Appassionate

Alberto Barbera, the new director of the Venice festival, took a clear stand by including the latest feature by Tonino De Bernardi in the 1999 competition. Ever since his début in 1967, De Bernardi has built up an uncompromising and experimental oeuvre that some have ever refered to as hermetic. De Bernardi himself regards Appassionate as his most direct and accessible film. He allowed himself to be inspired by classic Neapolitan songs he knew from his youth. Almost all the dialogue in the film is sung by the protagonists. Napels in the twenties: when the film Amore tragico is screened, Michele identifies with the story so much that he kills his two- timing wife. On the run, he becomes involved with other events in the same city, but this time in 1999. Rosa and her mother listen to songs that evoke a world of romance. Rosa’s sister kills her lover on the day that he marries Teresa, but both women – one in jail, the other locked up in her suffering – see him again as if he were still alive. A prostitute who witnessed the murder finds the power to rebel and kills a client before surrendering herself. Apparitions include madonnas and a new figure who brings together the past and present, while all events are graced by Neapolitan songs.