Dream requiem The idea of the Rebels was born to the Taviani brothers after filming a documentary about the funeral of the Italian Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti. Documentary footage organically merged into the artistic film canvas, however, for this the film had to be made in black and white and a little grainy.
The objects of his attention and study Taviani choose several characters, one way or another connected with the Communist Party - rebels, overthrowers of bourgeois foundations. Graduated from university with a diploma of philosopher Ermanno does not want to teach at school and devotes himself to photography, working as an assistant for his friend Muzio. Together they are preparing a photo shoot dedicated to the funeral of Togliatti. But if Muzio works as a primitive socialist realist, who is primarily interested in portraits of Communist Party leaders, government members and so on, then Ermanno is a symbolist artist, shooting, for example, blind kittens, who are associated with lost revolutionaries after the death of their leader. Julia, the wife of Sebastian, a party official, is burdened by the position of a housewife and, having arrived in Rome for the funeral of Togliatti, she begins an affair with her friend. Plunging into the waters of lesbian passion, Julia abandons her husband and goes to university. Ettore (Julio Brodgi) is an exile from a dictatorship in Venezuela and dissidents and revolutionaries are killed under brutal torture. Comrades from Venezuela who arrived at the funeral tell Ettore that their leader was killed and that Ettore must now take his place, returning to his homeland three days later. This news gives Ettore mixed feelings. On the one hand, as a revolutionary, he is far more radical than all his comrades, who are mostly infected with relativism and apathy. On the other hand, he, like them, is quite happy with a well-fed and comfortable life in exile, he has a beautiful girlfriend, and he does not want to return to Venezuela, most likely to die. And finally, the fourth main character is the film director Ludovico, making a film about the last years of Leonardo da Vinci’s life. Ludovico is sick with a strange disease, which periodically paralyzes him, causing terrible pain. But at all costs, he wants to finish the film about Leonardo. The last years of Leonardo's life were also deeply symbolic - he gave up all privileges and went to wander the world with sermons, deciding that in this way he would bring more benefit to people. His escape is associated with the inner escapism of the director Ludovico himself, who seems to have already cozyed into the way of bourgeois filmmaking. Ludovico is now able to express his protest only in the work on the film, the shooting of which constantly slows down his attacks. When the actor playing Leonardo asks Ludovico if his hero will be able to escape, the question will remain unanswered.
This film by the Taviani brothers was the first to show the authors’ bitter and self-critical frustration with former subversives. All of them slowly but surely occupy those niches, which until recently fiercely opposed. This is most symbolic and ironic in the case of Ermanno. He will sit in a movie theater watching on screen the death of the last great anarchist-nonconformist subversive, the Mad Pierrot of Godard, who will simply wrap his head around with dynamite checkers and hold a match to the cord. Leaving the cinema and entering the elevator of his cozy, bourgeois house, Ermanno will jokingly wrap his head instead of dynamite with a wet towel and, filming it, make an indecent gesture to the audience. And shortly before that, he will see his future life - not even a philosophy teacher, but an ordinary school physical education teacher. One can argue endlessly about whether it is better to be a physical instructor or a revolutionary who grabbed naive Donquixotian ideas along with the pernicious satanic-communist infection, especially since the position of the Taviani brothers on this issue will change dramatically 10 years after the release of the film. The main thing in this picture is a feeling of sadness for ideals that were once sacred and inviolable for people who betray them.
6 out of 10