The Movie

When she was a little girl, a gypsy fortune-teller told Mary Mirabito Livornese Cavaliere that she would live to be 96 years old. Cut to 1995, the year in which the Sicilian-American matriarch of her ganse mishpuche reached her 96th birthday. Grandson and filmmaker Alex Halpern decided to grab a camera and document the life of his colorful grandmother, whom he affectionately refers to as "Nana", during the year of her prophesized demise.

And what a life! Filmed in 1995, Nine Good Teeth is a vivacious and often hilarious document depicting Nana's biography, from her earliest childhood memories growing up in Brooklyn to her contemporary lifestyle as a near-centenarian with a wealth of anecdotes, stories, and wisdom. Her story plays out with equal parts laughter and sadness, but throughout the film she maintains a rock-like demeanor of cool wisdom and strength. Her "matter of fact" attitude towards life, death, and family, her fount of colorful and entertaining stories featuring a host of interesting and sometimes shady characters, as well as a rather randy admission that I won't repeat here, all present a fascinating portrait of a woman whose sheer force of attitude and character easily elevates her from "just another old woman with a bunch of stories" to an eminently fascinating person.

The documentary was shot in 1995, but features copious amounts of footage filmed throughout Nana's life as well. Using this footage alongside old photographs and interviews with other surviving family members (including sisters, nephews, and most prominently her daughter Maria Livornese Halpern), Alex Halpern delivers a compelling portrait of a woman adored, admired, and just a little bit feared by her entire family. The film presents stories of love, heartbreak, infidelity, mob violence, dalliances with Jack Kerouac, death, defiance, and the rather unsurprising yet always welcome message that the secret of life is simply pissing in death's eye. The but-gusting "fakeout" at the end of the movie (you'll know it when you see it) is worth the price of admission alone. And yes Nana, it is a beautiful dress.

The DVD

Video:

Nine Good Teeth is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The video is culled from a variety of sources: photographs, archival film footage, videotape, and newly filmed footage. The different sources are of varying quality: obviously film from the early/mid 1900s will have its own limitations. That having been said, the film is well presented and provides a solid and pleasing delivery of the original source material.

Audio: