As an Italian,and a film buff, I can't believe I missed this absolute masterpiece!
It is so joyfully satirical, so bitterly funny, so terribly accurate in it's merciless study of Southern Italian mores...that even an Italian will HAVE to admit that it's not a film catering for foreign audiences (like 90% of such 'genre' films), and instead is a distorted cinematic mirror of Sicilian reality.
Firstly: the Photography! Aiace Parolin is responsible for the most striking black and white visuals we are likely to ever see. On a par with the great Gianni DiVenanzio.
But here everything is superlative. Sets, wardrobe, editing. The music (by veteran master Carlo Rustichelli) is dinamic and Witty... and even anticipates the 'western' themes Morricone later used for Sergio Leone's masterworks.
Actors...ALL OF THEM... are simply perfect. Never unfocused or bland...always razor sharp and present in the fickle twists and turns of the plot.
And so we come to Germi.
If this had been his one and only film, he would be in the gotha of Italy's already superlative heaven (so to speak) of Directors. Above Risi, above Commencini, above Scola even.
Everything is laser-sharp, slick, uncanny in it's intuition and psychology.
I just HAD to give this film 10 out of 10 points.
Putting less would have been, quite frankly, miserly.
It's only fault is, maybe, its length.
The story is tortuous and we... along with poor Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli, GORGEOUS here) ... have to go through all the 'stations of the cross' of Catholic hipocrisy.
Quite honestly, however, when everything is so unbearable you just have to applaud...sit back...and ENJOY!
It is so joyfully satirical, so bitterly funny, so terribly accurate in it's merciless study of Southern Italian mores...that even an Italian will HAVE to admit that it's not a film catering for foreign audiences (like 90% of such 'genre' films), and instead is a distorted cinematic mirror of Sicilian reality.
Firstly: the Photography! Aiace Parolin is responsible for the most striking black and white visuals we are likely to ever see. On a par with the great Gianni DiVenanzio.
But here everything is superlative. Sets, wardrobe, editing. The music (by veteran master Carlo Rustichelli) is dinamic and Witty... and even anticipates the 'western' themes Morricone later used for Sergio Leone's masterworks.
Actors...ALL OF THEM... are simply perfect. Never unfocused or bland...always razor sharp and present in the fickle twists and turns of the plot.
And so we come to Germi.
If this had been his one and only film, he would be in the gotha of Italy's already superlative heaven (so to speak) of Directors. Above Risi, above Commencini, above Scola even.
Everything is laser-sharp, slick, uncanny in it's intuition and psychology.
I just HAD to give this film 10 out of 10 points.
Putting less would have been, quite frankly, miserly.
It's only fault is, maybe, its length.
The story is tortuous and we... along with poor Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli, GORGEOUS here) ... have to go through all the 'stations of the cross' of Catholic hipocrisy.
Quite honestly, however, when everything is so unbearable you just have to applaud...sit back...and ENJOY!