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Lazzaro is happy, all right, but is hevacuouslyhappy?
Is he meant to be an allegorical figure a simpleton saint?
Whoareall these sharecroppers with their 19th-century peasant courtship rituals and no evident connection to the outside world?
And why do they obey when the Marchesas underling says they cant leave Inviolata?
The answers come in the jarringly different second hour, but the heart ofHappy As Lazarrois in those hills.
Rohrwacher and her cinematographer, Helene Louvart, hide their art, as good neorealists do.
The poor, their innocence shattered, scam the rich.
The world is out of balance.
The only equilibrium is in Lazzaros face.
Tommaso Ragno is the middle-aged Tancredi, his frame filled out by sloth and dissipation.
For some reason, he likes what he sees.
