Senza parole (aka Wordless) is a 1996 short film (nine minutes) directed by Antonello de Leo.
Celestino is a dishwasher in a restaurant in some large Italian city. He isn't a foreigner, technically, coming from the town of Grumo Appula in the heel of the Italian boot. But he speaks an odd, broken form of Italian (probably Barese
, a form of the Italian dialect) in a thick accent, and he has problems making himself understood with his coworkers.
He meets a mute woman named Rosy at the restaurant. Celestino is instantly smitten with Rosy, and takes the initiative to learn sign language so he can understand what she's saying. Rosy tells her that she's only mute rather than deaf-mute, and he can speak with her normally. Embarrassed about his poor Italian skills, Celestino lies and says that he's mute too.
Tropes:
- Compartment Shot: A shot from inside a washing machine shows Rosy opening it up, as she does the restaurant's laundry. She then discovers Celestino's note inside the laundry bag.
- Country Mouse: Celestino is called a "country bumpkin" and his coworkers mock him for his bad Italian.
- Funetik Aksent: This wouldn't be necessary in the original Italian film, no doubt, but the English subtitles use this to get Celestino's poor grasp of Standard Italian across. The film opens with him on the toilet, yelling "Der ain't no crap paper!" A jerkass waiter brings him a roll but won't hand it over until Celestino can properly repeat "Toi-let pa-per."
- Funny Foreigner: He's not even really a foreigner! But the workers in the restaurant, who speak standard Italian, laugh at Celestino.
- Love at First Sight: Celestino is left stunned, his mouth open, at his first sight of Rosy. Before even asking her out he's buying sign language books.Celestino: I found da mudder of my kids.
- Obfuscating Disability: Rosy isn't mute at all. She has the same bad Italian skills that Celestino does, so she's been pretending to be mute.
- The Reveal: After admitting his deception Celestino is walking away in shame—when Rosy calls out to him. Rosy isn't a mute! She and Celestino speak the same dialect and in fact are from the same town! In order to avoid the sort of social embarrassment that Celestino has suffered, she's been pretending to be a mute.
- The Speechless: Rosy, who is a mute—or so Celestino thinks.
