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(Beckerman, 1990: 50-61). Tara's stasis, the characters' unchanged lifestyles, and the
categorically conclusive language used in the epitaphs commemorating Athos Magnani sr.,
create a continuity that seals the past and present together in the same continuum. Therefore it
can be said that the mise-en-scene displays the story of Athos sr. rather than unfolding it,
since the tension characterizing Athos jr.'s visit is not alleviated, and the ambiguity
surrounding the events of thirty years before remains unresolved. This leads to the
consideration that the director aimed to elicit reflection on the timeless issue of the hidden
truths within politics and ideology, rather than directing the attention of viewers along
emotional lines, via a telic narrative. The preservation of the characters' modern day physical
appearance during the flashbacks of their past is another device that blends the present with
the past.
Cognitive and affective disorientation
These temporal and aesthetic effects also draw attention to Bertolucci's manipulation of the
conventions of Hollywood detective movies, and in this context, Bordwell's seminal analyses
of film narration work which continues to be cited and incorporated in more modern
research - shed light on the director's techniques. Besides identifying the implications of the
causal gaps in the narration of Strategem, which inhibit any hypothesis and expectation of
resolution on the viewer's part, Bordwell describes how the film's temporal structure is
achieved by the aesthetic construction of its flashbacks. They are characterized not only by
characters being portrayed as physically identical both in the flashbacks and in the sequences
set nearly three decades later, but also by the lack of a 'proper signalling of the transition into
or out of the flashback' (Bordwell, 1995: 90). hi this context, Bertolucci's decision to have
the same actor, Giulio Brogi, play the roles of Athos Magnani senior and junior, further
complicates the situation, because it serves to amalgamate subjectivity (from characters such
as Draifa) and objectivity to a point where a full integration of the two roles is implied.
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