Word: peasant
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Feting the "first peasant...
...didn't have to be so long, or so intense. Had Bertolucci felt more kindly toward his audiences, he could have made his tale a simple epic--45 years of conflict between landlords and peasants in northern Italy, living out a history most of us already know. He could have shown us the breakdown of the traditional patronage system under the influence of industrialization, the rise of peasant leagues, the landlords' reaction and the spread of fascism without involving us so totally; or he could have shown us the characters' interaction without making such a detailed effort to place their...
...film had had far more brutal moments. At times, Bertolucci's love for vivid detail and for visual lushness results in scenes of great beauty--a bride galloping on a white horse through the mist and poplar trees, a small boy playing in the river, a group of peasant women resisting the landlords against a red sunset. But just as often, Bertolucci also gives us scenes guaranteed to horrify: a man sacing off his ear, a boy's head smashed against a wall. If he goes to extremes in length and content, Bertolucci goes to even greater ones in purely...
Even if these scenes didn't wrench us out of the normal world, perhaps, the story would, for it is often as difficult to fathom as the wanton brutality. Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu, as landlord and peasant, are bound together, unable to abandon either their friendship or their class positions. The two were boys together: DeNiro always following and admiring the peasant Depardieu; but their friendship was always flawed because, as Depardieu says, "I caught the frogs your family...
...however, clarity may not matter, for the film leaves the real world behind and enters the realm of allegory. When the fascists are driven out of Rome, the peasants turn on the fascists of their own town, and then it is the padrone's turn. Passive as ever, De Niro stands before a people's tribunal--under a huge red flag that is miraculously unharmed by the bayonets that hold it up. But if De Niro retained his love for his peasant friend throughout the fascist period, Depardieu cannot overcome his ties to De Niro and he does not permit...