MUBI

Whoa!

That’s all I can say about this…okay, so maybe I have a little bit more to say…a lot.

As a Gabriel Garcia Marquez fan, I can honestly say that this is like one of his books come to life plus the murals of Diego Rivera times the sweep and drama of a soap opera with copious amounts of sex, violence, comedy, musical moments, and everything.

In short, it is a cinematic dream. Everything is here, done with style, bravura and, well, how can I describe the wonderment of such a gargantuan film?

I suppose a little…well, it would be almost ridiculous to summarize a film of this weight in a few paragraphs, though some have tried. Let me attempt a few sentences…

This is set in the TWENTIETH CENTURY! (perhaps a more accurate translation of the title NOVECENTO), and the first padrone, played by Burt Lancaster (a wonderful character performance) has a grandson born the same day as the farmer’s. The head of the workers, played by Sterling Hayden of all people (another amazing performance with copious amounts of ham and cheese with wine) has grown up with the first padrone, and thus things are testy, but good. In short, the summer heralds the golden days of childhood, though things go downhill.

The padrone dies (in a most dramatic and memorable sequence) as does the farmer’s leader. The next in line for landlord-ship is a corrupt and weasley son who wishes nothing but tyranny and trouble on the good farmers.

In the midst of this are the two sons born on the same day: Olmo (Gerard Depardieu) the bastard son of the farmers, and Alfredo (Robert De Niro) the effete and bratty half-pint boy of the rich.

They are the two paralells that run through the movie, and thus we see a contrast between the have and have-nots, the corrupt and decadent, the honest and poor, and the cowardly and courageous.

Much stuff happens in less than thirty minutes. Burt Lancaster and Sterling Hayden die, but deliver amazing scenes. Olmo “screws” the earth in an effort to display his one with nature, while Alfredo complains of his friend’s penis still having the skin (he wasn’t circumsized you see). There’s also a man cutting off his ear in the midst of a storm, a huge dance sequence in the forest scored to dozens of ocarinas played by whimsical farmers, while Burt Lancaster, senile and aging, asks a young girl in the stables to masturbate him. Of course, you can’t get milk from a bull, she says.
The two boys dare each other by sitting under the oncoming train, and they show each other’s dicks. Evil plots go on behind closed doors. The film resembles some sort of epic fable.

Did I mention Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu are in this? They don’t come in till about the hour and a half mark.

Yeah, the film is fucking brilliant in its audacity and ambiguity. Then again, I may be just wowed by the acting and the boldness in cinematic technique.

Vittorio Storaro, the cinemtographer, plays with color and film stock to get amazing images and textures that correspond with the feeling and moment of the film. It’s so theatrical that it works and becomes a delrious effect on the big screen.

Like I said, all that happens in the first half is very important.

In fact, the film proper begins at the END. That’s right. The entire film is a flashback as well as a “how we got here” moment. We see LIBERATION DAY and Donald Sutherland with a mousy looking woman running from angry farm women with pitchforks.

Of course, as this is the first scene in the film, we can only assume these are refugees that are trying to escape together of course.

….fat chance. Sutherland plays a ruthless, horrible, villainous monster fascist named ATILLA. His bitch and a half mistress is REGINA, perhaps even worse in her manipulation and calculating plots to overthrow the gentry in an attempt to consolidate power for the fascists.

But not to worry, there is retribution. You must earn your happy ending though.

Throughout the film, we see sweeping events of grandeur: the transition from several days to many years, in the masked cut in the shadows. The arrival of Dominic Sanda’s character, a very outre woman who may or may not be sincere in her neurosis. It doesn’t matter, as we get to see her naked and fuck Deniro.

Did I mention the scene where Deniro and Depardieu are both masturbated onscreen by a naked woman? Seriously. We see Deniro and Depardieu’s penises. Onscreen. At the same time.

Either Bertolucci is a mad genius or these are some dedicated actors. Probably both, as the sequence starts out as blatant fan-service but then turns quite dramatic and memorable. The girl in question is both important and brilliant in her moments.

Actually, the same could be said for everyone in the film.

Deniro is pitiful as the poor little rich boy Alfredo, who can never understand the plight of the workers or the treachery that goes on behind closed doors.
Depardieu is appealing as the fledgling who becomes a communist heralder of a new age to come.

But the film is of course Communist-laden to the max. It doesn’t matter. Besides, the “propaganda” elements have actually aged the film very well, as it appears to me that Bertolucci’s feelings on the whole matter are almost ambivalent.

Sutherland is, as I’ve said before, a great villain, and he plays the role with delectable EVILLLL.

How evil can a villain get?

He kills a live kitten with his head. EVILLLLLL.
He burns down a house with four helpless old men alive inside. EVILLLLLLLLL
He rapes (along with Regina) and bashes the skull in of an innocent boy ONSCREEN! (the bashing of the skull I mean. So much for infant immortality.) EVILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
He murders a senile old woman and then impales her on the front spikes of her gate. EVILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
The coup de grace is the systematic shooting of several innocent farmers with a pistol.

Regina is his witch who conspires with him to committ these horrible acts.
Alfredo is stupid and does nothing to stop them. His wife by contrast, wishes she could do something, but is helpless by her rich upbringing, and thus, redeems herself in the most beautiful possible way. It has to be seen to be believed.

There are so many amazing moments in the film that it takes your breath away.

The childhood sequences are right out of a mythic story of the good times of the earth.

The dark middle act is like a horror story with macabre and gothic elements thrown in for good measure.

The big crowd scenes that are strangely intimate are breathtaking in their textures and colors. One moment in particular stands out, where in a dance hall, an old man with removable teeth dances with a life-sized female dummy, that flops around and rattles like a skeleton.
Oh, how I wish I could come up with such emblematic images.

The score by Ennio Morricone is by contrast, not as overblown or over the top. It is quite romantic and sedate, ironically, only reaching soaring moments when it needs to. It’s as if Bertolucci told him, “don’t worry, the music will suffice right now. I’ve got a million more things coming and the audience won’t know what hit them!”

He was right of course. You can forgive some of the clunkier scenes for the more brilliant moments. The wedding from hell is like some Poe story come to life, whereas the love scene between Olmo and his wife is like a wondrous greek myth with pastel colors and gentle music playing in the breeze.
By contrast, any scene with the villains is like a silent film, with cartoon plutocrats furling their mustaches of evil and clucking their tongues with wads of cash in their hands. The only catch is that Bertolucci does this in a church with the holy sacrament of a priest. Only he could do it, and he doesn’t care if it works or doesn’t. It’s all there. On display and on parade.

I can’t praise the film enough. How can anyone even pick at its discrepancies? (Though there are many.) The film is a mammoth achievement, something that comes from another planet, as Truffaut would say. It is an iconoclastic, daring, bold, and beautiful film.

Like a good book, it goes on and on and has ups and downs and has so much detail and texture….it’s like I’m being made love to, in the theater. Well, maybe not that way, but it certainly is an experience.

Five hours have never felt so short before. And trust me, by the time you reach the end, you’ll be a card carrying communist in no time! Oops, did I say that? I mean, you’ll want to kill the fascist pigs and the corrupt rich and…oops! there I go again….

Also, seeing Olmo giving his wife a blow job while she’s pregnant has never seemed so sensual and hot before. Bertolucci is either the world’s dirtiest man or a the world’s most pure, naive artist. Or maybe it’s both. Who knows?

I suppose the best way to end this is to only mention that once you see it, you will never forget it. Ever.

Everything after this; all the modern epics that have come out, have strived for the vibrancy of 1900.

Be as it may, Bertolucci has made one, damn, interesting film.

Do yourself a favor, and see what he had intended; the uncut, five hour long version.

Better than the LAST EMPEROR? Maybe not…
More interesting and exciting? DEFINITELY.