Viaggio nel crepuscolo is a meditation on Italy’s long 1968, via some of the pictures the period created. It is also a look at the cinema of Marco Bellocchio, based on a handful of masterpieces that range from his coup d’éclat debut I pugni in tasca (1965) to maybe his most daring work, Buongiorno, notte (2003). In the latter film, he sees the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro as a version of his innermost personal obsession: the father-son relationship as poisonous and tragic.
In its extensive use of animation, Viaggio nel crepuscolo offers a surreal counter-vision to the many newsreel and documentary images we get to see. While the many historians and philosophers we hear offer a cornucopia of theses and ideas on the lessons to draw from these years. They are few and far apart, the films of these years that are as complex and many-layered as Viaggio nel crepuscolo.