ITALY
OUR LADY OF THE TURKS
1968 – 35mm – colore - 142’
Direction: Carmelo Bene
Screenplay: Carmelo Bene; dal suo omonimo romanzo from his novel
Cinematography: Mario Masini
Editing: Mauro Contini
Music: Carmelo Bene (coordinamento)
Effects: Renzo Marinelli
Cast: Carmelo Bene, Lydia Mancinelli, Ornella Ferrari, Anita Masini, Salvatore Siniscalchi, Vincenzo Musso
Production: Carmelo Bene, Giorgio Patara
Integral edition restored by Cineteca Nazionale
SYNOPSIS
Memories, visions, obsessions of an Apulian intellectual (Bene, was born in Campi S., Lecce, in 1937) of Catholic, middleclass origin, with a decadent cultural background, and Verdi’s influences. He acts both on stage and in films, with a strong ironic, self-ironic spirit, a raving baroque frenzy, an immoderate, scorned humour, at times funny and disquieting. The melting points of these heterogeneous elements is the search for an absolute, which seems unachievable.
CARMELO BENE
In 1957 he attends the Academy, to leave it one year later when he realises that it is completely useless. In 1959 he starts out his carrier as leading actor in Caligola by Albert Camus in Rome. Later he directs himself, and starts a work of integral manipulation and massacre of the “ classics “ that he defines “ varaztions “. The case Carmelo Bene breaks out: Alberto Moravia, Angelo Maria Ripellino, Ennio Flaiano and Pier Paolo Pasolini are only some of the intellectuals who are ravished by his genius; Lo Strano Caso del Dottor Jekill e del Sig. Hide, Gregorio, Pinocchio, Salomè, Amleto, Il Rosa e il Nero, all belong to these years. Then he starts his cinematographic period, first as an acto in Oedipus Rex by Pasolini, then as director in the film Our Lady of the Turks. More film Capricci (1969), Don Giovanni (1970), Salomè (1972) e One Hamlet Less (1973). He goes back to theatre with many other works follow but most of all his so-called “concert turning-point” is significant.
AWARDS
1968 Festival di Venezia: Jury Special Award
