Mario Monicelli: The Beppe Tritoni Conspiracy Former military and now MP Beppe Tritone is bored in parliament. He needs a completely different political game. He skillfully exploits the passivity and inconsistency of many politicians in forming opposition. The bet on generals and colonels portends the replacement of a democratic regime with a dictatorship. The plan seems to him genius, and personal zeal Beppe not to occupy. But a lot depends on execution. Who knows, a dictatorship may be destined to establish itself, but someone quite different, almost accidental, will take the place of a tyrant.
The film was very average cinematically. Monicelli never sought perfectionism. He knew how to tell stories, not build plans and achieve outstanding acting ensemble. In this tape, he did not interfere with Hugo Tognazzi.
Then why was the tape included in the competition program of the Cannes Festival? The answer is simple. It was a very bold challenge. Contemporaries saw in many characters real politicians. Much later it became clear from the archives that a similar scenario was planned in the early 70s in Italy. The accidental deaths of two possible Tritoni prototypes prevented a major tragedy from erupting.
It remains only to offer the reader to correlate that the tape was released on the screens almost six months before the sad events in Chile, which are very correlate with the plot of the picture.
It turns out that by inviting the famous director and aspiring to break out of the cliché comedy actor at that time, Hugo Toniazzi, the producers of the tape gracefully and in a humorous manner revealed the script, which was seriously planned for implementation?
The humorous, almost figlar form of the narrative allowed to remove all suspicions and coincidences. The junta looked comical, the main conspirator was presented as a chronic loser, and the putsch itself as a slurred mess. What is the scene when the lights suddenly turn on in the stadium and a group of soldiers is revealed.
What are you doing here?
- We're making movies. With Gina Lolobrigida.
- Where is she?
So behind the modest plot and flat jokes there is something deeper. Who now remembers Prince Junio Valerio Borghese and his boxing room in which he recruited supporters, Generals Giovanni de Lorenzo and Piano Solo, a strange death from a heart attack of the President of the Republic Antonio Segni? The beauty of the picture is that it was dedicated to Italian events. At the same time, one cannot but appreciate the caution of the creators. On any comparison, they would have smiled at Monicelli’s apolitical nature and noted that he was inspired by events in Greece. Afterwards, Monicelli referred to the fact that he simply decided to show a general characterization of politicians with far-right beliefs.
7 out of 10
