Word: francesco
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...moment in Seven Beauties which epitomizes this harmony of vision and execution comes precisely when Wertmuller confronts her central theme: the moral and emotional impact of Nazi concentration camps on their victims. When Pasquale (Giancarlo Giannini) and his companion Francesco, deserters from the Italian army, are captured by the Germans and taken to a concentration camp, the greens and browns of the lush German countryside give way abruptly to stark grey and black. The camera pans chains of shell-shocked, pajama-clad prisoners, herded through this labyrinth of death by expressionless guards with drawn sub-machine guns and attack dogs...
...without ideals or ideas will survive while the master race collapses. Of course, survival requires not only self-betrayal, but betrayal of others as well. Having become a collaborator, Pasqualino is forced to select others to be killed, and finally, in the climactic sequence, to shoot his friend Francesco, who has chosen to die rather than continue to Francesco, who has chosen to die rather than continue to live in a situation which extinguishes all human values...
...values, the whole emotional thrust of the film implies that conclusion. Certainly, Wertmuller presents the opposing case, but whenever characters speak against Pasqualino's point of view, they do so in abstract rhetorical terms without a context that could lend any human meaning to their arguments. When Pasqualino and Francesco argues that the two of them are as guilty as the Germans since they are doing nothing to prevent it. But this is simply an inauthentic rendition of stock anti-collaborationist arguments, which makes no sense in the situation since they are unarmed and could do nothing in any case...
...more fully rounded terms. The situation there is awful enough to make total refusal intelligible, and the character of the old anarchist (Fernando Rey), who continues to affirm his ideal of "man' in disorder" despite a set of crushed testicles, is a touching vignette. Nevertheless, the deaths of Francesco and the anarchist in defiance of the Nazis represent a purely negative gesture. Their renunciation of life based on abstract principles have little to do with the way men lead their lives; collective suicide is simply not a viable moral option. If Wertmuller had wanted to consider serious moral alternatives...
...cartoon in Bologna's daily Resto del Carlino recently portrayed Christian Democrat Premier Aldo Moro and Communist Party Leader Enrico Berlinguer as a cozy couple on the dance floor, while Socialist Party Chief Francesco de Martino stood alone growling "Hey, I thought this was supposed to be my dance." Italian politics being what it is, the caricature contained more truth than humor. Making good on a long-hinted threat, the Socialist Party last week withdrew its parliamentary support for Moro's fragile coalition government, thereby forcing the Cabinet to resign. With Italy still deep in its worst postwar...