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him about the tentative plan Athos senior had made to assassinate Mussolini with their help,
and of his betrayal - without providing any reasons - of the conspiracy to the police. Athos
senior then organized his own murder to create the impression that it was perpetrated by the
Fascists, so that it might be useful to the Communist cause. However, suspicion is created
about the three friends' sincerity, and this is deepened by Draifa's undiminished resentment
against Athos senior for choosing his family over her. After Athos jr. secretly vandalizes his
fathers tomb, in public he delivers a speech befitting the umpteenth memorial dedicated to
Athos sr. These different attitudes are arguably depicted to question the importance of
perpetuating a positive collective memory if it is detrimental to the truth. The film's
denouement leaves the riddle of Athos sr.'s behaviour unsolved, although a closing shot of a
subtle smile on the face of his son implies that he - at least - has understood the truth.
Cognitive, affective, and intellectual functions of the theatrical mise-en-scene
While the film privileges socio-political reflection on the part of viewers as well as drawing
them cognitively into its detective narrative structure, the film's mood - emanating from its
disquieting visuals rather than from emotional resonances or alignment between viewers and
characters - underpins its intellectual implications. The early images of the deserted Tara are
of a place where time has been suspended, bringing life to a standstill. This emerges in the
long takes whose duration intensifies Tara's lifelessness, an effect reinforced by Bertolucci's
mise-en-scene, one feature of which is that every building's window shutters are permanently
closed. Tara is a setting designed to function as part of the unfolding drama that engulfs
Athos jr., and critical scholarship on theatrical drama shed lights, in the following sequence
of this chapter, on the affective resonances that Bertolucci creates with his theatrical staging
of the film's action and settings. The way Athos jr. enters the diegesis either facing empty
spaces or silently passing groups of anonymous, immobile elderly people, exemplifies Gay
McAuley's theory that by observing the interaction between the stage and the actors, it is
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