The Spider’s Stratagem [Strategia del Ragno] **** (1970, Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli, Tino Scotti, Pippo Campanini) – Classic Movie Review 10,794

Writer-director Bernardo Bertolucci’s stylish, complex and clever 1970 Italian political film The Spider’s Stratagem [Strategia del Ragno] is based on the story Theme of the Traitor and the Hero (Tema del traidor y del héroe) by Jorge Luis Borges, with the screenplay written by Bertolucci, Eduardo de Gregorio and Marilù Parolini.

Giulio Brogi stars as young researcher Athos Magnani who returns by train to the fictional town of Tara at the request of his father’s mistress Draifa (Alida Valli), who says his lookalike resistance hero father Athos Magnani Sr (also Giulio Brogi) was killed there by unknown fascists in 1936. Draifa expects Athos to solve and avenge his father’s murder, but he finds himself tangled in the same spider’s web as his father.

The cast are Giulio Brogi as Athos Magnani, father and son, Alida Valli as Draifa, Tino Scotti as Costa, Pippo Campanini as Garibazzi and Giuseppe Bertolucci as the lion bearer (portatore di leone).

The music is Giuseppe Verdi with pieces from Aida, Attila and Rigoletto.

The Spider’s Stratagem [Strategia del Ragno] runs 100 minutes, is co-produced by Italian TV RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana and Red Film, and is released by Independenti Regionali (1972) (Italy), New Yorker Films (1973) (US) and Artificial Eye (1976) (UK) .

Locations included Sabbioneta, Mantua, Lombardia, Italy, for most of the scenes in Tara. The theatre’s exterior is Sabbioneta’s Palazzo Ducale and its interior is Fidenza’s Teatro Magnani. The square of the hotel is in Pomponesco, Draifa’s villa is the Villa Longari Ponzoni in Rivarolo del Re ed Uniti, and it is Brescello train station.

RIP Bernardo Bertolucci, Oscar-winning director, dead at age 77 in November 2018.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,794

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