Vittorio Cottafavi (or Sur un art ignoré)

[Saimo]

Cinema’s destination, obtained in rare instances by the great of the great: Losey, Lang, Preminger and Cottafavi, consists in freeing the viewer from any conscious distance and sending him into a state of hypnosis with the spell of gestures, looks, small facial and body movements, vocal intonations, within a universe of sparkling, damaging or propitious objects in which the viewer gets lost and then finds himself more mature, with a clear mind and at peace.
[…] Only Losey, Preminger, Cottafavi, Don Weis, Lang, Walsh, Fuller, Ludwig and Mizoguchi knew, to different extents, the secret of the grip of the actor and the décor, which Murnau and Griffith were unable to take to the extreme and that Hawks, Hitchcock, Renoir and Rossellini glimpsed at but never controlled.
Michel Mourlet, Sur un art ignoré, «Cahiers du Cinéma», n. 98, August 1959, pp. 23-37.

Ok, that's right, but... have you ever heard of Vittorio Cottafavi?
Highly praised by Truffaut and Rivette, he was an Italian director who made several melò and sword-and-sandals in the '50s. French critics (especially the Présénce du Cinéma group) rated him as one of the greatest auteurs ever, but in the '60s and '70s he worked mainly for TV and was soon forgotten. His rediscovery is recent history: in 2009 Il Cinema Ritrovato screened some of his best titles, and this year Cineteca di Bologna published a 400 page book (which I co-edited). Now Ripley's Home Video is releasing a collection made up of five DVDs, and two discs are already avaible.

I nostri sogni ("Our Dreams", 1943, written by and starring Vittorio De Sica) is a metafilmic comedy that re-elaborates Mario Camerini's heritage. The disc has Italian and French subs.

Una donna ha ucciso ("A Woman Has Killed", 1952) is a strange melange between De Sica and Hitchcock, Puccini and Tolstoy. Cottafavi deals with female characters fighting their way through Italian archaic society, and if you love Divorce Italian Style you will have a glimpse of what Germi was referring to. The disc has English subs, so I recommend it to everyone interested in Italian cinema.

[Knappen]

Great post. Will check out more Cottafavi.

[Saimo]

Next DVD, in early 2011, should be Fiamma che non si spegne ("The Inextinguishable Fire"), imho Cottafavi's masterpiece, but also a film maudit, screened at Venice 1949 and attacked by Italian Communist party.

Based on the last stages of a real event, this austere tribute to moral virtue and sense of sacrifice is rediscovered from generation to generation, but at the time it was so against the mainstream (we are talking about the very beginning of Neorealism) that it stirred up controversy at the 1949 Venice Film Festival. Fiamma che non si spegne is a fluid and compelling story, and its more powerful moments are streaked with a tragic lyricism. [...] The final execution is the most beautiful sequence of Cottafavi’s work; the director said he just let himself go and allowed himself to be guided by his admiration for Bach’s music while directing it. During the whole film the action scenes and private scenes have the same almost ceremonial intensity, the result of the filmmaker’s search for style. The liturgical quality of the film erases time, it erases History; it places every tragic action in a religious continuity that is a kind of eternity: indeed, the flame continues to burn. In this way, the execution of an anonymous soldier, in a war in which millions die, is represented with the same enormity and the same careful composition as the suicide of Anthony and Cleopatra. By looking first to eternity Cottafavi’s films ignore Neorealism – magnificently.- Jacques Lourcelles, Dictionnaire du cinéma, Laffont, Paris 1992

Later RHV will release Nel gorgo del peccato (aka L'affranchi)and Traviata 53 (aka Fille d'amour). If you have seen Luc Moullet's Les Siège de l'Alcazar perhaps you will remember Moullet paying homage to both films.

[mario gauci]

I cento cavalieri

[Saimo]

About I cento cavalieri, I recommend you an excellent essay by José Luis Guarner, pubblished in "Movie" #12 (summer 1965). In Cottafavi's personal archive we found a letter by Thelma Schoonmaker about the film: Scorsese and her enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately the Italian DVD has no subs, and many countries released the film in a mutilated version.

[the preacher]

Very interesting. I agree Cottafavi is a filmmaker to rediscover, some of my favorite critics (José Luis Guarner, Bertrand Tavernier) loved his films and wrote great reviews but now he's a forgotten name.

Available Italian DVDs: A come Andromeda, I cento cavalieri, I racconti di Padre Brown, Le legioni di Cleopatra, I nostri sogni. I miss his masterpiece, Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide, and Una donna libera, the only entry in "I 100 film italiani da salvare". Has anyone seen this one?

[rohmerin]

Una donna libera? I've got it but not seen yet.
RHV is the best DVD company for me.

Edit: They have NOT released most Matarazzo melodramas, is 01

[Saimo]

Una donna ha ucciso snapshots

[Saimo]

Very interesting. I agree Cottafavi is a filmmaker to rediscover, some of my favorite critics (José Luis Guarner, Bertrand Tavernier) loved his films and wrote great reviews but now he's a forgotten name.

Bertrand Tavernier, Mon ami Vittorio Cottafavi.

Available Italian DVDs: A come Andromeda, I cento cavalieri, I racconti di Padre Brown, Le legioni di Cleopatra, I nostri sogni. I miss his masterpiece, Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide

Le legioni di Cleopatra Italian DVD is a cut version.
Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide was released in France with Italian audio and French dubbing and subtitles.
A come Andromeda and I racconti di padre Brown are TV miniseries. Cottafavi is one of the most important Italian TV directors, but unfortunately his TV work is even more forgotten than his movies... None of these discs have subs.

and Una donna libera, the only entry in "I 100 film italiani da salvare". Has anyone seen this one?

In my opinion Una donna libera (A Free Woman) is his best melodrama, a real masterpiece. I would compare it to Frank Borzage's I've always loved you.

[Camera Obscura]

There's a hilarious little 1989 farce by Luc Moullet, Les sièges de l'Alcazar, that is essentially about the 50s craze among some of the young French bucks writing for Cahiers and Positive who considered Cottafavi a 'grand auteur'.

The young critic portrayed is Guy (played to perfection by Olivier Maltinti), who is a movie critic for "Cahiers du Cinema" and is especially fond of Vittorio Cottafavi, whose work he considers far superior to Michelangelo Antonioni. The unlikely place he frequents to watch his movies is the Alcazar, a small theater in a Parisian suburb, run by an elderly couple. But one day, a new regular visitor comes to the Alcazar. It's Jeanne, movie critic of the rival magazine "Positive" (the "Cahiers" and "Positive" were the leading French film magazines in those days), who - to Guy's disgust - is a big fan of Antonioni.

The interaction between Guy and the elderly couple who run this little cinema delivers some delightful comic situations as Guy never seems able to make up his mind about the seat he wants. Mostly dependent on the presence of some rowdy youngsters, he wants either the front-row seat or the back-row seat. Of course he never makes the right choice of seats right away, so he has to go back to the entrance to buy a new ticket, because in the Alcazar different seats mean different prices. Much to Guy's grievance, the elderly couple couldn't care less about the films themselves. They repeatedly show films in the wrong format because they don't want to invest in some of the expensive innovations of the day, such as Cinemascope, resulting in ridiculously "stretched out" formats, or the wrong lenses, etc, etc. Apparently they don't make any profit from ticket sales, but they do make a profit from the ice-cream they sell, so they continuously overheat in order to sell more ice-cream.

Just a light comic touch without choosing the easy way out by wallowing in nostalgia, it's spot-on, full of in-jokes, references and sprinkled with movie clips from the era. I thought it was a fun little film, not just for cinephiles.

[Knappen]

Must.watch.this..now!

[rohmerin]

After watching his peplums, the awful and over rated I cento cavaliere, and Una donna libera (this was good, I agree) , I don't see any great art ignored on his cinema, BUT Traviata 53 finally has surfaced on piracy lands and I expect I will be able to see something.


You are talking on the RHV thread about him and may be you will like to rescue this chat.

[TMDaines]

Next DVD, in early 2011, should be Fiamma che non si spegne ("The Inextinguishable Fire"), imho Cottafavi's masterpiece, but also a film maudit, screened at Venice 1949 and attacked by Italian Communist party.
Later RHV will release Nel gorgo del peccato (aka L'affranchi)and Traviata 53 (aka Fille d'amour). If you have seen Luc Moullet's Les Siège de l'Alcazar perhaps you will remember Moullet paying homage to both films.

Are these still upcoming? Not seen any updates for listings for these DVDs as of yet. RHV are really releasing some interesting stuff beyond the Italian cannon right now.

[Fred Holywell]

A brief clip from Luc Moullet's "Les Siège de l'Alcazar" has been posted on Vimeo. Gives you a good taste for the flavor of the film.

[Saimo]

We are currently working on Nel gorgo del peccato, but this film has never been shown in its uncut version, so we have to do a lot of research in order to restore it in its proper form. I don't know yet when it will be released, but we already have English subtitles for this.
I have also shot an interview with Cottafavi's assistant director, to be included in Fiamma che non si spegne DVD, coming at some point in 2012. In my opinion this latter is Cottafavi's best film, and the disc will feature English subtitles.

[TMDaines]

We are currently working on Nel gorgo del peccato, but this film has never been shown in its uncut version, so we have to do a lot of research in order to restore it in its proper form. I don't know yet when it will be released, but we already have English subtitles for this.
I have also shot an interview with Cottafavi's assistant director, to be included in Fiamma che non si spegne DVD, coming at some point in 2012. In my opinion this latter is Cottafavi's best film, and the disc will feature English subtitles.

That all sounds very interesting I must say.

Are Ripley's going to have a website up and running any time soon? I don't think they've ever had one since I've been buying from them!

[Saimo]

After watching his peplums, the awful and over rated I cento cavaliere, and Una donna libera (this was good, I agree) , I don't see any great art ignored on his cinema

What peplums have you seen? While La rivolta dei gladiatori, Messalina and La vendetta di Ercole are fun but not that good, just well-made entertainment, Le legioni di Cleopatra and Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide are very original films. However, his best works are in the melodrama period (1952-1954): Una donna ha ucciso and Una donna libera are little masterpieces, and Traviata 53 has at least four or five marvelous pieces of filmmaking.

Many friends of mine have problems with I cento cavalieri, since it is a very peculiar film: half adventure, half comedy, half Brechtian experiment. We have three halves and just one film... I like this picture very much, and Cottafavi was very proud of it, but I must admit it's his most "cold" work, a very cerebral film, perhaps a bit too 60s, as if he was looking for a "new wave/genre film".

Courtesy of our friendly web pirates, some screenshots, just in order to get a glimpse of this ignored art

Una donna ha ucciso (A Woman Has Killed)
(I asked his assistant director if they had seen Hitchcock's Suspicion, but he didn't remember...)


Traviata 53 (... but they had surely seen Antonioni's Cronaca di un amore!)


I cento cavalieri (Hundred Horsemen)

[TMDaines]

Anyone know the source of the recent Traviata 53 rip that's turned up recently in the usual places? It seems to be a DVD rip but from where? I wasn't aware this film was out anywhere.

[Saimo]

I suppose they have ripped the French DVD. Here a review by Bertrand Tavernier. Same label also released Avanzi di galera.

[rohmerin]

It is a DVD rip and there's English subtitles. The actress looks like Yvonne Sanson.

I found very interesting Ercole alla conquista... with the aryan supermen and nuclear weapon paranoia, but I didn't see any good in Cleopatra. Forse sono cieco.

[Saimo]

The actress in Traviata is named Barbara Laage and she had been in Marcello Pagliero's La p... respecteuse (1953). As a sort of hommage, Truffaut will cast her in Domicile conjugal (1970).

I didn't see any good in Cleopatra

For example, if you have a good copy the final scenes are just amazing. Winner Octavius' hoariness as opposite to loser Anthony's purple death is something to remember.

Also, it is very interesting to compare this Cleopatra portrait to Cottafavi's contemporary melodrama leading charachters: they are very similar, because as you can see in Una donna ha ucciso his women are always victims of a male dominion, and at last they have to accept this in order to fight their oppressors and save the ones they truly love. The jewels Barbara Laage is forced to wear are very similar in function to the mausoleum Cleopatra is buried in. You can find the same concern in Messalina but, while this is a very stylish picture, I find the theme is less powerfully developed (and, in my opinion, the film is just a disguised remake of Il boia di Lilla).

[Calvin]

Nel gorgo del peccato is out in a few days.

[bergelson]

No English subs?

[Saimo]

Yes, the disc has English subtitles.

Here is the definitive cover:

[bergelson]

Thanks a lot. Great news.