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significance of the films that he was involved with. Storaro affirms: 'I try to have a parallel
story to the actual one so that, through light and colour, you can feel and understand,
consciously or unconsciously, much more clearly what the story is about' (Schaefer and
Salvato, 1984: 220-221). The chapters related to films such as 1900, The Last Emperor and
The Sheltering Sky contain further explanations by Storaro about the way he conceived such
correlations between aesthetics and narrative content; in the particular context of The Spider's
Stratagem, the evocative, hazy luminosity created by Storaro to depict the town of Tara in
summer reinforces the sense of mental torpor in which the characters seem to be stuck, while
the protracted nocturnal sequences, often featuring Athos jr. battling to make sense of the
environment in which he finds himself, strengthen the perception of the reticence of the
inhabitants of Tara, and ultimately that of hidden truths. It is therefore fair to say that this
academic study, with its particular emphasis on how film aesthetics condition the viewing
experience in emotional and intellectual terms, ascribes a greater and a more precise
significance to the artistic input of Storaro than Bertolucci, although effusive in his general
praise of his collaborator, has tended to acknowledge in interview situations.
With regard to the symbolic and the allegorical, the film symbolism emerges in several
sequences: the red scarf placed around the bust of Athos sr. to signify the vivification of his
father's presence in the mind of Athos jr.; Athos sr. gazing sadly as the escaped lion is
encircled by circus workers, this functioning as a metaphor for his awareness of his own
helpless entrapment. Draifa's costumes - and parasols - recall the female protagonists of
Chekhovian drama who hold on to the memories of happy times that have passed, and their
evocation in the film symbolizes her obstinacy in clinging to a past that she will not discard.
Two sequences in the film function as allegory, implying both a transfiguration of the images
and the possibility that Athos sr. has been the sacrificial victim of personal and historical
circumstances. The first sequence depicts Gaibazzi, Costa and Rasori triumphantly carrying
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