#spoilers?
Bellochio seems to be on a roll, after making L'ora di Religione he came up with another excellent film the next year, Buongiorno, Notte. In both films he mixes what's real and what's imaginary in a way that comforts. It doesn't fool or numb, but it cleanses.
Buongiorno, Notte is about the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, the conservative leader who 'threatened' the cold war settlement of the Italian state by favouring an understanding with the communist party. After Moro's kidnappers have carried him in a trunk into the flat, they find in one of his briefcases a screenplay called Buongiorno, Notte, which is the title of the film. Further on in the movie, a young would-be writer says he has written a screenplay titled, guess what, Buongiorno, Notte. Bellocchio is the director and also the author of the film's screenplay, so he slips himself into the plot, at least symbolically. But Bellocchio's alter ego has a life of his own and a thing for a girl who can be no other than the star, Chiara, one of the kidnappers. It is to Chiara that he confides the 'last-minute' changes he's made to the script and charges her with the responsibility to carry them out. Those changes can alter fiction but not history and symbolize what Moro should have been able to count on during those terrible days.
Moro counted on nothing of the sort, he was murdered by the Red Brigades in 1978. He was caught, the film suggests, between the murderers and the cynics. Chiara is an imaginary wedge Bellocchio drives into reality to settle old scores with a history about which he's unsparing. In an interview, Bellocchio suggested the young writer could be Chiara's conscience, which is perfectly reasonable, but who if not the author could give his character such a conscience? The author does all he can to restore his character her lost nobility, a task Maya Sansa, the actress who plays Chiara, with her intense eyes and anguished feelings, makes so easy to accept. Despite all this talk, the movie is very easy to follow, uses sound in a manner close to clairvoyance and has many remarkable scenes.
Among those, Chiara's black and white dreams or one involving an elevator in which the director, by displaying a perfect use of expressive resources, shows the impact of terrorism on Italian society. It's something of a master's touch.
Bellochio seems to be on a roll, after making L'ora di Religione he came up with another excellent film the next year, Buongiorno, Notte. In both films he mixes what's real and what's imaginary in a way that comforts. It doesn't fool or numb, but it cleanses.
Buongiorno, Notte is about the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, the conservative leader who 'threatened' the cold war settlement of the Italian state by favouring an understanding with the communist party. After Moro's kidnappers have carried him in a trunk into the flat, they find in one of his briefcases a screenplay called Buongiorno, Notte, which is the title of the film. Further on in the movie, a young would-be writer says he has written a screenplay titled, guess what, Buongiorno, Notte. Bellocchio is the director and also the author of the film's screenplay, so he slips himself into the plot, at least symbolically. But Bellocchio's alter ego has a life of his own and a thing for a girl who can be no other than the star, Chiara, one of the kidnappers. It is to Chiara that he confides the 'last-minute' changes he's made to the script and charges her with the responsibility to carry them out. Those changes can alter fiction but not history and symbolize what Moro should have been able to count on during those terrible days.
Moro counted on nothing of the sort, he was murdered by the Red Brigades in 1978. He was caught, the film suggests, between the murderers and the cynics. Chiara is an imaginary wedge Bellocchio drives into reality to settle old scores with a history about which he's unsparing. In an interview, Bellocchio suggested the young writer could be Chiara's conscience, which is perfectly reasonable, but who if not the author could give his character such a conscience? The author does all he can to restore his character her lost nobility, a task Maya Sansa, the actress who plays Chiara, with her intense eyes and anguished feelings, makes so easy to accept. Despite all this talk, the movie is very easy to follow, uses sound in a manner close to clairvoyance and has many remarkable scenes.
Among those, Chiara's black and white dreams or one involving an elevator in which the director, by displaying a perfect use of expressive resources, shows the impact of terrorism on Italian society. It's something of a master's touch.