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A Cinematic Masterpiece From The Brothers Taviani !!!


"Film will only become an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper."-J Cocteau
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The Taviani brothers' I sovversivi (1967) is cinematic historical record executed with great artistic merit in a rather complex dramatic format. This is not an historical record that attempts to soberly and dispassionately record impersonal events of global importance in a strictly logical, sequential order, as would a documentary. This historical record, on the contrary, results from a cinematic attempt to capture the Zeitgeist, the social/cultural/political "atmosphere", if you will of Italian society circa 1964, These filmmakers quite effectively achieved that goal, in my opinion, through relating to the viewer several chronologically parallel dramatic storylines that represent .divergent lifestyles within Italian society. The cinematic expression of these several parallel dramatic storylines was achieved through an innovative editing style that skillfully interweaves these separate storylines by interspersing small segments of the storylines in a single sequential presentation, resulting in an additional dramatic effect than if these storylines were each presented in whole, in sequential order. All these disparate dramatic storylines are related only through the literary fulcrum of their rather impersonal relationship with a common social event of global importance to Italian society at that time, the death, and the impending funeral of an important political and social leader. The result of this rather laborious cinematic exercise by the brothers Taviani is, in my opinion, a masterpiece of Cinematic Art, a rather unique expression not only of dramatic storytelling, but also a rather unique expression of historical record at the same time.

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