Synopsis
Love and Anarchy (Film d'amore e d'anarchia, 1973), directed by Lina Wertmüller, is an Italian tragicomedy you can watch online on iFILM, one of the high points of 1970s European cinema. Tunin, a freckled farmer turned anarchist, arrives in Rome with a single purpose: to shoot Mussolini.
He hides out in a brothel, where his contact Salomè works. To shelter him she passes him off as her cousin, and the timid country boy suddenly finds himself surrounded by women, noise and unfamiliar tenderness. Giancarlo Giannini plays Tunin with a doomed quality behind his frightened eyes — he knows the assassination will almost certainly cost him his life. Then something worth living for begins to bloom beside him, which makes the ending land all the harder.
Wertmüller films Fascist Italy loud, bright and almost carnival-like, so politics and the flesh keep crashing into each other. Giannini took the best actor prize at Cannes for the role. Mariangela Melato and Lina Polito anchor the women's side of the story. It's vivid, bitter and anything but a museum piece — if you love Italian classics with real blood in them, age is no obstacle here. Stream Love and Anarchy (1973) online on iFILM.
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