The Basilisks

A small town in the south of Italy. Three young men do nothing all day: they sit in the square, go into the café, sleep in the afternoon and come back to the square in the evening. Each has a plan; one will go to Rome, one will finish his law degree, one will marry. None of it happens. Time passes and the town keeps them where they are. Lina Wertmüller writes and directs in her first film. Before this Wertmüller worked as an assistant to Federico Fellini, and the influence is plain: the town square, the empty hours and the idleness stand on the same ground as I Vitelloni. The difference is that Wertmüller looks south and builds the impossibility of leaving more harshly. The title refers to a lizard, the animal that lies motionless in the sun and waits out the heat. The subject is not idleness but class. These young men do not have to work, and that is exactly why they do nothing; the stagnation of the provincial bourgeoisie is the target. The image is black and white and shot on location; most of the cast are local and not professionals. The music is among Ennio Morricone's first film scores. Wertmüller went on to make much louder and more political films; this first work sits on the quiet side. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian provincial film and sixties European cinema. Who it is not for: nothing happens, the pace is very slow, and the narrative deliberately arrives nowhere.