Bella e perduta

Alberto Moravia once described "crying over the devastated fatherland" and "nostalgia for the peasant world" as central motifs in Pasolini's work. Both return in exemplary fashion in Pietro Marcello's BELLA E PERDUTA, a hybrid film that echoes Verdi's "Nabucco”, in which the prisoners' chorus laments the state of the beautiful and lost homeland. Marcello is guided through this homeland by a buffalo, instead of the protagonist Tommaso Cestrone who died during the shoot. Lush pastures and landscapes contaminated by toxic waste do not add up to a unified image, documentary footage of anti-corruption protests also creates resistance and asks about political responsibility. In the end, loss  and beauty balance each other out. (hp)