Henri IV, le roi fou

Marcello Mastroianni is masterful in the solid film adaptation of Pirandello's tricky play about the nature of sanity, madness and fantasy. Subtle yet grand, tragic and very funny, Mastroianni gives tremendous life to the sometimes slightly dry and otherwise intellectual ideas underneath the story.

A mad Italian aristocrat who has spent 20 years believing he's King Henry IV, and has been surrounded by sycophants willing to play along. Now a doctor and his ex-lover try to 'cure' him, leading to some interesting and unexpected results.

It takes a while to get going, but the last third is wonderful, and the whole thing is pretty fascinating.

I will say, the score drove me a bit crazy. It often felt intrusive – alternately too heavy handed and on the nose, or having little relationship to what was going on on screen. But that's hardly enough to ruin a great performance in a film that raises more than it's share of interesting questions.