First, that mellifluous/evocative title, better known than the memoir or film. The story set not in but south of Eboli, in one of the poorest/most forgotten areas of Italy. The idea being that this region was too hard even for Christ (or his spirit) to reach. And it’s where Mussolini’s 1930s government sent writer/painter Carlo Levi into ‘internal exile’ on vague charges, mostly for being a progressive intellectual Northerner from Turin. A medical student who never practiced, but turned to painting and literature, he barely speaks the far south dialect. But he can observe. And this is what Francesco Rosi’s quietly patient, utterly compelling film does. Here, in the full 4-part tv edition (on Criterion), nearly doubling the theatrical release in length and effectiveness. (Ingmar Bergman’s nearly contemporary FANNY AND ALEXANDER benefits in much the same way when seen in its full 5-hour tv version.) There is an overriding story arc dealing with Carlo Levi’s gradual acceptance of the need for his medical expertise in spite of being banned by local authorities from seeing patients, but that merely provides a bit of structure to the vignettes he finds around him as he grows more accustomed to the lifestyle balance that holds the community back from the modern world even as it bonds them. Any idea that the state, and whatever political party is in power, could understand the issues remote. Beautifully shot by Pasqualino De Santis (ROMEO AND JULIET; DEATH IN VENICE) and featuring more professional actors than you expect (Irene Papas, Alain Cuny) alongside non-professionals, the film is magnificently held together by Gian Maria Volonté’s Levi: guide, provocateur, artist, auditing student of humanity. The real Levi, whose painting are featured in the film, seems politically near to the George Orwell, pro-proletariat non-communist left-wing, but living a particularly dangerous life as a Jew in the ‘30s who stayed in Italy. Rosi never mentions his religion in a town where he may well have been the first Jew anyone had ever met. But then, neither does Levi in his memoir of his year there.) Sui generis stuff here. Even more priceless now that the town, its cave dwellings, suspicious ways and primitive lifestyle, has morphed into a chic artistic colony. Christ now unable to book a fall reservation. (NOTE: Not thrilled by any of the the film posters. That's a book cover above.)
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The technique Rosi uses to present this unusual film owes something in its effect to classical Chinese landscape paintings. The ones that use walking, rather than one-point, perspective.’ A focal point that seems to walk alongside the painter just as here we might be walking alongside the author.
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