''St. Michael Had a Rooster'' ( it, San Michele aveva un gallo) is a 1972

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani Paolo Taviani (; born 8 November 1931) and Vittorio Taviani (; 20 September 1929 – 15 April 2018), collectively referred to as the Taviani brothers, were Italian film directors and screenwriters who collaborated on film productions. At the C ...

. It is an adaptation of

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's novel ''The Divine and the Human''. The film was described as "A charming fable about the political and existential conflict between

utopian socialism Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...

and

scientific socialism Scientific socialism is a term coined in 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book '' What is Property?'' to mean a society ruled by a scientific government, i.e., one whose sovereignty rests upon reason, rather than sheer will: Thus, in a given ...

, between two ways of understanding the revolution, the anarchist one and the Marxist one". The film was selected for the Quinzaine des Realisateurs in the

1972 Cannes Film Festival The 25th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 4 to 19 May 1972. The Palme d'Or went to the Italian films ''The Working Class Goes to Heaven'' by Elio Petri and '' The Mattei Affair'' by Francesco Rosi. The festival opened with the French fi ...

Plot

In 1870 the internationalist anarchist Giulio Manieri led a group of comrades in an unrealistic revolutionary attempt in a small Umbrian town, Città della Pieve, which ended in an inevitable failure that cost him the death sentence. However, the sentence is commuted to life imprisonment and Manieri spends the interminable days of solitary confinement staging political debates with himself, thus managing to survive the isolation but gradually sliding towards insanity. After ten years of imprisonment, it is decided to transfer him to another prison. During the boat trip to the new accommodation, in the Venetian lagoon, he meets another boat carrying a group of subversive young people to the same destination. Convinced of finding in them a common feeling and of being able to resume together that debate that has continued alone for years, he discovers instead that his utopian idealism and his methods of struggle are not at all shared, but rather disavowed if not even mocked by the new generation of rebels, animated by a radically different political strategy, less dreamy and more concrete, based on the scientific analysis of reality, and convinced that they cannot personally witness the great changes but to work for the future. Deeply disappointed by this confrontation, feeling useless and overtaken by history, he lets himself slip into the water to drown.

Cast

Giulio Brogi Giulio Brogi (3 May 1935 – 19 February 2019)

as Giulio Manieri *

Renato Scarpa Renato Scarpa (14 September 1939 – 30 December 2021) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 85 films from 1969 to 2019. Scarpa died on 30 December 2021, at the age of 82. Selected filmography * '' St. Michael Had a Rooster'' (1972) * '' ...

as Battistrada *

Daniele Dublino This is a list of male actors from Italy, which generally includes those who have resided in Italy or have largely appeared in Italian film productions. This list includes all actors from :Italian male actors. Persons are listed alphabetical ...

as The Prison Guard *

Renato Cestiè Renato Cestiè (born January 11, 1963) is a former Italian film actor. He was Italy's top child star of the 1970s. His best-known work was in tear-jerkers such as ''The Last Snows of Spring'', where he would play a neglected child who, most ofte ...

References

External links

* 1972 films Italian drama films Films directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani Films scored by Benedetto Ghiglia 1970s Italian-language films 1970s Italian films {{1970s-Italy-film-stub

Plot

Cast

See also

References

External links