Review of Good Morning, Night

While I was aware of the 1978 kidnapping and execution of "Democrazia Cristiana" President Aldo Moro by the terrorist group "Brigate Rosse", I was clearly not knowledgeable of the exact details since I was a mere toddler when the event that shook the nation took place; in retrospect, it is not that the vicissitudes behind the case are made all that clear in the film – but, at least, here the obligatory didacticism is balanced by a surprising yet genuinely moving humanism. It was perhaps inevitable, then, that controversial director Bellocchio would tackle the subject – despite its having already been rendered cinematically in THE MORO AFFAIR (1986), in which the former Italian Prime Minister was played by the great Gian Maria Volonte' – since his work had always been politically-oriented to some degree. What I did not anticipate was the fact that Bellocchio would present the story from the ambivalent eyes of one of the radicals themselves, superbly played by lovely Maya Sansa, and even less so the touches of outright fantasy (equating, in its depiction of Moro's flight from captivity, wishful thinking!) he inserted intermittently within the compelling and generally intense narrative. Incidentally, newsreel and other assorted TV footage dating from the era are similarly juxtaposed; however, as I said earlier, all of this does not really enlighten one on the matter: especially baffling is the lack of an objective, i.e. opposing view, of the politics involved (for instance, there seems to be no ongoing police investigation and the suggestion that Moro's peers simply chose to forget about him is rather disturbing). By the way, the obscure title refers to a screenplay Moro happens to be carrying with him at the time of the abduction: ironically, it turns out to have been written by an infatuated colleague from the heroine's conservative work-place, a public library…but, then, this emerges as just another flight of fancy on the director's part since it tells of a comparable act of terrorism, albeit blessed with a happy ending for its victim! Of particular interest here is the accompanying soundtrack, deftly mixing operatic arias with no less grandiose Pink Floyd classics such as "The Great Gig In The Sky" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part One)".