Through dramatic reconstruction and documentary asides, the spirit of Italian poet, playwright, journalist, aristocrat and army officer Gabriele D’Annunzio is captured, presenting the nascent fascism in his attempts to forge a new state in the aftermath of the First World War.
Rated 4.3 / 5 from 3 logs on Katalog
Very creative, watch it.
Pretty fantastic "documentary" showing the weirdness of inter-war period of southern Europe in an innovative and hilarious way. I'm Croatian and I knew next to nothing about this occupation or D'anunzio himself. The film casts people of Rijeka in a weird recreation of the fascist's rule, using historically accurate clothing and props, but against the current time backdrop - this really helps to illustrate the timelessness of the movie's fairly subdued message, and parallels that could be drawn to the type of news we currently witness on a daily basis. The film is filled to the brim with really striking imagery, some shots made me burst out laughing with barely any dialogue. I mean look at that poster; it made me immediately intrigued the second I saw it on @flossisboss review a couple months ago. There are some glaring flaws, however. It's suitable to have the title drop, which was absolutely sick btw, a whopping 30 minutes into the film as it is overly long and kind of bloated. After a couple of sections where contemporary Rijecani are recreating old photos of D'anunzio's Legionnaires, all staring at the camera awkwardly for 20 seconds it does get a bit old and predictable. The final act is also the weakest, perhaps due to the way that the actual conflict was resolved, but I felt that the start left a nice strong impression, only to kind of slowly peter out. I do love that such an original approach to filmmaking was made in Croatia on such a forgotten, but unfortunately more important than ever, part of history. Definitely worth a watch.
The citizens of Rijeka are cast to reenact and narrate a strange time in history when Gabriele D’Annunzio, an Italian fascist and an eccentric coke-addicted playboy poet briefly occupied their city. During that brief period, thousands of photographs were made and boy, does this movie make a good use of them. By taking over the narrative (although still keeping nuance and perspectives) and using archival footage in a creative, playful way, it feels like the citizens are once again taking back control of their beloved city. It may seem like an eccentric moment of local history from a country many people can’t even place on the map. But it’s important. It’s a reminder of the damage a single ego can do, even in a short amount of time. The timing of this release is tragicomic, as we are witnessing an eerily similar thing at a much larger scale. Since we learn nothing from history anyway, I suppose we can only hope that the rule of self-absorbed bullies is short-lived and that their names are remembered vaguely, as distant stories about pathetic individuals, faded letters on deteriorating buildings or as short footnotes in history books.
