tlavideo.com

Review

Twenty-five year old Marco Bellocchio marked his film debut with this 1965 portrait of a bourgouise family gone askew. Allesandro (Swedish unknown Lou Castel) has a death wish against himself and his family, an intense youth with nowhere to go in an Italian hamlet surrounded by gorgeous mountains. He lives with a sister, a challenged brother, a blind mother and a suave, older brother. The script is filled with gallows humor and acid tongues, lashing out at family and society. In his musings, Allesandro fantasizes about killing his mother and disabled brother, and in a chilling scene, allows his mother to wander off a cliff to her death.

Irreverence abounds as brother and sister argue and debate each other’s worth, while casually lounging around their mother’s coffin. Fists in the Pocket, urbane and morbid, chronicle the effects of modern society on the disaffected youth. The Ennio Morricone score adds just the right amount of menace and whimsey to the disordered family. Flirting at taboo-breaking boundaries, Bellocchio pushes as hard as he can, with Allesandro as his battering ram. Tame today, one must remember the grip of authority that family and religion had in those times. The question is put forth: is love served by destruction of innocent life? Or is “assisted dying” a completion of the narcissism so accurately depicted by Castel?

The wonderful compositions framed by the cinematographer Marrama reflect the wide-eyed wonder of an artist waking up to the new world dawning. In the end, the creeping dread of a systemic disease, deep in the heart of society, is all-consuming.

 -- Max Brinck