Cronaca familiare

Enrico (Marcello Mastroianni), an impoverished writer, learns of the death of his younger brother Lorenzo (Jacques Perrin), whose qualities he appreciated too little and too late, and tries to recollect his character. Lorenzo had been adopted by a rich baron after his mother died giving birth to him and the differences in their upbringing had alienated the brothers. Valerio Zurlini's film, marked by melancholy and muted colors and set in an empty Florence without sun, was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Festival - along with Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood. "Never before and rarely since has a director narrated a relationship more compellingly with looks and gestures, developed it more visually and sensitively in a cinematic sense, and engaged more boldly with pathos, pain and suffering. In my eyes, CRONACA FAMILIARE is one of the most unrecognized films in the history of cinema and Zurlini is a director who should really be mentioned in the same breath as Rosi, Pasolini, Fellini and Antonioni." (Süddeutsche Zeitung) (hjf)