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Rating: Based on a novel by Vitaliano Brancati set in the 1920s in Catania (how daring), Bellantonio is the story of Antonio (no kidding) played by Marcello Mastroianni.
Son of a high bourgeois family in Catania, Antonio has just returned from a long stay in Rome where it seems he has, as usual, made conquests with women.
Antonio is truly handsome… sober and elegant with those long lashes, women literally fall at his feet, rumors have it he cuckolded more than one eminent Sicilian husband, that lawyer for instance…
However, Antonio is no longer a mere boy, he must take a wife… this is the utmost and only aspiration of his parents.
As was customary at that time, the parents had already found a potential wife for him who met all their congenial requirements: young, chaste, very honest, and (above all) rather wealthy…
Even handsome Antonios don't have it bad, the father has invested everything in land, an orange grove, there will be 20,000 fruit trees… thus even the Puglisi would be in agreement.
She is Daniela Puglisi (a very young and breathtakingly beautiful Claudia Cardinale).
By a fortuitous chance, Antonio furtively gets hold of her photograph and falls in love instantly.
Dad, mom… I will marry Daniela Puglisi!
It's done, the parents are over the moon, they have nothing left but to announce it to all of Catania and organize everything properly.
However, Antonio has a rather burdensome skeleton in the closet.
From now on it is impossible to proceed with the review without talking about this skeleton which is the skeleton (haha) of the film, in fact, it is the main theme, it's practically everything…
Since it's a sensational plot twist and is revealed roughly halfway through the film, those intending to watch the film should stop here.
At most one could even pretend nothing and continue reading even without having seen the film, as the first part, after all, is only a long prologue.
Do you want to continue?
Please, go ahead.
…and so Antonio and Daniela marry and go to live in his country house where the family orange grove lies.
Antonio is truly in love, he's always by her side, filling her with cuddles and kisses (Antonio you always kiss me, you give me a million kisses…)
BUT…
But Antonio does not make love to his wife and it's not because he doesn't work…
Antonio is unable to make love to his wife!
In reality, Antonio is practically impotent! Who would have ever thought? Him… the handsome Antonio!
It's an authentic disaster… push and shove, Daniela tells her family, the marriage has to be annulled!
The screenplay was written by director Mauro Bolognini and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
The film is from 1960 and is adapted to those times even though the novel itself is set in the 1920s (how daring was Brancati, I repeat!). In any case, bringing a theme of the kind even in 1960s Italy was still more than daring, certain things are not to be known!
Bolognini was homosexual and, notably, he was not politicized, he did not take sides, he did not frequent the "good salons" … unlike Luchino Visconti, also homosexual but "communist".
That is why he was always kept aside although he was a first-rate director, on par with the likes of Fellini, De Sica, Visconti, etc.
That is why his films hardly ever aired on state television in the years to come.
How many of you, excluding cinephiles and there are few here, can say you've seen Bellantonio? Yet the title sounds familiar to you, doesn't it?
Yet Bologni wasn't really on the DEB… but now he is…
The film is a snapshot of a certain Italy. Striking, incisive. Sophisticated, corrosive.
Bolognini does not spare politics and the clergy and paints a precise and devastating portrait of them. Politicians scoundrels, half-drunk, sprawled on armchairs at their little parties with assorted tramps, priests entangled with wealthy Catanese (this unconsummated marriage is not valid for the Church! Yes, but where is that written?)
I feel I'm about to go on too long but I'll cut it short because I have to take the switchboard soon.
Bolognini was a great director. Oh yes, because the film is (also) technically superb, check out the scene (at night stopped in a car, a convertible) of Antonio's "confession" to his cousin, a young, unrecognizable, and already brilliant Tomas Milian. A highly significant cinematography.
And the ending? Rarefied I dare say Bergmanesque (Antonio is on the phone there's a second sensational twist which I won't disclose), with him talking to his cousin while a warm silent tear runs down his face.
And the sequence where Antonio is filmed center-frame in full figure as he sees Daniela in the backseat of the car taking her away?
Retrieve Bolognini's films… otherwise… FEND FOR YOURSELVES!
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