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The peak of this integration is reached in two sequences, one being a flashback
portraying Draifa in a fit of jealousy. The scene takes place in her house with Athos jr.
deciding to quit the investigation and leave. The camera turns to frame Draifa's face as she
rebukes him, then - by taking her POV - it frames Athos who unexpectedly has become his
father, recognizable by his Saharan jacket and red scarf; the dialogue shifts from the present
day back to Draifa's resentment at Athos sr.'s intention to stop their relationship and return to
his family. The other sequence depicts a frightened Athos jr. as he runs across a crop field. It
features cross-cutting which alternates between Athos jr. and identical images of his father
running across the field thirty years earlier, father and son having both been intimidated by
the behaviour of Costa, Gaibazzi and Rasori. The montage erases the temporal distance
between the two scenes, cueing a sensation that Athos jr. has taken his father's place. These
chronological shifts render problematic the viewer's attempts to engage cognitively with, and
anticipate, the progression of the narration. Instead, the film's structure arguably lends itself
to forms of engagement based on the recognition, by perceptive viewers, of intellectual
parallels and associations.
The film's flashbacks or fantasies are formed when an absence of realism is combined
with a narrative perspective that is not attributable to any diegetic character (Bordwell, 1995:
92). Sequences such as the mocking funeral procession for a lion that had escaped from a
circus and which was subsequently killed, and the dinner that takes place at Draifa's home
with an ex-fascist as one of the guests, typify this ambience, as objective and subjective
perspectives are blurred. In this context, Bordwell estimates that there are 138 'elliptical and
ambiguous shot changes' as opposed to 137 continuity shots, (Bordwell, 1995: 95) and notes
how Bertolucci's considerable manipulation of the duration of the final scene at Tara's train
station emphasizes the film's inconclusive ending (Bordwell, 1995:97). Equally, the film s
mise-en-scem continues to mislead viewers' aesthetic expectations by alternating stylization
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