LOVE AND ANARCHY Movie Review

Film d'Amore et d'Anarchia

In 1932, a peasant (Giancarlo Giannini), who's reached the end of his rope after a friend is murdered, decides that he will be the one to assassinate Mussolini. The center of his assassination attempt is to be a bustling brothel, but as soon as he settles in, he falls in love with one of the help (Lina Polito), and suddenly his mission seems considerably less urgent. Lina Wertmüller's Love and Anarchy is big, boisterous, and noisy, but it also gets more interesting and engaging as it goes along. Giannini does most of the hamming in the big, dreamy close-ups his director gives him, but it's Mariangela Melato as his political contact and the brothel's resident madam who's really the star; she takes over the movie whenever that worried but determined face of hers is onscreen. Melato and Giannini were paired again in Wertmüller's big hit Swept Away…, but this is their best work together, and it's probably Wertmüller's most accomplished and least offensive movie as well. Nino Rota wrote the score, and the exceptionally handsome cinematography is by Giuseppe Rotunno.

NEXT STOP … Swept Away…,Seven Beauties, Land and Freedom

1973 108m/C IT Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato; D: Lina Wertmuller; W: Lina Wertmuller; M: Nino Rota. Cannes Film Festival '73: Best Actor (Giannini). VHS COL