Carmelo Bene

  • Carmelo Bene – Don Giovanni (1970)

    1961-1970Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtArthouseCarmelo BeneExperimentalItaly

    Synopsis:
    Spectacular Italian comedy-drama directed by Carmelo Bene. The narrative follows how Don Giovanni tries to seduce a young woman who is manically searching for Christian icons. The film is loosely based on Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly’s short story “The Greatest Love of Don Juan”, from the collection Les Diaboliques. The film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival.Read More »

  • Carmelo Bene – Salome (1972)

    1971-1980Carmelo BeneExperimentalItalyPerformance

    Synopsis:
    A psychedelic re-telling of the biblical story. Salome is the daughter of the second wife of King Herod. The King is infatuated with her and after she fails to seduce the prophet John (The Baptist) she dances for the King in order to ask for his execution. The story is told in a bizarre way of fast cuts, repetitive dialogue and extreme satire.Read More »

  • Carmelo Bene – Nostra signora dei turchi AKA Our Lady of the Turks (1968)

    1961-1970Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtCarmelo BeneCultExperimentalItaly

    Synopsis:
    A man (Carmelo Bene) can not bear to be part of society. He considers himself a “jerk” and so invents its own philosophy, which involves the destruction of his land of Puglia where all citizens are devoted to the Catholic religion. However, the man can not destroy the belief of the pilgrims of Salento, because a woman would prevent that. It is an unknown “Santa Margherita”, which tries to divert man from his weird and impossible philosophy. Successive scenes of the film show various situations unreal and dream in which the two protagonists try to obtain the best one on the other. After a blasphemous dialogue between monks, the man includes his whole philosophy in a Moorish building. In fact, this seems to have been the scene of the massacre of the famous 800 Martyrs of Otranto, which are considered by the scetic man the absolute death of Christianity.Read More »

  • Carmelo Bene – Salome (1972)

    1971-1980ArthouseCarmelo BeneExperimentalItaly

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    This experimental film by the maverick Italian director Carmelo Bene is a free adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play Salome and is even more irreverent than the original. In this film, Bene carries the New Testament story beyond the incident with Herod, and pictures Christ nailing himself to the cross, unable (of course) to finish the task. This film uses many musical and filmic special effects and includes at least one pornographic sequence and a number of sadistic ones. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie GuideRead More »

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