Good Morning, Night

Colour, 35 mm
Italy, 2003, 105 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

A couple interested in renting a spacious apartment seem like a young pair in love. But soon enough their real intentions for the place become apparent: they are members of the Red Brigade and their current mark is politician Aldo Moro who, after they kidnap him, will be held in one of the rooms. The director has chosen to reconstruct the last fifty-five days in the life of this brave leader of the Christian Democratic Party - on the one hand to pay homage to a man who managed to retain his dignity and equanimity even after days of the cruellest insecurity. On the other, to demonstrate the destructive nature of any type of dogmatism and ideology. This latter notion is taken up primarily by Chiara, one of the terrorists who, under the pressure of circumstances, begins to recognize the inhumanity of a "revolutionary solution" to social ills. In Bellocchio´s film, which may be characterized as a political psycho-thriller, the tension is turned up via copious use of period television newscasts.

About the director

Marco Bellocchio (b. 1939, Piacenza, Italy) studied film in Rome and London (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Slade School of Fine Arts). His debut, Fist in His Pocket (I pugni in tasca, 1965) was received as a mature psychological study of the members of a collapsing bourgeois family. Here, too, he employed a socio-critical tone, characteristic for the then incoming generation of Italian filmmakers, those invariably "angry young men" with their strong leftist leanings. Many of his other films may also be regarded as socialist-oriented reflections on social problems: China Is Near (La Cina evicina, 1967), In the Name of the Father (Nel nome del padre, 1971), Victory March (Marcia trionfale, 1975), The Eyes, the Mouth (Gli occhi, la bocca, 1982). Even in his latest film, Good Morning, Night (2003), he remains faithful to creating a political statement, although obviously he has re-evaluated his former stance.