Liebe und Zorn

How can a film with sets by Bertolucci, JLG and Pasolini, amongst others, be so incredibly bad? I have spent a lifetime watching thousands of films from across the globe, and this junk easily fits into the top 3 Worst Films of All Time category. Indifference has nothing new to add after the first 15 seconds; Bertolucci's Agonia is just embarrassing to watch; Pasolini's contribution is pointless; JLG's Amore is beyond pretentious (to be expected, perhaps) and, as I actually tried to follow the student debate on Marxism, capitalism and Vietnam etc., I soon realised that they were saying nothing whatsoever. Perhaps - just perhaps - the directors had basic ideas about each set, but the execution is appalling. Of the directors, Bertolucci easily wins the WTF Award and should have been sent to prison in El Salvador as a prize.

Who knows - perhaps this film is the reason Pasolini was shot?

I am shocked that a serious film company would let this content be released - surely someone actually looked at it before it was distributed? But if they did, how could they not demand a total re-make? I really had to struggle to finish this film - the only thing that kept me sitting there was the hope that the next segment would be better. Which clearly was not the case.

I want my money back.

This film is an attempt by five different directors to present their take on the theme of "Love and Anger". Five well regarded film personalities were gathered to offer their views in a disjointed attempt to make sense of theme. Alas, what comes out on the screen is, at best, a boring display by some of these men, who have done much better work, to try to interest us with their mostly leftist views without convincing us. As DB Dumontiel commented in this pages, the more modern the five creators wanted to be, the more dated their contributions become.

Of the five segments shown, Carlo Lizzani's "L'indifferenza" is the only one that makes any sense. Filmed totally in New York, without an Italian dialog, it clearly illustrates one of the big problems in our society, and a phenomenon in our bigger cities where people totally ignore situations that claim for human intervention, as in the case of the selfish driver in this piece who tells the cops he doesn't want to get involved, and succeeds in doing so.

The Bertolucci vignette is a heavy critique on religion, as he directs the New York based theater group headed by Julian Beck and Judith Malina and members of their eclectic group performing a ritual as a church higher up is dying. The Passolini contribution shows a young actor, Ninetto Davoli, cavorting on Rome's Via Nazionale while over imposed pictures of legendary leftist icons like Che Guevara appear over the action in the film. The Godard piece, is pretentious, at best, and the last piece, by Marco Bellocchio, shows a university class as they discuss nothing.

This film might have appeared as revolutionary when it was released, but viewing it today, the only thing it elicits from the viewer is boredom and surprise in realizing that even great directors like the ones participating in this film can lay an egg without really trying.

Five short films joined together. I guess they're all about Love and Anger but then just about any story could fit that vagueness.

'Indifference' by Lizzani shows people being indifferent to a woman being attacked, homeless people, and some car-crash victims. It has an unsatisfactory ending. Was probably pretty topical at the time - a woman called of Kitty Genovese was killed in New York in 1964 while others looked on.

'Agony' by Bertolucci is awful - just a bunch of people in a room dancing around and occasionally making cryptic statements. I strongly recommend you fast-forward this one and stop it only if you seem some interesting images. At this point in watching the film I started to get worried: pseudo-intellectual artsy stuff. And we hadn't even got to the Jean-Luc Godard segment yet.

'Sequence of the Paper Flower' by Pasolini shows an idiot wandering the streets of an Italian city (Rome?) and chatting to people. Double-exposed over him are shots of war and politicians so this is probably trying to say something deep but it wasn't clear to me what.

'L'Amore' by Godard is actually pretty good! Witty dialogue between a couple talking about another couple in a film, along with some striking images. This one warrants a second viewing.

'Talk, Talk' by Bellocchio and Tattoli is also good, showing a group of students acting out a protest against university establishment. In May '68 there were many student takeovers of universities in France and around the world so this was pretty topical. The arguments are great, tackling whether to reform the system from within or to strike at it from without. My guess is that the title implies that students were engaging in too much talk and not enough action.

So only two of the five films work but at least all the films try to say something interesting which is more than most films today do.

Comments have complained that this portmanteau film is dated. It would be better to say it registers a crucial political, cultural, and cinematic moment. Marco Bellocchio's short film works best to my thinking. His "Discutiamo, discutiamo" (Let's Talk; We're Talking; or maybe Talk and Talk, if you're inclined to be bored) is a dramatic imitation by students of the university movements of the late 1960s, and includes real differences of opinion (it starts with a lecture on Croce's aesthetics; later there's an attempt to set a Croce paperback on fire), and opinions worth remembering once existed. "La lotta continua" (class struggle), authoritarian schooling in ruling class values, the small percentage of youths of poor families in university--sure, that's so passé.

And for Bertolucci there's Julian Beck as Artaud; for Pasolini, dialectic around the pleasure of Ninetto Davoli. Even Godard's go-gauche, lordly treating every opinion as a quotation, letting all the wind out of what might be concern--or Amore. (See better Bellocchio's "La Cina è vicina" for a fashionable leftism.) The Rabbia or righteous wrath of the title is mostly also left to viewers back then or now, and maybe it didn't get rooted.

These kinds of collective films that were released in the 60 and 70 are frequently quite inconsistent in quality with one or two good shorts and a few bad ones. Amore e rabbia is no exception to that. The first film is by Carlo Lizzani. It is well shot and mostly harmless. My only complaint is that the concept and how it is developed is painfully predictable and redundant, but other than that it is a decent film. The second one is by Bernardo Bertolucci. This one is offensively bad. I fail to understand how he got away with such an annoying, empty and borderline unbearable piece of film. Pasolini's film is quite a bit unexpressive which came as a surprise because Pasolini is usually quite good. Godard's one is my favorite amongst them, it is very beautiful and in line with what he was doing back then. The last one is by Bellochio. It is good but nothing that impressive. Overrall its not a good collection of films. For me however it was worth it for the Godard segment.