The Spider's Stratagem

Bertolucci conceived, wrote and shot this in colour, and it went out in black and white. RAI produced and distributed it, and in 1970 Italian television was still broadcasting in monochrome while France, Germany and England had been in colour since 1967. Vittorio Storaro's photography was effectively wasted on its first showing. The text is freely adapted from Jorge Luis Borges's story Theme of the Traitor and the Hero. Athos Magnani arrives by train in a town called Tara at Draifa's invitation, and begins investigating what his father, a man of the same name said to have been murdered by fascists and revered locally as a hero, actually did. What he finds does not survive contact with the town's version. The visual language comes straight from painting: the tree-lined tracking shots and still-life compositions of Bertolucci and Storaro follow Magritte and De Chirico. Giulio Brogi and Alida Valli star. Who it is for: viewers interested in how memory and political myth are assembled, who enjoy a puzzle structure. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a clear answer. The film solves the knot but hands the result to nobody, and ends deliberately closed.