Pfor the 20th century series, Italian and foreign films that tell the story of characters and events from the 1900s, tonight Rai 3 offers a TV premiere The Bad Poet. It is the story of the last years of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s life played by Sergio Castellitto directed by Gianluca Jodice. The film, released in 2021, won two Silver Ribbons for Best Cinematography (for Daniele Ciprì) and Best Costume Design (for Andrea Cavalletto). It is shot largely in the monumental Victorian of Gardone Riviera.
“The bad poet”: the plot
The film kicks off in Italy in 1936, at the height of the fascist regime. The young Federal Giovanni Comini (Francesco Patanè) is appointed by the party secretary, Achille Starace (Fausto Russo Alesi), to supervise Gabriele D’Annunzio (Sergio Castellitto), unfavorable to Mussolini’s alliance with Hitler. The Duce fears that the poet could damage his imminent partnership with the Fuhrer. As the days pass at the Vittoriale, the poet’s monumental estate on Lake Garda, Giovanni will begin to question himself about his own choices, up to jeopardizing his loyalty to the fascist regime and his own political convictions.
In his very long seclusion, D’Annunzio is experiencing his definitive sunset, a phase of final depression. This condition, dictated by illnesses and his vices, will be alleviated by the relationship established with the young spy, the last breath of vitality, the desire to count again. For his part, the very young Federal Comini cannot avoid being fascinated by the “bad poet”. The two will become mentors to each other.
The film also shows the comparison between the immobility of the Vittoriale, a majestic but closed and isolated place, with external reality, politics with its murky movements, a life that is drawing to a close and another that still has years ahead. Alongside the Vate, the official companions Luisa Baccara (Elena Bucci), who introduced him to the use and abuse of cocaine, and Amélie Mazoyer (Clotilde Courau)and a series of paid lovers.
An accurate historical reconstruction
The Bad Poet was shot almost entirely inside the Vittoriale degli Italiani, on Lake Garda. It is a monumental complex of buildings, streets, squares, gardens complete with an open-air theater built between 1921 and 1938 on commission by D’Annunzio himself A place that reflects the soul of D’Annunzio, that reveals his feelings, between power, death and decay. In the film, props that really belonged to the poet were used and the use of which was permitted under the supervision of a specific figure, the props manager. Other sequences were shot in Brescia and Rome, the city where the poet spent part of his life.
The screenplay, the work of the director himself, was written on the basis of archival material, diaries, letters, manuscripts, articles and speeches by the Vate, which gave way to reconstruct the dialogues in a more than faithful way. The title itself, the bad poet, it is a definition that D’Annunzio gave of himself, in one of the many letters analyzed during the writing.
Sergio Castellitto (Gabriele D’Annunzio) in the garden of the Vittoriale (Credit: Ansa/Press Office)
The bad poet: a perfect Castellitto
In the role of D’Annunzio Sergio Castellitto gives life to one of his most successful interpretations. Which also goes through physical transformation. In fact, speaking of his own interpretation, the actor underlined how the fulcrum of the imagination that surrounds the poet from Pescara was his bald skull. «I cut my hair completely, which is not just a matter of craftsmanship and physical identification, but an act of generosity: the first image that comes to mind when thinking of D’Annunzio is the skull empty of hair but full of fantasy, cruelty , danger,” he said.
Sergio Castellitto is Gabriele D’Annunzio in the film “The bad poet” (Credit: Ufficio Stampa)
the other interpreters
They don’t disfigure the other actors at all. Starting with Francesco Patanè, who masterfully plays the “spy” prefect of Brescia, Giovanni Comini. “He is a very young hierarch who finds himself experiencing an enterprise greater than him, but it will be precisely this assignment that represents an awareness that without the poet it would not have been possible”, said the actor.
The two actresses are also excellent: Elena Bucci is Luisa Baccara, already famous pianist who left her brilliant career to follow the Vate first in the Buccari adventure and later in exile until her death. Clotilde Courau instead is Amélie Mazoyer, the poet’s lover. “The images in the film are beautiful,” said the actress. «Sergio Castellitto is a great actor, but all the performers amazed me with their skill. And then, filming at the Vittoriale, D’Annunzio’s home, was the best way to get to know his soul. It is a unique place in the world and for me a real discovery. “My” Amélie? She was a manipulator and a tormented person who hated fascism”
«The images that immediately appeared before my eyes had the shades of the interiors of the Vittoriale, “heavy”, deep colors, yellows, blacks, greens… shades that create the patina of time, so essential to give credibility to a historical tale», said director Gianluca Jodice. “Naturally, I’ve been thinking about a lot of movies… trying never to think about The Conformist. A film that is too enchanted, too important, too unapproachable».
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