In Monday’s “Battle of the Sexes” blog post, I lamented the fact that leading men in billiards movies almost always play the role of the brash, cocksure hustler. A Paradise Without Billiards (original title: Ett Paradis Utan Biljard), a 1991 comedy from Sweden and Italy, appears to be an exception to this rule. I say “exception” because I have neither seen it nor been able to find it, which is why I inserted “[Wanted!]” into the title. If you can help me locate this movie, please contact me directly.
Ett Paradis Utan Biljard (Sweden)
Directed and written by Carlo Barsotti, an Italian who had lived in Sweden for 20 years when he made the movie, A Paradise Without Billiards is one among a number of movies that sought to depict the post-World War II immigration into Sweden as foreigners were lured by the prospect of plentiful jobs and a prosperous economy.
In this film, Giuseppe (representing the Italian immigrants) becomes enchanted by the idea of moving to Sweden after receiving a letter from his friend Franco, who immigrated to Sweden a year ago. While Giuseppe passes his time pleasantly eating, playing pool and having a little romance, he is poor and his existence is nothing compared to what Franco promises he’ll encounter in Sweden.
The Swedish film historian Rochelle Wright describes Franco’s depiction of Sweden in her book The Visible Wall: Jews and Other Ethnic Outsiders in Swedish Film:
Sweden is a virtual paradise. Wages are three times higher than they are in Italy, and housing and hospitalization are free. Unions and employers work together to solve conflicts, so there is no need to strike. In general, disagreements are settled amicably – Swedes only raise their voices when they are drunk. ..The girls are blond and beautiful, and they find dark men attractive…Only one thing is missing: Swedes do not play billiards.
But, as soon as Giuseppe takes the plunge and moves to Sweden, he finds it’s not quite the paradise he was promised. He is rudely treated at the border, the living conditions for immigrants are barracks, the jobs are in grim factories, the locals don’t appreciate Italians pursuing their women, and adding insult to injury, there is no ability to play billiards. This combination of pains ultimately presents a difficult choice: either conform fully or go back home. Whereas Franco chooses the former, shedding his Italian identity acculturating fully, Giuseppe opts for the latter and returns to Italy.
Ironically, A Paradise Without Billiards is a billiards movie that focuses more on the absence of billiards, rather than the playing of the game. According to Wright, this is because billiards is a “concrete manifestation of homesickness and what is missed in the homeland” and the billiards table, nonexistent in Sweden, is a “focus point…for fellowship and camaraderie,” the very elements that Giuseppe cannot find in the new country.
To return to my opening point, it is also a movie that makes no equation between billiards and hustling. In a welcome break from the traditional billiards movie storyline, billiards is about friendship and simple pleasures. Ultimately, billiards is about paradise. Now, there’s a story that could be told more often.
As mentioned, I have not been able to locate this movie anywhere, so I welcome your help. The trailer for the Italian version of the movie, Un Paradiso Senza Biliardo, is shown below.
