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"Oh, figli e padri..." Bernardo Bertolucci has a properly oneiric note to open on, the aftermath of a birthday bash with a few extra gifts for the slumbering industrialist (Ugo Tognazzi), cap and binoculars and flare pistol for the new yacht. "Ridiculous, but with style." Ex-peasant and wartime partisan, pushing 60 yet still shaking a leg with rock 'n' rolling maids, the self-made cheese tycoon. Factory and son (Ricky Tognazzi) were born together, from the rooftop of one he witnesses the kidnapping of the other. "A militant in local leftist groups," a red roadster rolling into a cornfield, a billion-lira ransom—the mother (Anouk Aimée) is ready to sell everything for their boy, meanwhile the father suspects he's already dead and schemes to save the business. Oedipus in the Brigate Rosse era, "either too much respect or too much contempt." The comedy of disenchantment, autumnal colors in a formulation of capitalism and terrorism. Besieged by helicopters and loudspeakers, the protagonist turns to a pair of proletarian negotiators, the scion's mysterious girlfriend (Laura Morante) and the theologian in the pig yard (Victor Cavallo). ("A priest-worker?" "A worker-priest.") Strategia del Ragno reversed, Bertolucci in a reflective mood, warm and caustic. A fake Pissarro and a genuine Ligabue at the villa, the police captain (Vittorio Caprioli) offers a cosmic aperçu before tripping over the furniture. Moneyed fogies at the club, in the woods an impromptu aria and a perforated suitcase, youthful activism and patriarchal guilt like the milk that hardens into cheese. Above all sincerity, "morals come later" (cp. Fassbinder's The Third Generation). The snow-bound discotheque sets the stage for the miracle of the resurrected son, New Wave sounds and old band tunes and a little detail from La Commare secca. Cinematography by Carlo Di Palma. With Olimpia Carlisi, Margherita Chiari, and Renato Salvatori.
--- Fernando F. Croce |