The Spider's Stratagem

Originally made for Italian television, this earlier film from Bernardo Bertolucci (Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor) follows the story of a young man who returns to the Po Valley community where his father, an adamant anti-Fascist was murdered, and is now revered as a hero. Investigating the mystery of his father's death, Athos Magnani (Giulio Brogi) runs up against a brick wall at every turn. Townspeople mock him, his father's mistress lies to him, and the three best friends of Athos' father alternately encourage and threaten the young man. Eventually, Athos discovers the truth about the past. Although the mystery is itself intriguing, and the resolution both satisfying and surprising, the film suffers from the lack of a strong leading male character. Brogi is not Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Conformist), nor Marlon Brando (Last Tango in Paris), nor Robert DeNiro (1900). Through these characters, Bertolucci's overt politicization of almost every aspect of life is palatable. But the nondescript Brogi is here upstaged by a salami peddler who explains the 38 different varieties of salami. An optional purchase for libraries with larger foreign film collections. (R. Pitman)