Love and Anarchy Reviews

Wertmuller's film treats the two subjects most dear to her--relationships between the male and female of the species, and the power struggle between opposing political factions. LOVE AND ANARCHY opens with a wonderful visual prolog, a montage sequence of photographs of Mussolini that sets the film's historic mood. The scene then shifts to the Italian countryside where Giannini--a humble, unattractive farmer--meets an aging anarchist on his way to Rome to assassinate Mussolini. Soon afterwards the anarchist is captured and killed, but the seed of revolutionary change has been planted in Giannini's otherwise unimaginative mind. Giannini arrives at a Roman brothel to meet Melato, a vulgar but likable whore who has managed to extract information on Mussolini's itinerary from some of her more talkative Fascist clients. Together she and Gannini plot their upcoming assassination attempt, but in the meantime Giannini falls in love with Polito, a working-class prostitute who also lives in the brothel. Much of LOVE AND ANARCHY's success stems from Wertmuller's unlikely hero, Giannini. A shy, diminutive, unhealthy-looking, common-man type, he seems a most unlikely potential assassin of an immensely powerful world leader. Since we know that Mussolini was not assassinated but executed, we know that Giannini will fail. Wertmuller shows the elements that force him to become an anarchist--not the usual political convictions but a naive romanticism that cannot help but falter when confronted by reality. Although LOVE AND ANARCHY is an insightful and complex look at how political situations affect the romantic, Wertmuller's distracting Felliniesque excesses (her grotesque vision of brothel life fast becomes annoying) cause the film to fall short of true effectiveness. (In Italian; English subtitles.)