Il cineasta e il labirinto (2004) Reviews

• Fascinating documentary for Rosi fans.

  ItalianGerry2005-10-27

  This documentary, made for Italian television, is quite a fascinating look at the great director Francesco Rosi and his films. The Rosi film most widely seen in America may have been his 1984 rendition of Bizet's "Carmen" with Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes. My own favorites are "Christ Stopped at Eboli" and "Three Brothers. "Accompanying the DVD for one of his greatest works, his brilliant 1962 "Salvatore Giuliano," this hour-long piece has extended interviews with the director and brief scenes from virtually every one of his feature films from the 1958 "La Sfida" to the 1997 "The Truce" plus additional commentary by John Turturro, Tullio Kezich, Martin Scorsese, Giuseppe Tornatore. Particularly interesting to me was the story of his work as continuity director on the great Visconti film "La Terra Trema" and the rift caused with Visconti because of a detail Rosi failed to notice with the exactitude that Visconti expected. Naturally this piece is of greater interest if you are familiar with all or many of the films of Rosi. If one is not in that category, then a remedy is required, immediately.