Allonsanfan

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, the makers of Night of the Shooting Stars, and more recently Good Morning Babylon, directed this 1974 epic. Marcello Mastroianni stars as a fence-straddling member of the aristocracy. The time is 1816. The dissolution of Napoleon's empire has left Italy in political shambles. Fulvio (Mastroianni) cannot truly decide whether he wants to aid the rebels (thereby overthrowing his own class), or ignore them, and stick to his class comforts. Throughout Fulvio vacillates between brotherhood and betrayal, settling finally, to his shame, on the latter. Characteristically gorgeous cinematography by the Tavianis is offset somewhat by characteristically poor subtitling. Although the subtitles are large enough, they occasionally go off the sides of the screen. If you're collecting foreign films do or die, this is a great one--then again maybe its time we started stonewalling for better subtitles. (See BELLISSIMO for availability)