students than longtime
residents.Others Venetians interviewed claim
that the decision 30 years ago to shut down heavy industry in the Arsenale was a
plot to turn Venice into more of a theme park than a real
city.Venice, a city of canals that sits
below sea level, may be unique among the world's great cities, but the Rifkinds,
who dedicate their film "to people everywhere who love their city," explore
themes that apply to any urban area facing change and redevelopment. Just think
about the prospect of a sports stadium transforming Manhattan’s far West
Side or an Ikea disrupting a residential neighborhood in Brooklyn’s Red
Hook.“The Venetian Dilemma"
celebrates what makes Venice distinctive, and how tourism run amok can diminish
it into a massive work of staged urban theater. At its core, the film shows us
regular people trying to maintain a viable quality of life in the face of grand
civic schemes that offer no guarantees they will work.
Posted: Thu - March 17, 2005 at 10:55 PM
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Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:04 PM
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