Episode #1.6

The confrontation between Remigio da Varagine and Bernardo Gui is the axis of episode. Two example of good performances. The sin of serie - maybe the architecture. The desire or ambition to give a total serie or a serie for all tastes do not work. Too many "ornaments", to easy game with fragments of novel. The performances are the good tool for support a too simple and baroque construction. But, sure, out of good intentions or nice try, important remains the atmosphere, the texture of clothes, the small details and the paper aspect of church .

For anybody who read the book this series is a minor disappointment, due to the introduction of the "feminist" subplot with the unnamed peasant girl who looks like a fancy grunge model and especially Anna, a character that does not exist in the book and who's a sort of avenger in Robin Hood's clothes.

While the peasant girl is too beautiful and sophisticated for the role, but still part of the plot, Anna is just a useless role. Besides, the whole Dolcino subplot/side-plot is very badly structured, with the events taking place in the past and in the present mixed up and hardly explained. Also, Anna's mother looks exactly like Anna (same actress?) making the whole thing even more confusing.

Rupert Everett is hardly recognisable as the relentless inquisitor Bernardo Gui and as an actor mostly famous for comedies, he should have stuck to the more lightweight roles that are his specialty as he is totally unconvincing as a truly evil man.

Even worse is Fabrizio Bentivoglio as the blabbering Remigio. His English is not good, and in the original version it's difficult to understand his speeches that are too long, pompous and unconvincing.

From a technical point of view, the dialogue between Bernardo and Remigio in close-ups was particularly grating, with their huge noses sticking out against the squalid background of the prison and being totally distracting.