Borges' s short story, included in his classic « ficciones « , is par excellence , the work almost impossible to transfer to the screen ; the author wrote that his story could take place in Poland ,in South America ,you name it ;he opted for Ireland ,circa 1824 ;Bertolucci transposed it to the Fascist years in Italy;in fact ,in both the original material and in the movie, politic,unlike in say "Novecento" , takes a back seat to an universal subject : the frontier between hero and traitor is blurred, the vision they give to the crowds ; it was a challenge to film this five-page dense story ,and the director took it up with success. The bust with empty eyes is decidedly fascinating.
Ryan ,the murdered traitor/hero Fergus Kirpatrick's great grand son , becomes Athos Jr investigating on his father's murder ; influenced by murder mystery past master Chesterton,Borges ' pages are close to a labyrinthine detective story ,so it's only natural that Athos comes back to the place of the tragedy ,to be confronted with a harrowing contradiction : the clues which Ryan found in the manuscript (imitation of Shakespeare's plays) find an adequate equivalent on the screen. Smartly blending present and past , adding an ambiguous character -his father's lover ,played by the great Alida Valli-,and wandering through landscapes where time seems to have stood still , Bertolucci takes us through the garden of forking paths .Not a facile movie, but Borges' metaphysical vertigo is not either.
