That crime on the banks of the Tiber, the 60th anniversary of “La commare Secca” – Corriere.it

One of his less popular films, a work that was considered, in my opinion wrongly, to follow in Pasolini’s footsteps, not yet personal. Marco Tullio Giordana talks about dry kumari – The debut of director Bernardo Bertolucci – which he will present on March 16 to the audience of Cinema Troisi, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the release of the film, on the day the Oscar-winning director died in November 2018. They are 91. Investigations, in flashbacks, into the murder of a prostitute , found as a corpse on the banks of the Tiber, from different points of view.

Pasolini’s theme, inspiration comes from Ragazzi di vita, script written with Sergio Citti. Pasolini Bertolucci, who was his assistant at Accattone, advised the use of non-professional actors. However, you are right, a non-Pasolini movie. How do you explain that?

They face the same world, deal with the same backgrounds, and the same human substance. But the look is very different: in every shot in Pasolini, every camera movement is dominated (which is a rarity) by a sense of holiness. On the other hand, Bertolucci’s view belongs, as he himself said, to an “unhappy conscience”. Full of love and excitement, as in a mentor, but with a more romantic and teenage dimension.

Bertolucci signed her at the age of 21, the youngest newcomer in Italian cinema. What effect did it have after that?

He and Seto Masselli were two child prodigies in Italian cinema. In the 1950s and 1960s, several films were made, and the producers were adventurous enough to encourage early starts. The talent of that talented boy made quite a stir.

Bertolucci seems more interested in portraying the characters in the margins than in solving the mystery.

A feature of noir, the genre to which it belongs. Perhaps the fascination with the characters in Bertolucci I is stronger than the social context.

In your eyes, what dries up La commare?

Already a harmonious cry. Like a newborn baby coming into the world singing a song from the troubadour.

And the sonnet by Bailey for the title: “And now dry, Commaraccia de Strada Ggiulia arza, what wrestle?”

I think it’s Pasolini’s idea. Referring to one of the tombstones on the facade of the Romanesque church of Santa Maria del Orazione e Morte in Via Giulia was another thing I should have asked.

What is your link with Cinema Bertolucci?

He and Bellocchio were the directors I admired the most when I was a boy. Of course, great masters such as Fellini, Visconti, Rossellini, Rossie, Ferreri, and Pasolini were still active, but these boys seemed to me to be greater brothers and, therefore, as unreachable as their fathers. Perhaps there is also a “regional” truth: I am from Crema, Parma and Piacenza, a stone’s throw away. The world of their first films, Their Little Homes, was similar to mine.

Bertolucci spoke of different places: Parma, Emilia, Paris, Brooklyn, and the Orient. He filmed his first and last movie, Io e te, in Rome. What Rome you?

I also think of Middle Eastern Rome in La Luna, a theatrical city (the Baths of Caracalla where the masked ball is practiced), massive and understated, shimmering and dusty. A city where it is good to leave but also good to come back.

What do you say to young people today?

It speaks of an overwhelming love for cinema, a passion without torment or contradiction, second thoughts, push and pull. The love is completely mutual: the cinema has always been a pleasant place for Bernardo Bertolucci.

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