Stress

I saw this film at the French Cinematheque as part of a hommage given to Lou Castel. Unfortunately, it wasn't either dubbed or subtitled, so I had to understand it even though I don't really speak italian. It's quite an interesting film, even though a bit austere and politically overmeaning, about a young revolutionary student who gets home and has to face his father, a baron, who lives in a huge bourgeois mansion with a moronic butler and a girl from the mountains as a maid. The house seems somehow haunted, doors slam, shadows run in the attic, and the student soon discovers that it's his conscience that is in fact torn in two: one part tells him he comes from an aristocratic family, the other one orders him to destroy everything as to pursue his revolutionary ideals. Totally lost in this inner battle, he flogs himself, then takes his father to the guillotine. As you can see, the message is delivered in a not very subtle manner, but Lou Castel's composition is ambiguous enough to lift the film on a higher level. Very anchored in 70's ideals (Stress is a maoist film in a way), it doesn't have any impact anymore, but is worth a look.