Episode from the filmic revue «Monthly Document»


Splendid, Visconti’s piece which examines how, in the village of Primavalle, Lionello Egidi’s atrocious crime against a little girl could happen. In just a few scenes, approximately five minutes (unfortunately!), Visconti gave us a social explanation for the awful event. […] We walked through the town to choose the shooting locations. We found a gloomy, squalid bar, where three or four young boys were hanging around doing nothing. We found a small valley, dusty and strewn with trash, where a couple of guys were playing tambourines. The park where the crime occurred was just after where the houses ended; someone had put a bouquet of flowers where the little girl’s body was found. We also found a street going uphill, dead-ending against the sky in a sort of finis terrae. During all these location surveys, I realized, from how Visconti described them, that I had seen only one tenth of what he had dug up and understood. And that was precisely the force of his inspiration and style.


Riccardo Ghione, in Lino Miccichè – ed. – Studi su dodici sguardi d’autore in cortometraggio, Torino, Lindau/Associazione Philip Morris, 1995

A meditation on a suburban environment that witnessed a cruel crime (the rape and murder of a 12 year old girl) and a record of street life in all its triviality, some kids playing, where not even the slightest incident occurs; the ultimate mise-en-scène of nothingness, some six minutes of invisible horror: «Will we have peace, if we bring flowers to her grave?». This film maintains the utmost composure. An absolute masterpiece, it was originally banned in Italy, only to resurface in the early 1990s. There seems to be a rule of thumb when attempting to define the signature of great fiction directors. Look for the documentaries they made. Look for a short film, as there is usually at least one. This film is both.

Peter von Bagh