''Long Night in '43'' (Italian: La Lunga Notte del '43) is an Italian film of 1960 set in

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

, in the

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...

German puppet state during the late stages of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was directed by

Florestano Vancini Florestano Vancini (24 August 1926 – 18 September 2008) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed over 20 films since 1960. His 1966 film '' Le stagioni del nostro amore'', starring Enrico Maria Salerno, was entered into ...

and adapted by Vancini, Ennio De Concini and

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

from a short story by

Giorgio Bassani Giorgio Bassani (4 March 1916 – 13 April 2000) was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual. Biography Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood wit ...

. The film stars

Enrico Maria Salerno Enrico Maria Salerno (September 18, 1926 – February 28, 1994) was an Italian actor, voice actor and film director. He was also the voice of Clint Eastwood in the Italian version of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy films, and the voice of Ch ...

Gino Cervi Luigi Cervi (3 May 1901 – 3 January 1974), better known as Gino Cervi (), was an Italian actor. He was best known for portraying Peppone in a series of comedies based on the character ''Don Camillo'' (1952-1965), and police detective Jules M ...

Belinda Lee Belinda Lee (15 June 193512 March 1961) was an English actress. A profile for the British Film Institute's Screenonline website asserts: "of all the Rank Organisation's starlets, Belinda Lee stands out as the most notorious, yet paradoxically ...

Gabriele Ferzetti Gabriele Ferzetti (born Pasquale Ferzetti; 17 March 1925 – 2 December 2015) was an Italian actor with more than 160 credits across film, television, and stage. His career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. Ferzetti's first leading role ...

and

Andrea Checchi Andrea Checchi (21 October 1916 – 29 March 1974) was a prolific Italian film actor. Biography Born in Florence, Checchi appeared in over 150 films in his lengthy career, which spanned from 1934 to his death in 1974. The son of a painter, ...

. It was also known as ''The Long Night of '43'' or ''It Happened in '43''. The original Italian title was ''La lunga notte del '43''. In 2008 the film was selected to enter the list of the "

100 Italian films to be saved The list of the ''100 Italian films to be saved'' ( it, 100 film italiani da salvare) was created with the aim to report "100 films that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978". History The project was established ...

Plot

In a town in the province of Ferrara in 1943, a pharmacist by the name of Pino is permanently crippled and unable to walk without crutches. He observes the town's activities from his upstairs window while his lonely wife Anna begins an affair with Franco, an old friend, and a deserter from the army. Local Fascist leader Carlo Aretusi, better known as 'Sciagura' ('Calamity'), wants to assassinate his opponents in the Fascist party and blame it on some resistance supporters, including Franco's father. On the night of 15 December, while Anna is out with Franco, Sciagura orders the suspected assassins to be shot in front of a wall of Estense Castle. Pino can see everything from his window but doesn't say a word. Anna returns from Franco's home to find the bodies of the executed victims lying in the street where they fell and confronts Pino. Anna is then rejected by Franco and leaves town. The townspeople follow the Fascists into the town square for a rally to celebrate the defeat of "traitors". It is revealed that Pino's disability is due to syphilis, which he caught when Sciagura forced him into a brothel at gunpoint after participating in the

March on Rome The March on Rome ( it, Marcia su Roma) was an organized mass demonstration and a coup d'état in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fa ...

. Years later, after the war, Franco returns to the town with his wife and son, and shows them a plaque located where his father was killed. He runs into Sciagura, who seems happy and content and has no regrets about what he did during the war. He says Franco looks like his father.

Cast

as Pino Barillari *

as Anna Barillari *

as Franco Villani *

as Carlo Aretusi aka "Sciagura" *

as Chemist *

Nerio Bernardi Nerio Bernardi (23 July 1899 – 12 January 1971) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in nearly 200 films between 1918 and 1970. He was born in Bologna, Italy and died in Rome, Italy. Selected filmography * ''Nero'' (1922) * ''The Sheph ...

as Mr. Villani *Isa Querio as Mrs. Villani * Raffaella Pelloni as Ines Villani, Franco's sister *Loris Bazzocchi as Vincenzi *Carlo Di Maggio as Mario Bolognesi *Alice Clements as Blanche Villani, Franco's wife *Silla Bettini as Undocumented Man

Production

The film was based on a 1955 novella by Giorgio Bassani, which was based on the real murder of eleven people in Ferrara on 15 November 1943 at Estense Castle who were killed by Fascists in response to the assassination of Fascist leader Igino Ghisellini.Disappearing acts: disability, gender, and the memory of Fascism in Italian film Hill, Sarah Patricia. Modern Italy : Journal of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy; Abingdon Vol. 22, Iss. 2, (May 2017): 155-166. The film was produced by Tonio Cervi who gave

Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...

his first chance to direct a film and was producer of the first films in colour by

Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...

and

Francesco Rosi Francesco Rosi (; 15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director. His film ''The Mattei Affair'' won the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appeared to ha ...

. ''Long Night in '43'' was the directorial debut of documentary maker

. It was one of a number of Italian movies made around this period to deal with World War Two. Filming took place in Italy in early 1960. According to the ''Guardian'' "Tonino's father played the role of a fascist bully, causing some controversy among those who identified him with the communist antagonist of Don Camillo.:Obituary: Tonino Cervi: Producer who played a pivotal role in the careers of Bertolucci, Pasolini, Antonioni, Fellini and Rosi Lane, John Francis. The Guardian; London (UK) ondon (UK)4 Apr 2002: 1.22. The movie was a breakthrough credit for cinematographer Carlo di Palma.

Reception

''Variety'' called it "a well made straightforward vehicle which brings to life once more some of the more dramatic moments in recent Italian history... Major impact, however, is on the local ticket buyer, who is able to catch nuances and the import of dialog, scenes, and action. Export values appear to indicate specialized slotting only." It said the director had "a good feeling for period atmosphere" but said the film "keys a certain lack of drama which results in long stretches of tedium where crisper handling would have won a wider audience. For a production treating such heartfelt problems, the pic rarely grips nor is the illicit love affair moving or believable." " According to an academic paper, "The ending of the film emphasises the erasure of Pino and Anna, the disabled and sexually transgressive witnesses who vanish from the screen and from the story without ever telling what they have seen. But it also shows the complicated interplay of memory and amnesia that allows the murder victims to be memorialised... ndcalls into question the shiny new 'normality' of boom-time Italy and suggests that it rests on a collective and willful failure to remember the past.} ''Filmink'' said Lee was "excellent".

Awards

At the 1960

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

, the film won Vancini the award for Best First Work and a nomination for the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguishe ...

(losing out to '' Le Passage du Rhin'').The Festivals: Venice: Edinburgh: Berlin Sight and Sound; London Vol. 29, Iss. 4, (Fall 1960): 184. Enrico Maria Salerno won a

Silver Ribbon The Nastro d'Argento, also known by its translated name Silver Ribbon, is an Italian film award awarded each year since 1946 by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (Italian: ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani ...

for Best Supporting Actor at the 1961 Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists awards.

References

External links

*
Long Night in 1943
at BFI
Long Night in 1943
at Letterbox DVD {{DEFAULTSORT:Long Night In 1943 1960s Italian-language films 1960 films Italian Campaign of World War II films Italian black-and-white films Films directed by Florestano Vancini Films scored by Carlo Rustichelli Italian Social Republic