Country: Italy
Year: 1962
Duration: 100'


The corpse of a prostitute is found on the bank of the Tiber. The inquiry of the police revolves around a few people. During the questioning, each one of them invents an alibi: a thief, known as the “Canticchia”, claims that he met with a priest who had promised him a job. The “Califfo”, a kept man, talks about a peaceful walk with his girlfriend. Teodoro, a Calabrian soldier, tells an amazing adventure. Natalino, who defends himself like a lion in the cage, accuses two boys, Pipito and Francolicchio, of the murder, because he saw them walk along park Paolino. When the police arrive in their neighbourhood to stop them, the two run away towards the river. Pipito is arrested, while Francolicchio drowns. During the questioning with the boy, the truth about the real responsible comes up: it’s Natalino, the one who accused them.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Biography

film director

Bernardo Bertolucci

FILMOGRAFIA

1962: La commare secca. 1964: Prima della rivoluzione. 1966: La via del petrolio (documentario per la TV). 1967: Agonia (episodio di Amore e rabbia, uscito nel 1969). 1968: Partner. 1970: La strategia del ragno. 1971: Il conformista. 1972: Ultimo tango a Parigi. 1976: Novecento (Atto I e II). 1979: La luna. 1981: La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo.

Declaration

film director

Before being an assistant director, I made only two 10 minutes short films. (...)
When I was 20 I worked as assistant director with Pasolini and it was the most important experience, because I was watching the birth of a great director, so I saw how he was discovering the language of cinema; Pasolini invented it, for real. He was moving on an ancient track, making a tracking shot and when I watched it later, it felt like the first tracking shot in history. (...)
After Accattone, which was very successful, the producers said: “We need to make films in Roman dialect”. Pasolini had a story he didn’t feel like shooting, it was La comare secca, which was bought by Antonio Cervi many years before. Cervi asked if he wanted to make it. Pasolini was hesitating and suggested Sergio Citti, his “living glossary”, and me as screenwriters. So I wrote my first ever screenplay with Sergio Citti. I didn’t know I would have shot it yet, and so I was trying to write a quite technical script, without focusing on the details. When one day the producer said: “You’re going to be the director of this film” I irresponsibly accepted. He liked the screenplay, but he needed another director. I suddenly found myself with a script that I had to make again, because I faced it as a screenwriter and not as a director, so it started all over again. My biggest fear was Pasolini. It was hard to make a personal film despite Pasolini’s world. And the accusation made by the critics, which I didn’t share, was: “It is a Pasolini kind of film, but without Pasolini, so it is just a poor imitation...”. So there was this risk. But if I shall find a flaw in the film, it is that it doesn’t have anything of Pasolini. You can feel the effort of someone who had a story and the world of someone else and tried his best to make it his own. Today I feel the film is quite interesting from a formal point of view because it is an extremely “naïf” film, it is the first film of someone who was very young, but this “naïf” feeling “flickers” (operators’ jargon) on refined solutions; there’s a total lack of practical experience applied on all of the films I saw. And the thing that the two works have in common, is a certain attitude I had towards all the characters, it is really hard for me to feel anything but fondness. It is a chapter film and every episode is formally quite different from the others. I made a stylistic effort: I was looking for a cinematographic language more than the historical and social implications of the characters, because I was afraid, they weren’t mine and I would have ended up making a poor version of Pasolini. I searched for a new style in every episode, a specific style for each one of them. For example, there is a first episode about three thieves who steal some bags in the woods and I saw it a little Japanese. There is a second episode on a “pimp” who wants to leave her shylock-prostitute because she doesn’t give him enough money and this has been shot in a more curt and quick way, and above all with irony, with a tango on the background which gets ironic about the whole situation. He was completely oxygenated, she has a face like an Easter egg, but with loose hair and two very wicked eyes. Then there is an episode on a soldier around Rome. I shot this in a cinema-verité kind of way, in a day and a half. For example, at the beginning I sent him in the streets to “dredge up” girls. This man was dressed like an Italian soldier but he spoke English and that caused a great sense of amazement. The fourth episode is with two boys and two girls and here is my most sentimental part.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Cast

& Credits

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci.
Plot: Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Screenplay: Bernardo Bertolucci, Sergio Citti.
Director of photography: Gianni Narzisi.
Scenografia e costumi: Adriana Spadaro.
Editor: Nino Baragli.
Music: Carlo Rustichelli, Piero Piccioni.
Cast and characters: Francesco Ruiu (Canticchia), Giancarlo De Rosa (Nino), Vincenzo Ciccora (Sindaco), Alvaro D'Ercole (Francolicchio), Romano Labata (Pipito), Lorenza Benedetti (Milly), Emy Rocci (Domenica), Erina Torelli (Marinella), Renato Troiani (Natalino), Allen Midgette (soldato Teodoro Cosentino), Marisa Solinas (Bruna), Nadia Bonafede, Ugo Santucci, Clorinda Celani, Santina Fioravanti, Carlotta Barilli, Elena Fontana, Maria Fontana, Alfredo Leggi, Wanda Rocci, Silvio Laurenzi.
Production company: Ugo Tucci per la Cinematografica Cervi.
Italian distribution: Cineriz.
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