Film d'amour et d'anarchie

It's the second Wertmüller movie i watched. I liked a lot SWEPT AWAY. And this is even better.

It's hard to describe it in a foreign language since i am a non-native English speaker. It's multilayered, deep and there are a lot to uncover and a lot to make you contemplate. On the surface, there is a naive, simple country young man who gets entangled in pretty unknown situations to him, from women to Resistance and Rebels. You might even say this is a comedy for the most part.

But as the movie progresses, especially during the ending, it sets a lot of questions. Things are not exactly what they seem. Should we sacrifice ourselves for a higher purpose? Or it's delusional and vain? What is a hero? Are they being manipulated? Or it's better in any case to "die like a dog than to live like one?"

This is an anti-fascist movie and that is not something negotiabe in every logical human being. But as i said, it's not a simple and superficial movie. It makes you think.

It's a 2 hours movie and it doesn't drag for a second. At times, it's hilarious. Pace is great, acting is great, ending is powerful. A very good political comedy/drama/romance movie.

Giannini at his best , a cult wertmuller movie that has been forgotten but it's a very good movie not only for Italian public but also for cinema lovers of all genres. it's the story of a poor man , Tunin which he must kill Mussolini during a ceremony. So he stayed for a couple of days in a house where there are women that offer sexual lends by paying. Tunin will fall in love with two of them and that will be negative for his mission. The excellent acting and the lina wertmuller's directing made this film a masterpiece and a realistic portrait of Italy of the '30. Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato are really wonderful and they show that Italian acting is at American level

The well-regarded director Wertmuller made this movie which is a slow study into how brutality and violence can be saved my love in my opinion. It is very operatic which is how she chose to attack it. The direction, I can say is flawless but the movie feels incomplete. First, I am more the director who uses visual images rather than hammy stagey dialogue to tell their stories. Carnini is the only actor who does not use a pantomime, overexagerrated style in the movie until the very end, while everybody else does. It softens the impact of the movie as it is the quieter moments that carry real weight. The style of direction is very narchiac with wonderful wide shots and good editing creating an effigy of exuberance over the picture. Most of the picture set in an italian bordello where the fascists of italy stay is a place for both love between carnini and pesilamo. Images are beautiful, and certain individual scenes work while others don't. We are left with a great understanding of what love must feel like but the brutality of man is never explained. It esssentially sets up the theory that all fascists are naturally evil. The ending tells us it is the stoty of one man while the movie sets it up as the story of every man. This the best explanation I can give without speaking too much about its plot. Wertmuller was much better in Swept away and seven beauties. But for an introduction to Wertmuller, and arty Italian cinema of the sixties and seventies which dealt very operaticly with evils of fascism.

I saw this movie in the 1980s but it remains an all time favourite. It is a terrific story with a range of characters who demonstrate extremes of character. The women are sexy and smart and they are critical to the story. The music by Nino Rota is wonderful and delicately placed within the story. There are many memorable scenes. The stars Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato, and Lina Polito are perfect for their roles and there are many other notables including Eros Pagni who is the brute given charge of the black shirts. I've watched this film at least a dozen times and I plan to watch it many more before I return to the earth. I commend Love and Anarchy to you.

To live like a dog or to die like a dog? It is an elemental question hovering above the head of a disaffected but weak-minded farmer Tunin (Giannini), after his anarchist friend being murdered by fascist police, he decisively joins the anarchist camp, and takes up his dead friend's cause, to kill Benito Mussolini. He arrives in Rome, and contacts his comrade Salomè (Melato), a premier prostitute in a brothel, who will assist to carry out his assassin plan. During a location scout with the unsuspecting Spatoletti (Pagni), the head of Mussolini's police division, Tunin falls for a young working girl Tripolina (Polito), will the mutually spontaneous romance spoil Tunin's determination of his action? Or, does it matter?

LOVE AND ANARCHY is Wertmüller's seventh feature, which debuted in Cannes in competition and won Giannini BEST ACTOR award. It is the second teamwork for Wertmüller, Giannini and Mariangela Melato, after THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI (1972), and they would try a third time in SWEPT AWAY (1974) one year later.

Freckle-faced, disheveled, Tunin is an honest but slow-witted countryside man, hasn't been to seaside before, he is not even a radical anarchist, but avenging the death of his friend, is the only thing he knows that can prove his worth, whether or not it is a suicidal mission. Fear is something he has to battle everyday, Giannini registers a viscerally soul-pulverising performance as Tunin, downplays his masculine charm and portrays him as a sympathetic, the salt of the earth sort, a cog in the machine, but radiates with those attributes what make human human. Mariangela Melato's Salomé, a spitfire driven by her own scores against the repressing government, is also superbly thrilling to behold, her piercing look, gravelly voice, worldly-wise flamboyance, and her unabashed camaraderie and affection towards Tunin, leaves a searing impact afterwards. A then 19-year-old Polito, a debutante in her full-fledged flapper outfit, thrusts herself into a more rational attempt to save her lover, only to no avail.

Wertmüller's resplendent depiction of the Italian brothel is certainly inspired by aesthetics of Fellini school, and her taste for music is admirably impeccable as well, whether it is classical pieces like Debussy's CLAIRE DE LUNE, or the catchy French ditty LA PETITE TONKINOISE by Vincent Scotto, together with Nino Rota's sentimentally melodious score, emotionality and vivacity are eternally among the national spirits running in the Mediterranean blood of Italian people, not even the ominous subject matter and demoralising situation can change its tonality.

Less heralded than Wermüller and Giannini's most acclaimed collaboration SEVEN BEAUTIES (1975), which earned both Oscar nominations (yes, Wermüller is the first woman who has even been nominated for BEST DIRECTOR), LOVE AND ANARCHY is no less a fine-crafted equivalent which speaks loud about its filmmakers' political slant and an outstanding melodrama can transfix its audience without compromising its thematic tragic.