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FILMS / REVIEWS Italy / France

Review: The Bad Poet

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- Gianluca Jodice’s underwhelming debut examines the long-distance duel between Gabriele D’Annunzio and Mussolini through the eyes of a young fascist

Review: The Bad Poet
Sergio Castellitto and Francesco Patané in The Bad Poet

The relationship between the great poet Gabriele D’Annunzio and fascism has formed the focus of numerous historical studies and is also explored in detail in a very recent book by Raffaella Canovi (Bibliotheka Edizioni), where the egocentric, individualistic and libertarian “Vate” is described as a man who transcended notions of right and left and who couldn’t subscribe to a State characterised by rigid frameworks and highly restrictive rules. The only thing he had in common with Benito Mussolini was fanatic nationalism.

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Having lived across two centuries, the expert in supermanism, renaissance aesthete but also experimenter in and enthusiast of technical innovations D’Annunzio wasn’t just a protagonist of the literary scene, he also played a lead role in European customs and politics from the end of the 1800s right up until the advent of fascism. But the relationship between the poet and the regime was always somewhat ambiguous. The regime exploited him in their propaganda as a symbol of a glorious past, but they saw his charm and charisma as dangerous characteristics which risked offending “the Duke”. Mussolini was obsessed with the poet and insisted the latter be constantly monitored, censored and neutralised.

Boasting lengthy experience in shorts, documentaries and TV series, Gianluca Jodice is using his first feature film The Bad Poet [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
to examine this historic long-distance duel through the eyes of a young man, Giovanni Comini, a zealous fascist party official from Brescia who is promoted to federal secretary in 1936, making him the youngest federal in Italy. At this point in time, the Italian Empire it at its most expansive and Germany and Italy are signing a military alliance pact. Adolf Hitler, described by D’Annunzio as a “ridiculous Nibelung posing as a Charlot”, will unleash the Second World War in 1939 and Italy will stand disastrously alongside him.

D’Annunzio – played by Sergio Castellitto who is uncannily similar to the poet in body and in mind – is old, tired and ailing. He has withdrawn within the gilded prison of the Vittoriale on the banks of Lake Garda, bankrolled by the government at high cost. The “Commander” is surrounded by the faithful architect Giancarlo Maroni (Tommaso Ragno) and four female figures: D’Annunzio’s muse and former lover Luisa Baccara (Elena Bucci), the poet’s one-time French housekeeper and other lover Amélie Mazoyer (Clotilde Courau), his ambiguous German assistant Emy (Janina Rudenska) and, last but not least, nurse Lina (Lidiya Liberman). Commissioner Rizzo (Massimiliano Rossi), who spies on the poet on behalf of the regime, is also a regular visitor to the estate, to the point of becoming a permanent guest. But it is young Comini (Francesco Patanè) who is called upon by the secretary of the National Fascist Party Achille Starace (Fausto Russo Alesi) to win D’Annunzio’s trust and set about gathering intelligence.

A witness to the brutal repression of dissidents – acts of repression which he himself ordered - Comini soon falls under the poet’s charm and influence. D’Annunzio fulfils the need for a symbolic father, contrasting with the primeval father ruthlessly devouring his own children represented by Mussolini. When a young woman associated with Comini falls victim to fascist violence, the latter breaks definitively with fascist ideology (Comini is expelled from the party following the poet’s death). But the film’s young co-protagonist never seems to fill the boots of a symbolic figure of growth and true rebellion. The meticulous philological work put in by the director is evident, and the photography coming courtesy of Daniele Ciprì is excellent, but D’Annunzio is captured here in his twilight years, and the deeds which made him an immortal icon are merely cited rather than portrayed, such as his flight over Vienna or perhaps the poet’s most “cinematographic” experience, the conquest of the city of Fiume, which D’Annunzio ultimately transformed into a capital of the European avant-garde movement, a sort of 1968 ante litteram where monarchy and anarchy coexisted, morals were extraordinarily flexible, women’s rights were recognised and homosexuality wasn’t a crime.

The Bad Poet is an Italian-French co-production courtesy of Ascent Film and bathysphere in league with RAI Cinema. The film is released in Italian cinemas today, 20 May, via 01 Distribution, with international sales in the hands of RAI Com.

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(Translated from Italian)

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