The love affair is not the most important ; it's rather the depiction of the fascist years in Ferrare ,Italy ,where they turn brothers against brothers .The crippled man in his wheelchair represents the helpless man , who plays the part of a witness during the fateful night when the Milice butchered "suspects " without even a travesty of a trial ;it's filmed with virtuosity ,in the foggy streets of town after the curfew ; the town at dawn where they left the dead bodies piled up in mounds .These crimes with God on their side,to the tune of a fascist battle hymn (subtitles are provided).
The epilogue is admirable : it's a return to present time (the early sixties to the tune of a pop song); the hero (Ferzetti) comes back for a pilgrimage ;he's married (but not to his former lover( Belinda Lee) )with a child ; he sits in a cafe where he meets the war criminal :he seems to meet again an old friend ;One cannot behave as though nothing had happened, and it does not help to give the younger generation no answers to the question of what happened in the past. And however , all the mature man says to his wife and child is that they used to nickname him "Dracula" .A schoolboy prank .And however there's a plaque on which you can read the names of the victims ("your granddad's name is at the end ,for they are listed alphabetically").Isn't it the height of cowardice?
Pasolini ,who collaborated on the screenplay , would return to the Fascist years in his final movie " Salo o le centoventi giornate di Sodoma "(1975),but I would recommend it only for not squeamish people .
The epilogue is admirable : it's a return to present time (the early sixties to the tune of a pop song); the hero (Ferzetti) comes back for a pilgrimage ;he's married (but not to his former lover( Belinda Lee) )with a child ; he sits in a cafe where he meets the war criminal :he seems to meet again an old friend ;One cannot behave as though nothing had happened, and it does not help to give the younger generation no answers to the question of what happened in the past. And however , all the mature man says to his wife and child is that they used to nickname him "Dracula" .A schoolboy prank .And however there's a plaque on which you can read the names of the victims ("your granddad's name is at the end ,for they are listed alphabetically").Isn't it the height of cowardice?
Pasolini ,who collaborated on the screenplay , would return to the Fascist years in his final movie " Salo o le centoventi giornate di Sodoma "(1975),but I would recommend it only for not squeamish people .