by Allan Fish
(Italy 1934 75m) DVD2 (Italy only)
Aka. 1860 – I Mille di Garibaldi; Gesuzza the Garibaldian Wife
Waiting for Giuseppe
p Emilio Cecchi d Alessandro Blasetti w Gino Mazzucchi, Emilio Cecchi, Alessandro Blasetti novel Gino Mazzucchi ph Giulio de Luca, Anchise Brizzi ed Ignazio Ferronetti, Giocinto Salito m Nino Medin art Vittorio Cafiero, Angelo Cannavale
Giuseppe Belino (Carmelo Trau), Aida Bellia (Rosuzza Trau), Gianfranco Giachetti (Father Costanzo), Maria Denis (Clelia), Mario Ferrari (Colonel Carini),
It’s one of the most famous paintings in the world. Goya’s ‘The Third of May 1808’. The title may not be familiar, but the painting will be. Is there a more potent depiction of the oppression of the working class than Goya’s masterpiece? It depicts the brave but failed resistance of Spanish rebels to Napoleon during the peninsular war. A group of peasants are placed against a wall while a firing squad prepares to give out improvised ‘justice’. Among the huddled few awaiting their fatal bullets, a man in a white shirt pleads with arms outstretched. It’s become an icon of resistance to tyranny everywhere. It’s also the painting that comes to mind whenever I think of Alessandro Blasetti’s 1860. (more…)