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Rating: I met Silvano Agosti a few weeks ago: a strange character, unconventional and difficult to categorize. A young man grown into an old man's body, yet sharp and still a dreamer.
Talking about Cinema, Escape, Revolution, and this society that forces us to live on borrowed time (between work and family), we touched on the subject of "family" (precisely) and from there began his personal jaccuse against the institution of marriage, the castration of monogamous life, and all the arguments you can easily imagine.
From there, we shifted to his film production which, incidentally, includes his debut in writing, directing, and editing with this film (from 1967!) "Il Giardino delle Delizie," starring the beautiful Evelyn Stewart, Lea Massari (who was his companion for a time), and Maurice Ronet, a sort of French Mastroianni very popular at the time.
A film set during the first wedding night of a couple, where He (in crisis over the shotgun marriage) suddenly becomes infatuated with a mysterious woman (Lea Massari, beautiful!) staying in the room opposite his. The young bride is three months pregnant and is constantly suffering in bed.
The man thus recalls his past, his sense of guilt, and his Catholic and bigoted (as well as repressive) upbringing, drawing parallels between his married life and Bosch's pictorial masterpiece that inspires the film's title. A cross between Bergman's rarefied atmospheres and certain Fellini-like allegories of the early days.
A film slow and introspective with beautiful black and white photography and, due to the nature of certain sequences and the harshness of certain images (the contrast between the hippie movement interrupted by a religious procession and certain anticipations of the morbid attentions from certain promiscuous priests), it was censored in 1967 upon its release in theaters and accused of desecration of religion (months before the approval of the Abortion Law which would happen soon after). Banned for years, it would later be awarded various prizes and reevaluated by International Critics.
A blunt film, ruthless and outspoken in denouncing the absurdity of the Institution of Marriage (primarily) and then highlighting the futility of sanctifying the education of the young or other similar religious institutions.
A nice encounter, indeed.
Lovely evening, lovely chat, and... a lovely film (purchased and autographed directly by the hands of the director!). :-)
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