On the Seriousness of Things: Pirandello’s <i>Ma non è una cosa seria</i> from Page to Screen

A study of Mario Camerini’s Ma non è una cosa seria (But It’s Nothing Serious [1936]), a film based on Luigi Pirandello’s eponymous 1918 play and typical of the 1930s Italian romantic comedy genre, elucidates the transformations that a literary conception undergoes when adapted for the screen, especially as those reflect the historical context of the film’s making. The challenge for the filmmaker when working on a literary adaptation for popular consumption is to identify the cinematic strategies most suitable to render a psychologically and philosophically nuanced discourse, such as Pirandello’s, appealing to a mass audience in search of diversion. Camerini’s film also exemplifies that unique moment in Italian culture when the Fascist government took decisive measures to strengthen the film industry, promoting the expansion of popular genres in the style of classical Hollywood cinema. Camerini, therefore, works on three fronts: to convey literariness, to apply a sophisticated system of popular filmic representation, and to sustain, if subtly, some Fascist cultural ideals. A reading of the 1918 play with respect to Pirandello’s theory of umorismo questions the seriousness of the legal status of marriage, which in Pirandellian terms we may describe as an ideal construct or “fiction.” While this notion informs also the film’s fundamental thematic layer, Camerini modifies parts of the plot and deftly applies the techniques of classical cinema to convey Pirandellian humour specifically through cinematic means, placing emphasis on the identity of the male protagonist, which here takes the form of a visually vibrant array of diverse identity constructs. At the same time, through a graceful coordination of camera work and mise-en-scène, Camerini communicates the Fascist ideal of Italy as a modern and affluent nation but also one that preserves its traditional values.