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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Perfect Video, March 12, 2000
This review is from: The Spider's Stratagem [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This film was originally made for Italian television, hence, there is poetic justice to watching it in video. It is breathtakingly beautiful. The interweaving of present and past, with "son" also playing "father," is really a self-referential game of hide and seek. The common thread between past and present is the radiant Alida Valli, richly conveying layers of meaning with each word and move. Perhaps over 20 years had passed since "The Third Man" when this movie was made, yet she's never looked more beautiful. The use of a long but simple string phrase from an early Verdi opera (he, the master of father-son conflicts in opera) is a stroke of genius which instantly sums up the unbridgeable, melancholy regrets between generations, their irespective life histories, ambivalences and myths, which lie at the core of this film. Love is indeed quite different from understanding. Bertolucci has given us grander, arguably more ambitious masterpieces, such as "The Conformist," but this is probably his finest film. Storaro's cinematography is of such beauty as to make one cry: when have we seen such play of flowers and light? When will this movie be reissued on DVD?
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Web Of Mysteries, October 22, 2000
This review is from: The Spider's Stratagem [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Definitely one of Bernardo Bertolucci's best films! The combination of beautiful music, wonderful photography by Vittorio Storaro, and great acting by Giulio Brogi and Alida Villi, and Bertolucci's top notch directing make this a must for film lovers everywhere! Not just Bertolucci fans will only be able to notice the sheer beauty of this film with it's wonderful colors and photography. The screenplay written by Eduardo de Gregorio, Marilu Parolini, and Bertolucci himself is full of intrigue and mystery. It deals with Athos Magnani jr (Brogi) returning to his hometown where his father was a anti-facist, who was murdered, and is now considered a hero. He meets a woman there (Villi) who he finds out was his father's mistress, Draifa. He soon begins to investigate his father's murder, untill the whole town turns against him. Everyone he meets show's nothing but hostillity towards him, wanting him to leave. Soon he finds himself trapped in a "spider's web" of intrigue that tanges history and fiction, hero and tritor, and past and present. This is a film not only Bertolucci fans should watch but filmbuffs, foreign film fans, a movie goers everywhere. A masterpiece by Bernardo Bertolucci.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best movies ever made, June 5, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Spider's Stratagem [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I saw this movie a couple of years ago in my college film class, and have been raving about it ever since. The film is by far the most beautifully directed film to be made to date. The cinematography is absolutly spectacular. The colors are so vibrant, and the acting is very good as well. I recommend this movie to anyone apprieciative of good cinema.
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