The Spider's Stratagem

La Strategia del ragno is a beautifully shot, superbly acted movie with a lot of twists. At fist glance the story depicts a man, Athos Jr, who has to solve the murder on his father, Athos Sr. This is asked of him by his father's mistress. Later it becomes clear that that story is the strategy of the mistress to get him to replace his father (the two are identical). The third story that runs through the movie is why Athos Sr was in fact killed. It seems he's a traitor, but it's my guess that he staged his own death from the beginning (including his treason), without his friends knowing. The only one who finds out the whole truth is Athos Jr. The way these stories are told and how they interact is magnificent. There's nothing in the movie that shouldn't be there. Don't try to understand my very short summary, just watch the movie. The Last Emperor is not Bertolucci's best, although I like that one, too. This movie should be in the top of the top 250.

This may be Bernardo Bertolucci's best film. It is certainly one of his most assured and technically accomplished. The complex narrative is an exposition of the ideological uses of history (both political history and personal history). A young man returns to his "martyred" Father's village to discover the exact reasons for his father's death at the hands of Facists. He also discovers more than he may want to know about his father's personal life - including intimate details from his father's mistress. The supposedly heroic life and death of his father is greatly complicated by the actual evidence and suggestive clues he discovers. The editing, cinematography, mise en scene, and acting in this film are breathtaking. Yet the film's triumph lie in the philosophical and political suggestions provoked by the narrative. This is a film worthy of myriad viewings.

It's definitely true this movie is not just for everyone and you also really need to be in the mood for it to watch it. It's the more slower type of movie, that besides doesn't lay out everything for you. Sometimes you have to fill in the blanks and interpret certain sequences for yourself in order to keep following it and understand things.

However when you really take the time to sit down for this movie, it's definitely more than worth it. It's a pretty fascinating watch, with a good concept and story in it.

It's great to watch how the movie its 'mystery' slowly gets unraveled and the puzzle gets put together by the main character Athos Magnani, who returns to the town where his father got killed. Not only does he try to find out who killed his father but perhaps more importantly, also the reason why.

It's great to watch the dynamics between him and the townsfolk. Some are helpful, others reluctant. It gives the movie a great atmosphere of tension and mystery as well. You never know who is telling the truth and what the motivations and reasons behind it all are.

There are also some good twists in the movie, especially toward the end. The movie its ending does not disappoint!

Deinetely worth checking out if this looks and sounds like your kind of thing!

8/10

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A young man named Athos Magnani (Giulio Brogi) arrives at the small Italian town of Tara. Magnani's aim is to discover who killed his father, a local hero and anti-fascist, decades earlier. The script makes many references to Mussolini, the Italian fascist leader of the 1930s.

An essentially political film, "The Spider's Stratagem" contains deep themes related to personal identity, the definition of heroes, as well as perceptions of, and the truth about, others. Events and people are not always what they seem to be. The thematic depth is enhanced by competent cinematography, with some clever compositional camera shots.

And yet, I found this film hard to like. There is an overall sense of gloom, with a drab landscape and bleak characters that seem more symbolic of ideas vis-à-vis real people with personal lives. Direction trends theatrical and stagy. And some plot elements seem either unnecessary or deliberately opaque.

Acting also seems stagy and contrived, which may have been the director's intent. Alida Valli's performance is terrible. I dislike the way she smiles at the most inappropriate times. Further, the viewer must endure periodic outbursts of grand opera.

I am thus ambivalent toward "The Spider's Stratagem". It has adequate thematic depth, for viewers wanting a thought-provoking film. But the slow-moving plot is something of a trial to sit through, with irksome characters and gloomy visuals. I found it not entertaining.

Maybe a second viewing, when I have more time to digest the film's political themes, will render an impression that is not so alien and forbidding.

After having searched high & low for this ridiculously hard to find film by Bernardo Bertolucci, I finally got a watchable VHS print recently (thanx, Scott). It has been praised by many a critic & film scholar, and deservedly so. Leonard Maltin may not know much, but he was right on the money when he said that this film contains some of the most staggeringly beautiful cinematography ever put on screen. If only somebody would get this on a proper DVD (Criterion, if you're not too busy considering another re-release of The Rock...). The story is, on the surface, a sort of 'search for the truth' mystery/quest that quickly turns into a complex examination of 'the nature of truth'. The pace is slow, and there isn't much in the way of action, mostly just dialog scenes and gorgeous location shots. But I for one was totally engrossed (my wife seemed to dig it as well). Speaking of pace, this struck me as being quite Tarkovsky-esquire a film (barring a few odd cutaway shots), especially with that last scene that puts the whole film into a different spin. Fascinating, heady stuff, but not for all tastes and will be rewarding more to those who are patient and attentive.