Capricci

Italy

1969

89 Min

Color

1.37:1

Italian

Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
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PROD Gianni Barcelloni, Carmelo Bene

CAST Carmelo Bene, Anne Wiazemsky, Tonino Caputo, Giovanni Davoli, Ornella Ferrari

SOUND Carlo Marotti

Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), CPH PIX (Retro)

Synopsis

Founder of one of Italy’s most famous experimental theatres, poet, actor, author, playwright, and leading avant-gardist, Carmelo Bene is an unknown genius of contemporary cinema. This is one of his masterpieces. Bene’s films are visual, lyrical and auditory cataclysms, whose lava-like outpourings are of unequalled hallucinatory perversity. Their visual density and creative exuberance defy description. Capricci- melodramatic, wildly expressionist, and opaque— includes a bloody, endless fight between two men brandishing hammer and sickle, poisoned Christ paintings that kill the beholder, impotent sex by a lecherous old man coughing his lungs out over a tantalizing nude woman, killiings, car crashes, explosions, and raging fires, all accompanied by operatic arias, constantly moving cameras, and violent montage. Vulgar black humour, eroticism, and anarchic action mingle in this swirl of colour and incessant motion— a tour de force of expressionist filmmaking. —Amos Vogel

Director

Carmelo Bene

Carmelo Bene is certainly the last great artist of our 20th century literary world: the publication of his complete works by Bompiani in 1995 – allowing him to proudly call himself “a living classic” – can be considered proof that even the official culture accepts this fact as a clear and and unquestionable truth.

Born at Campi Salentina (Lecce) in 1937, he made his debut in ‘59 with Caligola by Camus, directed by Alberto Ruggiero; however, the following year he offered a work entirely in the first person with Spettacolo Majakovskij, and background music by Bussotti.

In the following decade, the great talent of the actor-director had the chance to fully unfold in legendary shows: his virulent, aggressive and disrespectful – to the point of outrage – rereadings of Pinocchio by Collodi (1961), Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1961), Edward II by Marlowe (1963), Salomè by Oscar Wilde (1964), Manon by Prévost (1964), read more

Carmelo Bene is certainly the last great artist of our 20th century literary world: the publication of his complete works by Bompiani in 1995 – allowing him to proudly call himself “a living classic” – can be considered proof that even the official culture accepts this fact as a clear and and unquestionable truth.

Born at Campi Salentina (Lecce) in 1937, he made his debut in ‘59 with Caligola by Camus, directed by Alberto Ruggiero; however, the following year he offered a work entirely in the first person with Spettacolo Majakovskij, and background music by Bussotti.

In the following decade, the great talent of the actor-director had the chance to fully unfold in legendary shows: his virulent, aggressive and disrespectful – to the point of outrage – rereadings of Pinocchio by Collodi (1961), Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1961), Edward II by Marlowe (1963), Salomè by Oscar Wilde (1964), Manon by Prévost (1964), Hamlet by Shakespeare-Laforgue (1967) caused a real uproar, and almost unanimous slating from the critics – except the discerning Ennio Flaiano – and shocked reactions from the public.

His coming out of the basement dimension and the very happy approach to cinema (beginning in ‘68 with Nostra Signora dei Turchi, subsequently followed up with another 6 feature films) contributed to boosting his popularity: in the ’70s, with the superb La cena delle beffe by Sem Benelli (1974), Shakepeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1976), S.A.D.E. (1977), Manfred by Byron (1979) he had a big success and received wide acclaim.

Carmelo Bene has spent the last 20 years under the banner of experimentation: in particular, his work on the voice pushes the acting dimension towards new bounds, and places him in the forefront on the contemporary world scene.

If the direction of the Theatre Biennial, for which he was called in 1988, ended up a failure, memorable works still remain – the readings of Majakovskij, Leopardi, the Canti orfici by Dino Campana – as a testimonial to his unending creativity: in addition to that Hamlet Suite produced in ‘94, where he added his own music to Laforgue’s text, with effects of extraordinary, bewildering and heart-rending lyricism. A definitive performance, a milestone in home-grown theatre at any time. —italica.rai.it

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