‘Allonsanfan’ is a period epic directed by the Taviani brothers in the year 1974. Here from Radiance Films is a recent limited edition Blu-ray (single pressing of 3000 copies) release of the film. Featuring a 2K restoration from the original negative, and a selection of extras

‘Alonsanfan’ was the last movie to be filmed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani before their breakout international arthouse success, ‘Padre Padrone’ (‘My Father, My Master’) in 1977.  That title and their nostalgic epic ‘Good Morning Babylon’ (1987) remain their most familiar films to English-speaking audiences.

Like many of their Italian and European contemporaries, the Taviani brothers were left wingers.  And with ‘Allonsanfan’ set in the period following Napoleon’s downfall and chronicling the serio-comic progress of an utterly disillusioned former revolutionary the brothers were explicit about the fact that their movie reflected their own disillusionment following the 1968 political uprisings in France and elsewhere.  In pre-1968 drafts of the script the protagonist did not betray his former revolutionary colleagues and he returned following the massacre to give them a decent burial.

The film stars Marcello Mastroianni as Fulvio Imbriani, a middle-aged Italian aristocrat who had previously joined the Jacobins and fought alongside them during the French Revolution.  Having served alongside the French in Napoleon’s Italian Campaigns Fulvio has been arrested and only been released by the authorities in an attempt to hunt down his former colleagues in a revolutionary group called the Sublime Brothers.  His previous defeats and the spell in prison have left Fulvio entirely lacking revolutionary ardour and now he only wishes to return to his comfortable aristocratic life on the family estate or better yet to escape the turmoil in Europe for the safety of the United States.  In this desire he is regularly compromised by members of the Brothers who not suspecting Fulvio’s change of heart keep turning up like bad pennies at the most inauspicious moments.  Fulvio resorts to lies, treachery and even attempted murder to be able to secure the life he planned for himself.

Mastroianni’s casting is a clever stroke by the Tavianis.  The actor’s soulful, urbane and vulnerable qualities keep the audience mostly on the side of a character capable of the most heinous betrayals and cruel manipulations:  as part of a scheme to get the Brothers off his back Fulvio attempts to get his closest friend in the group, the already suicidal Lionello (Claudio Cassinello) to kill himself, once the Brothers reach the South of Italy he betrays them to the authorities.

Besides Mastroianni most of the film’s star power is invested in Lea Massari and Mimsy Farmer as, respectively, Charlotte and Francesca, the lovers in Fulvio’s life.  Both actresses acquit themselves brilliantly as these passionate women.

The Tavianis’ talent for composition and landscape photography is much in evidence.  Human characters are frequently picked out as vivid red and white dots against forbidding autumnal landscapes and slate grey skies.  Whatever the poetic or ideological intention of these images, the results are eye-catching and evocative.

‘Allonsanfan’’s most provocative and intruiging aspect is its status as political or more precisely moral fable.  There is a clue to this in the film’s title.  Allonsanfan is mostly a marginal figure in the movie, a young Sublime Brother who is only occasionally seen until the end.  It seems odd that the film should be named after him but the clue is in his name.  Allonsanfan is a phonetic Italian spelling of the first words of the Marseillaise, ‘Allons Enfants’ or ‘Arise Children’.  Allonsanfan is the son of the Brothers’ Master who commits suicide out of despair at the beginning of the film.  Naming his son after the French anthem reflects the Master’s old revolutionary zeal.  However the contraction of the original verse from ‘Arise children of the Fatherland’ reflects the film makers’ schematic.  Fulvio’s morose cynicism and opportunism is contrasted with the seemingly unaffected idealism and optimism of the mostly middle-aged Sublime Brothers.  Arriving in disguise or in the revolutionary cosplay of their red jackets at the end there is often something somewhat childish about them.  Childish also is their refusal to face their limitations in being able to achieve their aims, in thinking that a small troupe will be able to rouse the cholera-ridden peasants of the South against the authorities.  In opposing Fulvio’s pragmatism against the Brothers’ idealism, the Tavianis do not come fully down in favour of either.  The Brothers’ revolutionary fervour is portrayed as admirable but it blinds them to reality.  Although Fulvio sinks to low levels he is not a complete monster.  At a time when he needs the fortune he takes from the deceased Charlotte to escape from Italy he uses a fair amount to secure schooling and accommodation for their son, Massimiliano, for the next three years.  Besides, his plight following failure and imprisonment is not hard to understand.

In addition to the excellently restored feature the Radiance Blu-ray also boasts scanty but worthwhile extras.  A commentary by British scholar Michael Brooke provides a thorough examination with many interesting asides.  For instance, while discussing the Tavianis’ psychological tropes in their colour schemes, Fulvio’s assuming a yellowish tan coat opens up a fascinating potted history of the colour yellow’s association with cowardice and treachery. He also talks about the film's English subtitles- which appear here for the first time.   Theres a 57-minute archival audio interview conducted by critic Gideon Bachmann brings together Paolo Taviani and other young Italian political filmmakers of the time (1966)  to discuss the connections between filmmaking and activism.  There is also a contemporary Italian trailer. The Blu-ray package also contains a reversible sleeve featuring film posters and a booklet by Italian film expert Robert Lumley.

‘Allonsanfan’ is not a masterpiece, but it is a handsome, interesting and intelligent film.  A little slow to start it soon draws the viewer into its complex story and the tragedy of Fulvio and the Sublime Brothers, both likeable and ridiculous in their own ways is deeply affecting.