''The Conspirators'' (Italian: ''Nell'anno del Signore'') is a 1969 Italian historical

comedy drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

written and directed by

Luigi Magni Luigi Magni (21 March 1928 – 27 October 2013) was an Italian screenwriter and film director. Life and career Born in Rome, Magni started his career as a screenwriter, in 1956, with '' Tempo di villeggiatura''. In 1968 he collaborated w ...

and starring

Nino Manfredi Saturnino "Nino" Manfredi (22 March 1921 – 4 June 2004) was an Italian actor, voice actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, comedian, singer, author, radio personality and television presenter. He was one of the most prominent Italian a ...

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 ...

and

Claudia Cardinale Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (; born 15 April 1938) is an Italian actress. She has starred in some of the most iconic European films of the 1960s and 1970s, acting in Italian, French, and English. Born and raised in La Goulette, a ...

. It is based on the actual story of the capital execution of two

Carbonari The Carbonari () was an informal network of secret revolutionary societies active in Italy from about 1800 to 1831. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in France, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay and Ru ...

in papal Rome. The film's sets were designed by the art director

Carlo Egidi Carlo Egidi (20 May 1918 – 2 February 1989) was an Italian art director. He worked on the set design of more than sixty films during his career. One of his earliest credits was the neorealist ''Bitter Rice'' (1949).Ben-Ghiat p.256 Selected fi ...

Location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...

took place around

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Plot

in 1825, Cornacchia, a

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...

, finds out that prince Filippo Spada, a

associate, is going to reveal the organization's plans for an uprising to the Pontifical Guard's commander, Colonel Nardoni. He then goes off to warn his friend Leonida Montanari, a doctor and the head of the conspirators, who decides to take out the informer. He and Angelo Targhini, a newcomer from the

Duchy of Modena A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a medieval country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important difference between ...

, attempt to murder Spada but ultimately fail to deliver the final blow. Spada manages to survive the attack and reports his assailants to the police, who have them both arrested and, after a summary judgement, sentenced to death by Cardinal Rivarola. Meanwhile, Giuditta, Cornacchia's

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

workshop assistant, who was previously in love with Montanari, has started to develop feelings for Targhini after first meeting him, unaware of Cornacchia's feelings towards her. While the two Carbonari are imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo, an idealist

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

is sent to convince them to repent from their sins and states that they cannot be executed until their souls are considered saved. They try to take advantage of that by delaying the execution for as long as possible. One day, after Giuditta accuses him of cowardice, Cornacchia reveals to her that he is actually

Pasquino Pasquino or Pasquin (Latin: ''Pasquillus'') is the name used by Romans since the early modern period to describe a battered Hellenistic-style statue perhaps dating to the third century BC, which was unearthed in the Parione district of Rome ...

, the mysterious author of

satirical poems Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

against the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

and the government. Out of his love for Giuditta, he decides to make a deal with Rivarola. He would reveal Pasquino's identity in exchange for the conspirators' lives. Rivarola, who already suspects him, pretends to agree and gives him a note that tells him to personally deliver it to Nardoni at Castel Sant'Angelo to have the prisoners released. The note actually says to arrest him at once, but if Cornacchia were to protest, he would give away that he can actually read, thus confirming Rivarola's suspicions. The shoemaker, with his disciple Bellachioma, writes a poem in which he asks to hurry the execution of the two Carbonari and explains to his pupil that only their deaths may lead the people to consciousness. Then, after appointing Bellachioma as the new Pasquino, he joins a convent to escape Rivarola's persecution. In the meantime, people from the streets assault Castel Sant'Angelo, which leads Montanari to believe that they will revolt and set them free, but he soon learns that even his fellow citizens want them dead. The friar meets with Rivarola and asks him to delay the execution on the belief that every soul must be saved, but the cardinal just shrugs him off. Eventually, the execution day comes and, just as the condemned are about to step towards the

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...

, the friar shows up and desperately implores them to repent, but they politely refuse. Refusing to give up, the friar says he is going to absolve them anyway, at the cost of having to deal with

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

himself, but Rivarola's men stop him from doing so. In the end, Targhini is decapitated and Montanari, before being executed as well, takes one last gaze upon the citizens of Rome gathered in

Piazza del Popolo Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian language, Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the Populus, poplars (''populus'' in Latin language, Latin, ''pioppo'' in Italian) ...

and says, "Good night, people."

Cast

as Cornacchia *

as Colonel Nardoni *

as Giuditta Di Castro (dubbed by

Rita Savagnone Rita Savagnone (born September 19, 1939) is an Italian film, television and voice actress. Biography Born in Rome to Giuseppe Savagnone and Rosella Marraffa and the younger sister of voice actress Deddi Savagnone, She began her acting career at s ...

) *

Robert Hossein Robert Hossein (30 December 1927 – 31 December 2020) was a French film actor, director, and writer. He directed the 1982 adaptation of ''Les Misérables'' and appeared in '' Vice and Virtue'', '' Le Casse'', '' Les Uns et les Autres'' and '' ...

as Leonida Montanari (dubbed by

Giuseppe Rinaldi Giuseppe Rinaldi (14 September 1919 – 15 December 2007) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Rinaldi appeared in more than 20 films between 1939 and 1982. During his time, he was considered of be one of the most greatest and inf ...

) * Renaud Verley as Angelo Targhini (dubbed by

Massimo Turci Massimo, also Massimino, and Massimine () is a masculine Italian given name. Notable people with the name include: Given name: *Massimo Agostinelli (Max Agos) (born 1987), Swiss based Italian American artist, entrepreneur and activist *Massimo Ago ...

) *

Ugo Tognazzi Ugo Tognazzi (23 March 1922 – 27 October 1990) was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter. Early life Tognazzi was born in Cremona, in northern Italy but spent his youth in various localities as his father was a travelling clerk fo ...

as Cardinal Agostino Rivarola *

Alberto Sordi Alberto Sordi (15 June 1920 – 24 February 2003) was an Italian actor, voice actor, singer, comedian, director and screenwriter. Early life Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician and the last of five children, Sordi was named in hon ...

as the friar * Franco Abbina as Prince Filippo Spada (dubbed by

Franco Latini Franco Latini (September 12, 1927 – February 2, 1991) was an Italian actor and voice actor. He was considered to be one of the top voice dubbers for many animated films and cartoons for audiences across Italy. Biography Born in Pomezia, which ...

) *

Britt Ekland Britt Ekland (; born Britt-Marie Eklund; 6 October 1942) is a Swedish actress, model and singer. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in '' The Double Man'' (1967), '' The Night They Raided ...

as Princess Spada *

Pippo Franco Pippo Franco (pseudonym of Franco Pippo) was born 2 September 1940 and is an Italian actor, comedian, television presenter, and singer. He made his name first as a musician in the early 1960s, and in the late 1960s began a career in film, starrin ...

as Bellachioma (dubbed by

Pino Locchi Giuseppe "Pino" Locchi (10 November 1925 – 21 November 1994) was an Italian actor and voice actor. After starting his screen career as a child actor in the 1930s, Locchi later became a very prominent voice actor dubbing foreign films for relea ...

) * Stefano Oppedisano as a drunken boy

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the movie was composed by

Armando Trovajoli Armando Trovajoli (also Trovaioli, 2 September 1917 – 28 February 2013) was an Italian film composer and pianist with over 300 credits as composer and/or conductor, many of them jazz scores for exploitation films of the Commedia all'italiana ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Conspirators, The 1969 films 1960s Italian-language films Films directed by Luigi Magni Films scored by Armando Trovajoli Films set in Rome Films shot in Rome Films about capital punishment Films critical of the Catholic Church 1960s historical films Italian historical films Films set in the 1820s 1960s Italian films