Bertolucci - La commare secca

[Jake Fredel]

I started my Bertolucci month tonight with his feature debut. I had watched as much Ken Russell as I could last month, mostly his early material (I was behind as usual, due to other demands), including his debut, French Dressing, and I had written a lot. Unfortunately it was all in one email and I accidentally deleted the draft. I didn't really feel it was worth trying to recreate, so I'm moving on to Bertolucci. Here's to a great May!

I just watched 'La commare secca', and I consider it to be severely underrated. Rarely, if ever, have I seen it on any lists, and I've barely ever seen any reviews of it or heard mention of it. Once again, we have the Criterion Collection to thank, however, for bringing us another obscure and brilliant film from the past. If it weren't for their release, this film would probably be sentenced to oblivion. So often has a filmmaker attempted to blend cinematic poetry with crime-oriented material - but the result almost always comes out with the poetic qualities either muted beyond recognition, or the film robbed of its dramatic edge and transformed into a bland, formless, boring mess. However, 'La commare secca' is one of the few examples I've seen that really pulls this fusion of sensibilities off exceptionally well. Unsurprisingly, as Bertolucci was a disciple of Pasolini's (who was also credited with the story), the plot unfolds with the aid of a few different vignettes that are dramatically quite similar to Pasolini's films, especially his early, neo-realist influenced ones. But on top of this, Bertolucci adds a layer of fantastic visual poetry that I never remember seeing in any film by Pasolini. Few have the eye to craft poetry completely with images, without any basis in words - but this man definitely has the eye. Not to mention that the film succeeds in being a taut, engrossing murder mystery as well, with both the viewers and investigators each getting closer to the truth of the murder that the film revolves around with each character's disparate Rashomon-esque perspective. I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone - if you were considering it, but weren't sure, believe me, it's worth it.

-Jake

[Thorkell A. Ottarsson]

This was a great film Jake! Very well structured, filmed and edited. Amazing debut! I loved how the film is centered around the murder but really is not about that at all. Instead we just get a glimpse into the life of the city, a lot of short stories about very little but somehow make a big whole. This is one of Bertolucci's best, IMO!

 

Thorkell

[Bobby Beksinski]

I agree with you Thorkell with your comments about the film and its
short story style into the life of the city. This is a great early non-
linear Rashomon structured type story and for a young director of I
think someone said Burtolucci was 21 when he made this, a extremely
professional debut. He made it look easy. My favorite of his so far.

On May 16, 8:33 pm, "Thorkell A. Ottarsson" <thork...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Jake Fredel]

It's amazing to me how much people seem to enjoy and appreciate this film, while it was virtually no official acclaim from any source. Yet many of Bertolucci's more acclaimed films (such as Novecento, which I still haven't seen), provoke a less enthusiastic response. La commare secca is such a good film - more people need to know about it!

-Jake