Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher who excited the rage of the Catholic Church and finished in the flames of a pyre in Campo dei Fiori in Rome on 17 February 1600. Today a statue stands in his honor in this piazza. As a very young man he entered the Dominican Order, was ordained in 1572, but within a few years was running through Europe, publishing a variety of clever and original literary, theological, and philosophical texts that made many angry. In 1591 he reached Venice, where he displeased a Mocenigo and was denounced to the Inquisition. He was sent to Rome, where he spent six years in prison before he was burned at the stake for heresy. Gian Maria Volonté, one of the great actors of the century, who appeared in such disparate films as For a Few Dollars More, The Abyss, and Il Caso Moro, stars as the sensual and highly intelligent monk. The narrative begins with Bruno's arrival in Venice, and naturally the movie compresses much and doubtless has simplified. Nonetheless the skillful evocation the character of Bruno in the Venice and Rome of the 1590s is highly enjoyable. I watch this movie three or four times a year.