Synopsis
Set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, the story centers on Tunin, a farmer turned anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to kill Benito Mussolini. There he falls in love with one of the whores.
1973 ‘Film d'amore e d'anarchia ovvero "stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza..."’ Directed by Lina Wertmüller
Set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, the story centers on Tunin, a farmer turned anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to kill Benito Mussolini. There he falls in love with one of the whores.
Giancarlo Giannini Mariangela Melato Lina Polito Eros Pagni Pina Cei Elena Fiore Giuliana Calandra Isa Bellini Isa Danieli Enrica Bonaccorti Anna Bonaiuto Anita Branzanti Maria Sciacca Anna Melato Gea Linchi Anna Stivala Josiane Tanzilli Valeria Piaggio Roberto Herlitzka Anna Maria Dossena Mario Nandi Maria Capparelli Gianfranco Barra Luigi Antonio Guerra Lorenzo Piani
Film d'amore e d'anarchia, Фильм любви и анархии, или Сегодня в десять утра на Виа деи Фьори в известном доме терпимости, 사랑과 무정부, Film de amor y de anarquía, Filme de Amor e Anarquia, Amor e Anarquia, Film d'amour et d'anarchie, Amor y anarquía, Liebe und Anarchie, Ιστορία Έρωτα και Αναρχίας, Miłość i anarchia, Love & Anarchy
Part of the Lina Wertmüller mini retrospective on Mubi US.
Giancarlo Giannini won best actor at Cannes for this wonderful performance. But Mariangela Melato is just as much of a show stealer.
Available on Kino Lorber Blu-ray as well.
“feelings are a luxury and this is war.”
power to the prostitutes!
once fellini’s valued apprentice, lina wertmüller infuses fantastic feminist takes, delivering scathing political satire as she animates the detriments of fascism. renown for depicting the stories of those typically forgotten from historical narratives, love & anarchy is the vengeful tale of a freckled-faced farmer, too gentle for his own good and too enraged to remain silent. the first stop in his determination to assassinate benito mussolini, is a roman brothel where the character develops an infatuation for two anarchist prostitutes—one who he falls in love with and the other sympathetic towards his murderous campaign of justice.
during the war, italian brothels became the nexus of political greetings, men drawn to…
i needed something this great after sitting through 5 evil bong movies.
like a feminist version of fellini. fantastic.
and giancarlo giannini’s eyes... oh my this man can act
Love and Anarchy may have the most muted color scheme of any film I've ever truly loved. It almost feels like it was planned to be shot in black and white, which would give the film more visual pop. But pop would be the wrong choice to elevate this film's plot and themes. It's a film about a culture in tatters. Its aesthetic drabness mirrors the glorious ruins that are scattered throughout the film and surround the main action. The filmmakers create an impression of Italy as a culture past its prime. There's a grayish tone to most of the scenes that somewhat recalls the color scheme of a corpse. I'm at a loss exactly how to describe how something…
Speaking of sex... This is a fittingly coarse, strident film. Highly recommended for anyone who hates oppression, loves anarchy, or approves of sexual misadventures with a bit of depth.
Before her historic Oscar nomination Lina Wertmüller made her mark as one of Italy’s most renowned auteurs. Whilst Seven Beauties is her most significant work, Love and Anarchy provides a messier but nonetheless fantastic farce. We follow a coy and melancholy country boy - played by Giancarlo Giannini - on his torrid trail to assassinating Benito Mussolini.
Coincidentally or subliminally, this film echos Fellini’s Amacord which also released in 1973. Between the Italian’s adoration of eggs and living under the shadow of violent intolerant fascism, the pair would certainly make for a lively double-bill. The madcap energy of Love and Anarchy won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but today, it was just the flavour of madness I wanted.
This anarchic tale of an ambitious anarchist feels like quintessential Wertmüller.
The farcical tragedy of an amateur anarchist in love.
Both Tunin's greatest strength and his fatal flaw are loving too much: his romantic entanglement with Tripolina thwarts his plan to kill Mussolini, but it's also how he gets into this whole mess to begin with. Pautasso was his best friend, and perhaps their relationship wasn't romantic or sexual in the way that his relationship with Tripolina was, but when he finds Pautasso dead he's moved to take up his cause. Love is both his creation and his destruction.
The film frames Tunin as politically curious from an early age: one of the very first shots is of the comically over-freckled baby boy asking his mother what an anarchist is, and…
“Feelings are a luxury, and this is war!”
Hatred can kill love. Absolute power is bound to stretch its lanky arms and destroy everything in its path. People will often think about the global implications of despotism, but it is the smaller, equally important (and equally tragic) deaths died a thousand times over by those under the reign of an oppressive regime that are the main focus of Love and Anarchy; the loss of love and friendships—the symbolic sacrifice that, when faced with insurmountable odds, is all that is left to be had.
No one ripped apart fascism with such a sharp, whimsical flair and an anarchic kineticism quite like Lina Wertmüller did. Her films seem to have this unmatched…
Tunin (Giancarlo Giannini), the anarchist would-be assassin of Lina Wertmüller's Love and Anarchy, is a naïve, simple man from the countryside, tired of the grinding poverty of farming and bent on securing revenge for the murder of a mentor and friend by the forces of Benito Mussolini's fascist state. He takes up the friend's commitment to assassinate the dictator and, before he knows it, is in a Roman brothel, meeting with as Salomè (Mariangela Melato) the militant sex worker who is his client.
Most of Tunin's life has passed in virtual isolation. He works hard and cares for his neighbors, but his contact with the broader world. until he decided to become an anarchist assassin, was minimal at best. Salomè,…
[Love and Anarchy isn't really a movie with anything to spoil, but I definitely open this review/analysis/nonsense from the perspective of already having seen the ending, so, I don't know, spoiler-shy readers beware, I suppose.]
"Even if I'm not an anarchist now, maybe they'll make me one later."
Love and Anarchy opens on the death of a stranger, a man we barely get a chance to met before he dies, a death whose cinematic foregrounding won't make sense until the movie's just about over, but to Antonio Soffiantini, alias 'Tunin,' this man wasn't a stranger. He was a friend. And the police shot him in the back. Shocked by the inhumanity of the situation, Tunin decides…
This feels really attuned to the true nature of fascism, not Darth Vader but an unending chain of stupid, greedy pigs, here represented more or less by one guy but standing in handily for the whole trough. Takes a really dark, haunting turn that I think will stick with me for a long time.
ok i know taxi driver came out only 2 years after this and am willing to accept the loner lead, political assassination plotting, and hooker with a heart of gold as coincidence...but that gundraw mirror scene? marty i’m gonna need you to hand in your gun and your badge