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and realism, without providing criteria to enable viewers to understand why specific scenes
are presented in certain forms; consequently, viewers can only evaluate the stylistic quality of
each take and try to ascertain the degree of subjectivity or objectivity that conditions it.
Such ambiguities indicate how the viewer's bottom-up and top-down processes of
narrative organization and interpretation on the basis of on-screen information (Branigan,
1992: 37) are continuously obstructed, blocking the solution of the riddle concerning whether
the 'betrayal' by Athos sr. was an altruistic act of self-sacrifice - aware that his three friends
were too naive for the assassination task - an act of duplicity, or an act to fulfil the need to
create a hero figure. On this issue, Bertolucci admitted: 'I don't give any explanation, but I
am always thinking within the film about the reason for the treason' (Georgakas and
Rubenstein, 1984: 39). The film's ambiguity concerning subjectivity and objectivity, and also
narrative chronology, prevent the traditional clarification of events via cognitive processes
that viewers would expect within detective movies, a process normally centred on the gradual
disclosure of information that is made sense of by the detective's thought processes and by
the viewer. But besides this cognitive obstruction, this approach also elicits an affective
response, generating a pervasive sense of disorientation punctuated by moments of tension
and suspense.
The sense of disorientation is intensified by the obsessive tone that the fragmented
narration assumes, as it transpires that Draifa is driven by a bitter vindictiveness about past
events. Also the fact that the actress playing Draifa - Alida Valli - was the memorable
protagonist of Visconti's Senso, may have been, and may continue to be, instrumental in
transfusing an obsessive ambience from one film to the other in the minds of Italian viewers.
Draifa 's state of mind drives her to try to reactivate her relationship with Athos sr. through
his son, and this is illustrated by her attempts to erase Athos jr.'s identity by pressuring him
to wear his father's safari jacket. Similarly, Athos jr.'s initial objectivity during the early
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