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Il bell'Antonio |
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In its own confidential way, "Il bell'Antonio" recounts the misfortunes of Antonio Magnano (Marcello Mastroianni), a handsome, but sexually impotent, young man who returns to Catania after a long stay in Rome. His family, unaware of his problem, arranges his marriage to the attractive daughter of a prosperous local family, Barbara Puglisi (Claudia Cardinale). Under pressure from his father Alfio (Pierre Brasseur), Antonio overcomes his legitimate misgivings and convinces himself to get married. After one year, to everyone's surprise, the girl's father announces the dissolution of the marriage which, because of Antonio's problem, "failed to respect the will of God ". Barbara soon remarries to the Duca di Bronte, a wealthy old man, and Antonio returns home, still tormented by his love for her. The film, a masterpiece by Mauro Bolognini, was the result of an artistic alliance with few precedents, in which the director teamed up with Pier Paolo Pasolini (scriptwriter, together with Gino Visentini), Marcello Mastroianni and, above all, the cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi, with his painstakingly constructed and detailed photographic compositions. Nannuzi's work is characterised by its blurred foregrounds and spaces - defined not by geometrical perspective but rather by contrasting light and shadow on details - justifiably ranking him as one of the leading specialists of his time. Bolognini's interpretation differs from the novel by Brancati in that it distances itself from the socio-political parallel between the fragility of Antonio and that of fascist Italy, as suggested by the text, and dwells on the more intimate aspects of the narrative, doing away with the original humour and concentrating on the torturous physical and intellectual isolation of the main character. The Medusa DVD, with its near-perfect image quality, restores the black and white film to its original brilliance in 1.85:1 anamorphic format, with all the advantages of seamless compression and distinct definition of frame background details. The audio too, in Italian only in Dolby Digital 1.0, is well done, despite the slight confusion in the lower registers. The extras, on the other hand, apart from a few points of interest, are disappointing, limited to 14 minutes on the restoration work, two short period features and the usual trailers and photo galleries. Despite this, however, the fine restoration work on the film makes "Il bell'Antonio" an important collector's item, worth adding to any home film library. |
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