Download (12MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository
Download (12MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository Download (12MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository
Plot summary The opening credits roll over images - shot in a realist style - that set the story in hard working, rural Italy. Primo Spaggiari, the owner of a factory-farm, has just celebrated his birthday when his son Giovanni is kidnapped. This crisis gradually unveils the contempt that his wife Barbara, a well educated French woman, and Giovanni - studying at university - have for Primo's humble origins and lack of formal education. His strong bond with the factory makes Primo reluctant to sell it to raise the necessary ransom money; his standpoint is reinforced by his suspicions that the kidnapping has been organized by Giovanni himself to raise funds for the terrorists with whom he associates. Two terrorist sympathizers enter the scene: Giovanni's girlfriend Laura and his best friend Adelfo who are both part-time students (Adelfo is also a prete operaio I priest-labourer) and work at the factory-farm. Primo's unawareness of their existence reveals the superficiality of his declarations that he considers his workforce to be a family, and his ignorance about his son's life. When it is feared that Giovanni is dead, Primo's despair is brief, as he decides to keep the news secret and continue collecting money to alleviate temporarily the factory's debts. He justifies this disquieting response with a biblical notion, that of his son's blood fertilizing the field. Two sensual moments occur between Primo and Laura, whom he involves with Adelfo in an illicit plan; they will collect the ransom money from an arranged place and return it to him. But, unexpectedly, Giovanni returns safely, and his accusing gaze betrays his knowledge of Primo's deception, while implying that he and the terrorists have got the money. Primo~s bewilderment rums into a resolution not to ascertain the facts and to leave it to the viewers to solve the riddle if they wish to. The characters' intellectual and political significance To understand the film's intellectual and political implications, it is important to break down 106
the socio-political composition of the Spaggiari family, since it is not the Marxist terrorist Giovanni who is posited as being closest to the working classes, but his father, the supposed capitalist. Primo is a self-made man proud of his working-class origins and hard work; he expresses this to Laura ('I used to stand proudly among the milk tubs like a socialist hero'), and considers his employees his companions. By contrast, the portrayal of Barbara - rational and intellectual - is more typical of the ruling class, and her distance from the plight of the labouring classes is underlined by her sangfroid in blandly announcing the sale of the factory. Giovanni's insensitivity towards the consequences of this on the workers' fate also makes him appear disconnected from the real world. This unconventional delineation of the characters, in the delicate political context of terrorism connected with Marxist ideology, is deliberately provocative. The film is a non-conformist challenge to the Communist Party regarding the situation created by the terrorists, individuals that the Party used to call 'misguided brothers', and this approach is reminiscent of the position that Pasolini took with regard to the student riots of the 1 st of March 1968 at the University of Rome, in which he supported the proletariat who unwittingly found themselves in the firing line the police. On that occasion, Pasolini wrote a poem, // PCI ai giovani, (Pasolini 1968) in which he stated his sympathy for the police, who - he emphasized - were the real proletariat, financially unable to enrol at university, hi the poem the students were referred to as 'daddy's boys\ rebelling against their fathers, a bourgeois gesture from a new bourgeoisie. This unorthodox analysis drew controversy, since the Left generally praised the younger generation for fighting for new rights. Nonetheless, the implications of Pasolini's comments were clear, namely that the event's novelty lay in the fact that for the first time, extreme left-wing activism appeared to be the preserve of the privileged classes.(l) Bertolucci adopts a similar line of reasoning in his disquieting portrayal of the younger generation - embodied by Giovanni - who despite having never participated in the concrete, daily lives of the working classes, is willing to 107
- Page 59 and 60: SECTION 1; Pessimism and Melancholi
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- Page 71 and 72: emphasizes his youth and simple nat
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- Page 75 and 76: Smith, G. M. (1999) 'Local Emotions
- Page 77 and 78: of respectability. Inspired by Cesa
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- Page 105 and 106: The emotional quality of the musica
- Page 107 and 108: Notes References Regarding the fail
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- Page 115 and 116: Elitism, ascetism and emotional rep
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- Page 125 and 126: manages to expand the flimsy substa
- Page 127 and 128: Moravia, A. (1971) lo e lui, (1990)
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- Page 147 and 148: Bertolucci, B. (1967) 'Versus Godar
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the socio-political composition <strong>of</strong> the Spaggiari family, since it is not the Marxist terrorist<br />
Giovanni who is posited as being closest to the working classes, but his father, the supposed<br />
capitalist. Primo is a self-made man proud <strong>of</strong> his working-class origins and hard work; he<br />
expresses this to Laura ('I used to stand proudly among the milk tubs like a socialist hero'),<br />
and considers his employees his companions. By contrast, the portrayal <strong>of</strong> Barbara -<br />
rational and intellectual - is more typical <strong>of</strong> the ruling class, and her distance from the plight<br />
<strong>of</strong> the labouring classes is underlined by her sangfroid in blandly announcing the sale <strong>of</strong> the<br />
factory. Giovanni's insensitivity towards the consequences <strong>of</strong> this on the workers' fate also<br />
makes him appear disconnected from the real world. This unconventional delineation <strong>of</strong> the<br />
characters, in the delicate political context <strong>of</strong> terrorism connected with Marxist ideology, is<br />
deliberately provocative. The film is a non-conformist challenge to the Communist Party<br />
regarding the situation created by the terrorists, individuals that the Party used to call<br />
'misguided brothers', and this approach is reminiscent <strong>of</strong> the position that Pasolini took with<br />
regard to the student riots <strong>of</strong> the 1 st <strong>of</strong> March 1968 at the <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Rome, in which he<br />
supported the proletariat who unwittingly found themselves in the firing line the police. On<br />
that occasion, Pasolini wrote a poem, // PCI ai giovani, (Pasolini 1968) in which he stated his<br />
sympathy for the police, who - he emphasized - were the real proletariat, financially unable<br />
to enrol at university, hi the poem the students were referred to as 'daddy's boys\ rebelling<br />
against their fathers, a bourgeois gesture from a new bourgeoisie. This unorthodox analysis<br />
drew controversy, since the Left generally praised the younger generation for fighting for<br />
new rights. Nonetheless, the implications <strong>of</strong> Pasolini's comments were clear, namely that the<br />
event's novelty lay in the fact that for the first time, extreme left-wing activism appeared to<br />
be the preserve <strong>of</strong> the privileged classes.(l) Bertolucci adopts a similar line <strong>of</strong> reasoning in<br />
his disquieting portrayal <strong>of</strong> the younger generation - embodied by Giovanni - who despite<br />
having never participated in the concrete, daily lives <strong>of</strong> the working classes, is willing to<br />
107
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