MUBI

Title: Allonsanfan
Year: 1974
Language: Italian
Country: Italy
Genre: Drama, History
Directors: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Writers:
Paolo Taviani
Vittorio Taviani
Cast:
Marcello Mastroianni
Lea Massari
Mimsy Farmer
Laura Betti
Claudio Cassinelli
Benjamin Lev
Renato De Carmine
Stanko Molnar
Ermanno Taviani
Bruno Cirino
Rating: 5/10

It is my first encounter with Taviani brothers’ work, my instant gut-feeling is that this surrealistic political-drama about a traitor’s ill-fated fallout is perhaps blemished by the incompatibility of our generation, I reluctantly pigeonhole it to those films inevitably go astray from their glorious road along the unstoppable torrent of time!

Marcello Mastroianni this time around employs a substantially anti-hero persona opponent to his more audience-friendly role as the marquee Italian dream-lover. An abnormally bitter repugnance exudes from his character brims with all the screen time and I can sense a tint of misogyny levitating in the air with an inexplicably compelling thespian vibe. The lesser characters are all one-dimensional notwithstanding, a feral Lea Massari (from THE ADVENTURE) still could draw some attention for her very underdeveloped role.

All the sectors are somehow quirky enough to create certain discontinuity in the narrative, which could be a deliberate novelty at that time, but fails to leave sympathetic impression throughout, plus without the adequate stewing time, I might wonder it might be too hasty for audience to ruminate or even reflect the actual happening in the film, especially for a foreigner.

One could not deny the elaborate endeavor of the whole team behind, this film could be better if it had gotten rid of its excessive patronizing stances and do a more subtle character study. Also I didn’t take the title, as Allonsanfan is just a stiff supporting character played by a wooden Stanko Molnar, is their any subtextual meaning here? Wish some ace could help me out here!