1h 57min | Drama, Romance | 7 May 1981
In the 1860s, Giorgio (Giraudeau), a young Italian soldier, is sent to a remote post, far away from his lover, Clara (Antonelli). He is lodged in the house of the colonel (Girotti). He becomes friends with the colonel and the local doctor (Trintignant). Among the inhabitants of the house there is a strange young woman: Fosca (d'Obici) who is both unattractive and mad. However, she has a passion that Giorgio will have to cope with.
Director: Ettore Scola
Stars: Valeria D'Obici, Bernard Giraudeau, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Massimo Girotti, Laura Antonelli.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082883/
This disc is only 1h 52.5min. It came with a note explaining it was a promo disc for the press, and might be different than the theatrical release.
Antecedent to Sondheim: Passion (1996), 8. I wish I had watched this one first, but maybe not. Maybe the dense unintelligibility of the musical would be absent after the clarity of this.
I also wish someone would create an English-dubbed version; the Italian dialog is not in sync with the faces anyway, and some subtitles are onscreen so briefly that I couldn't read the whole thing. (English is the 2nd ST track, labeled poorly.)
I'm fascinated with Fosca's vocal (and physical) fits. Once she announced one was coming on. I wonder if there is some form of epilepsy like it.
I like the musical aspect of Sondheim's version, but the ugliness of Fosca is too central to the story, and the Fosca of Sondheim's production is merely plain. Overall, this is better, but I have a strong preference for film over stage, and we got more visual cues here that were useful. I may be too generous with my 9, but there it is.
Rated 7.3 (717)
indie, dir. Scola; 9
