The Spider's Stratagem (1970) - full transcript
Athos Magnani, a young researcher, returns to Tara, where his father was killed before his birth, at the request of Draifa. The father, also named Athos Magnani and looking exactly like the son, was killed by a fascist in 1936 -- or so says Draifa (his mistress), the town statue, and everyone in town. As the son untangles the web of lies this story is constructed from, he finds himself ensnared in the same web.
THE SPIDER'S STRATAGEM
Freely inspired by the story
"Theme of the Traitor and the Hero"
by Jorge Luis Borges
Please...
- Tara!
"Athos Magnani Street"
Where's a hotel?
- First left, first right. - Thanks.
No, first he must turn right.
- Turn left... - No!
I'll ask again
when you've sorted it out.
"Youth Society of Culture"
Is there a hotel?
"ATHOS MAGNANI, A HERO COWARDLY
MURDERED BY FASCIST BULLETS"
Do you have a room please?
I don't know...
For how long?
I don't know.
Name and surname.
The register is over there.
What's your name?
- Athos Magnani.
What?
- Athos Magnani.
Identical...
Identical... just look!
Really identical!
To whom?
- Your father!
Do you know a certain Draifa?
Mmmm... Draifa!
- Where does she live?
Not near, by foot.
You'll need a bicycle.
Wait, I'll help you.
I'll come out and show you the way.
Yes. Is it far?
- No... ten, fifteen minutes.
So where to?
OK, now straight ahead,..
then take the embankment road.
When you see the overpass,
the house is nearby.
Are you Draifa?
Come!
Don't be afraid!
See how you look like him?
It is not true that he came from Rome,
nor from Cremona, nor from Ferrara.
Your father's murderer is someone
from Tara, someone from here.
Your father was famous here
as an anti-Fascist.
They shot him in the back,
at the theatre,..
during Rigoletto.
Sure, you won't find his name
in history books...
but here, for us, he lives on.
He had many friends,
and even more enemies.
He overawed everybody.
He was afraid of nothing, not even of me.
I was very young,
and he wouldn't separate from his wife.
And I'm more jealous than Othello.
Why did you want to meet me?
After his death,
your mother was pregnant.
Yes, with you!
But she disappeared!
She was afraid of the Fascists.
Not me, I stayed.
They wouldn't dare.
They all respect me.
How did you get my address?
- It was a miracle.
I saw your picture in a Milan newspaper.
I was stunned. The image of Athos!
Unbelievable! Athos resurrected.
We never found out who killed him.
Now that you're here,
you'll find him, won't you?
When did it happen?
The 15th of June,
1936.
There's a train in an hour.
If I hurry, I'll catch it,
You look tired! You must be hungry.
Sit down and eat.
He loved to eat well.
They must have shot him during the
applause, since no one heard the shot.
I talk too much, huh?
Here in Tara they have the cinema,
telephones, television; all a fa?ade.
Here everything stopped
the night they killed him.
Say the truth,
I sound a little crazy?
You were very close to my father?
Close?
His acknowledged mistress!
I still am, for them.
As if nothing had changed.
Athos is there, young Athos, heroic,
handsome Athos, murdered Athos.
He died before seeing
the liberation he dreamed of.
It sounds like a mystery classic.
Joke about it!
Anyway, they never found the murderer.
There was an investigation, right?
It was a joke! They were all in cahoots!
Imagine, the cops found an anonymous
letter in his pocket. Still closed!
They opened it, and it said
he'd die if he went to the theatre.
Like Julius Caesar.
- Who?
Julius Caesar,
before entering the Senate.
Like Athos, same thing!
There is another strange fact.
- Another legend?
No, he told me this in person.
A gypsy,..
at the tavern,
a few days before the crime,..
read his hand and predicted his death,
I swear.
Macbeth.
The witches' prediction.
You must have studied a lot.
It's late. I...
should go.
See you tomorrow.
Tomorrow...
I've a train tomorrow.
Who knows!
- No, I have it at 9:45.
Lady?
Lady!
What are we doing?
Lady, what are you doing?
Lady?
Lady!
Lady?
Lady!
Lady?
- It's nothing...
How are you?
- It's nothing, I feel better now.
Really? Want some water?
I'll get you a glass of water!
No, no, nothing.
I feel better now.
You frightened me.
Maybe because you're barefoot.
I like it a lot.
I always have, since childhood.
I'm always barefoot!
Are you sure to be fine?
But you had to go, right?
Didn't you have to go?
Then go, go!
Well, I can stay.
- Go now. Go!
No, no, you must go.
You may go.
There's no need, lady... - Go now.
I don't need anything, you can go.
Look, I'm in no hurry. If you like...
- Go, go!
'Night.
- Go!
(Emilian dialect)
Aren't there any young people
in this town?
No young people in town?
How old am I?
How old?...About 70.
Seventy-five, and a pregnant girlfriend!
Me!
Huh!
I'm seventy-four,..
I'll buy a drink..
for anyone who pisses farther than me!
# We rebels wave.. #
# the blood-stained flags. #
# We shall raise barricades.. #
# to obtain freedom. #
Say, is there a place where...?
Down the courtyard.
Athos Magnani.
Athos...
Magnani...
Hi there, rabbit!
Half each.
So?
They locked you in, huh?
Have you met my father, too?
But it is true
that he was really identical?
Hey!
Open up!
Oh, you're here!
I couldn't find you!
I was worried.
Who did it?
Nobody.
See,
tonight you've had a drink too many!
Who did it?
Oh, we're all friends, here!
Sure! All friends!
We're all friends here!
All friends!
All friends here!
Neath the setting sun
the fair maiden leaves the fields,..
holding in her hand
a bunch of roses and violets,..
to deck herself she is preparing,..
tomorrow, at the feast day,
her chest and hair.
Sitting with the neighbors
on the stairs, the old woman spins,...
Where's your father?
- At the cemetery.
He was run over by a car
on St. Martin's Day.
Your grandfather, I meant.
- In the yard, washing bottles.
Give me a pack of American cigarettes.
Nothing foreign.
You know the guy
who came in my room this morning, huh?
Yes, the one who woke me up.
I don't know anybody!
We're all friends here.
I found the cigarettes!
But I smoke them without filter.
How do we do?
Here, here!
-What are you doing?
There, good! You smoke it, huh?
Here.
Bye, thanks.
It was MN the bike's plate of the man
who came to your room this morning!
Do you know him?
No, but I know one with a similar bike.
With a MN plate?
Male or female?
With a Mantua plate?
With a CR plate.
Come here,
let's see if it's male or female.
It's a male.
No, I say it's a female.
- It's a male. Look.
No, it's a female.
- Male, like you!
No, it's a female.
You were expecting me?
Yes.
What was my father like?
A jester,..
very much so.
This is daytime...
- False!
This is full daytime, and I'll prove it.
- You're crazy!
This is a town of madmen!
Madmen and old men!
And of old madmen!
Yesterday they locked me in a stable.
With a horse.
"But here, we're all friends"!
This morning, hardly awake,
before coffee, a punch in the face.
"But here, we're all friends, you know?"
Since he died,
I've not been able to sleep.
An insomnia without dreams,
without anything.
???Hundreds of nights alert,
like a hound dog.
The murderer is from here,
I've always known
Now we both know it!
He's scared!
He wants you to go!
All I know is that I was leaving
this morning, and I'm still here.
So what, we're among friends.
Let's start with the enemies,
who then, are almost all dead.
The only one left is
the one who hated him the most.
Name is Beccaccia,
the biggest landowner in the region.
???His enemies, the real ones, were three.
three real friends...
A theatre owner,
a teacher, and a culatelli taster.
All dead too?
Dead!
No, they're still there, all 3 of them:
Costa, Rasori and Gaibazzi
Draifa, I never heard it!
What name is it?
My lunatic father was a Dreyfus fan.
Dreyfus, so Draifa!
And this Beccaccia, where does he live?
Across the highway.
He doesn't live. He reigns!
Don't insist, go away,
The master won't see anyone.
Good morning!
Young man, where will you go
with no ticket you can show?
Young man, where will you go
with no ticket you can show?
Hey!
I'm Gaibazzi!
I'm Gaibazzi!
Your father's friend.
Don't you recognize me?
I'm Gaibazzi! Come here.
I'm your father's friend.
Cling on, we're going to eat.
Come on, let's eat!
This is the chamber..
of the uranium.
These are 37 - 38 culatello.
These peasants are tiresome, damn!
They never want to please you...
do not...
There's this one, for instance...
- Are these prosciutti?
What prosciutti? They're culatelli!
The quintessence of prosciutto.
It's the rounded part, understand?
The name says it all.
This you see...
Excellent.
Smell.
Bad!
We were anti-Fascist, and..
and maybe
we didn't even know what it meant.
We had no program at all.
We couldn't have any because...
you'll see the other two. One..
has a drive-in,
the other is an elementary teacher.
None of us is very bright.
There! Smell the somm??
- Yes.
Ever happened to smell, for instance,
opening a drawer and smell..
where mice have nested? That smell of
mould, of wood shavings gnawed by mice?
I don't know if these belong to Negri.
But, they're always the best of all.
Because..
See, Negri is a man who offers
water to geese when it rains. That is,..
As stingy as hell, but..
Smell.
if there is some leftover soup,
it's for the pig.
He might deny it to his wife, because
he's for the pig. That's the man.
What was our anti-Fascism based on?
On...
We fancied conspiracies,
the "Ernani"...
or, "I congiurati", don't know, or..
or those two, Samuel and Tom,
"Un ballo in maschera"...
We saw ourselves as such characters,
got it? But we understood nothing!
Your father did.
He was something else.
Your father was...very different.
Your father knew what he...
These...
He was enchanting! We listened to him
speak, so cultured, well prepared,..
always documented.
I remember one night,..
he was playing cards at the caf?,..
They came and get him.
Took him out and beat him up.
Sickening!
You look extraordinarily like him!
It's as if I saw him! Just alike.
Besides being intelligent,
he also paid in person.
But us, nothing! None of us
paid in person. Understand? So...
It's obvious they knew very well
that we weren't important!
Well, now we'll have a bite of offal.
- What?
A forkful of offal!
What's this offal?
- Tripe!
The tripe, you see, it is..
it's a dish that, if it's well done,
it's delicious.
And...if it's badly done,..
it should be thrown in the cook's face.
He was always with us, because,
although we are three beasts,..
then you'll see the other two,..
we were the only ones who tried to..
understand,
that extraordinary man.
Not bad!
Huh?
Not bad!
The wine too.
A bit of wood taste.
A little flaw.
See, wine is like a man.
It can have flaws,
and still be pleasing anyway.
Indeed, a little flaw, at times,
but little, can even be good for it.
Here too, at the Festival,
the musicians made the invitation.
Beautiful! On a belfry or on a tree,
up high, like a bird, you know?
The clarinet, or the cornet,
repeating, anticipating..
the motifs of the ball,
polkas especially, and waltzes.
Your father always came, as well.
Once we went to the dance hall together.
He wore a belted jacket,
sand-colored, English style.
And a red kerchief.
Blow of clarinet.
Let's start. Come on.
Mussolini is coming
to inaugurate the theatre.
Mussolini's coming
to inaugurate the theatre.
Did you hear? "Viva il duce!"
- Is he back? - Yes, yes!
Viva! Viva!
Your father!
What are you doing?
Eat!
Yes, but it is...
It's too much, and I already ate...
- Too much? Come on, what're you saying?
No, look, you must eat it!
Look, I'll be offended!
I've already eaten.
You must eat... You must eat!
You must eat.
And drink. Drink.
Come on, eat!
I locked them!
I must lock them away
anytime that someone comes.
He had an extraordinary personality.
His death
could not but correspond with his life.
An exceptional death,
after an exceptional life.
I am glad.
You're Glad?
Have you gone crazy?
Even the Duce had to come,
in this lousy town!
Let's see who'll be here!
I'm taking off! Give me air!
It's you the stupid, not to understand..
that it's the Cremona Fascists
who made him come. To impress us!
It means they fear us!
Is it possible you can never grasp
the dialectics of things?
Not so loud.
This town is full of spies!
On a public holiday,
they had announced..
the arrival of Mussolini
for the theatre inauguration.
Costa and I
heard about it at Campo delle Piastre.
We must kill him!
Provided
we can ensure our immunity!
We're more useful alive than dead.
We must make sure that it
looks like the killer came from outside.
The day will come
when we can tell the truth.
I want to be here that day.
I swear I will.
Remember,..
Fascism will continue.
Fascism is now ingrained in people.
That's why we must kill him.
But, you sure you've eaten?
No ceremony with me!
No, I'm sure, of course.
Yes, the idea of killing him,
we had it all together.
We used to meet in a shack,
actually, an old truck,..
abandoned on the embankment pathway.
Why do you look at me like that?
We were all there.
Athos, Gaibazzi, Rasori and me.
And then, there were the crickets,..
the cicadas,..
and mosquitoes, to keep us company.
In my opinion,
a rifle..
won't do.
Of course! With all those guards!
Imagine!
It's suicide!
Lets suppose that someone gets in.
Lets suppose that he shoots,
what then?
Then, he'd be killed in thirty seconds!
From a gallery, or from a box,
he'd be found right away.
Then there will be more cockroaches in
plainclothes than in uniform, you'll see!
I've thought about it all day.
There is a way.
Well, tell us then!
- On the stage.
We'll have him shot by...by Rigoletto!
What's that got to do?
On the stage there'll be no guards.
The rifle, we'll smuggle it
amidst the singers' costumes.
Then, one of us
gets hired as an extra, and...
What? Extra?
- Yes, extra,..
extra.
Behind the scenes, in the theater!
The theatre! How beautiful,
at night, in the dark!
With that red lamp,
with the sets on the stage.
They seem actors reciting, singing...
Then it's full of holes, corners,
behind the curtain. No one sees you!
And the shot?
The shot? How is, the shot?
You're the expert.
We'll shoot during the "Maledizione".
There!
- "Maledizione"? Sorry, I...
At the end of the act,
when Rigoletto sings..
# Ah! La maledizion... #
I don't understand quite.
When Rigoletto sings, at the end
of the act: Ah, la maledizion!
Bang!
And the Duce is nice and dead!
Why do you look at me so?
It was so dark in there,
we could hardly see each other.
None of us is such a good shooter
to be sure to kill him in one shot.
I mean, mathematically sure.
- Morale?
Morale...
A slow fuse...
A detonator...
A stick of dynamite...
Midnight...
applause...
Light the fuse...
What then?
And then, the Duce didn't come to Tara!
Why not?
Because...
Because a Fascist found the bomb
in the shack and informed the police.
Only a miracle saved us!
They questioned us for hours, but had
to release us for lack of evidence.
And so, everything came to nothing!
And Athos Magnani died
instead of Mussolini.
What do you mean?
Let's suppose he was killed
for vendetta...a political vendetta.
Let's suppose
he was killed by Tara's Fascists.
No, impossible!
They're all cowards!
They used someone from outside.
OK, let's suppose it was a hired killer,
who wasn't found then and won't be now.
It remains, anyhow,..
a quite impressive coincidence.
What coincidence?
My father was killed in the theatre,
during "Rigoletto",..
the same way
the Duce was supposed to be killed.
No one knew
how Mussolini was to be killed.
No one!
No one but you three.
Four, in fact.
If it rains, the screen will be ruined.
Will you help me hoist it?
Come.
There is the rope.
Be careful, it costs me a fortune!
Only one thing is clear.
Whoever fired that shot,
in that theatre, with that music,..
made a hero of Athos Magnani.
Yet,
you looked at me with a strang grin.
This the way to Milan?
That way, by the theatre.
Milan must be after Mantua.
I did the military, there!
Listen.
Is that the theatre?
- That's where they killed Athos Magnani.
I was on my way to you.
Occasionally I have to come to town,
to do some shopping.
I'll carry this.
The heat wave has begun today.
The real one, the one of the Po valley.
Give me your arm.
You've discovered something important,
right?
Those three were expecting me.
Of course they were!
They'd be offended
if you hadn't visited them. - No, no.
They had met before, and had agreed.
Agreed on what?
On what to tell me.
Are you sure?
- Yes, I am.
Sure, they prepared themselves.
Yet I'm sure they told the truth.
They spoke about the plot?
But if it's the truth,
why come to an agreement?
What will you do now?
In this town,..
you decide to do something,..
and find out
it has been foreseen by others.
What will I do now? Nothing. I'll wait.
- They trust you.
So they told you everything.
Only a few of us know.
What are you thinking?
- Nothing.
Of course you're thinking of something.
What was he like, more closely?
You have to hold it tighter.
- Like this?
Yes. And higher.
Come on, move that thing!
- But I'm moving it!
Harder, harder!
- You must help me!
Move those hands! Go on!
Stretch it, stretch it!
It's a bad strain, you know?
There!
Turn!
Wait.
- Put it like that.
Is it alright?
- Tighten it. - There.
That way.
- Let me turn, so it helps.
Turn, turn, turn!
Faster, faster!
Turn, turn!
Enough, I can't see.
Wait, I have to tie it now!
Your head is spinning?
Your head is spinning!
Who's best, me or your wife?
Take a photo, because
it's the last time you'll see me.
I can't stand it any more.
I want a normal New Year's Eve.
Not at 11, because
at midnight you must be with your wife.
I want to sleep with you,
wake up with you.
I want to get bored with you,
eat with you.
I feel mutilated.
I can't stand it this way,
I feel... mutilated.
As if...
As if I was missing an arm.
Athos, you're a coward.
You're hard on me, Draifa.
Things will change, you'll see.
Things will change.
Athos!
You look tired, sit down.
It might have been fear.
Or that he was behind my back,
and I couldn't see his face.
But I realized it was all over.
Really.
It was the last time.
The last time I saw him alive.
Help me to get up.
You wanted to scare me, then!
Lady!
Lady?
Lady!
Lady?
Lady!
On the veranda! There's a chaise longue.
Stay there, I'm busy.
Go!
What are you doing,
keeping an eye on me?
Well?
Drink it all, the lady said.
What would that be?
- A turtle-dove, by Jove!
A turtle-dove?
- Yeah!
It sounds like a train.
- But give me a break!
Doesn't It sound like a train?
Ready? Ready, ready!
Ready!
Look, now you make me do it wrong.
# If you don't know him,
look at his face. #
# You see Agenore Beccaccia,
grenades and caresses with dagger. #
Look at him!
Impassive!
Petrified.
Like a Fascist monument.
But you too will crumble,
believe me.
And he's still tough with people!
Maybe a bit less now.
Hush...
-...the enemy is listening!
And the enemy,..
Yes, yes..
was me!
How right!
He was virile, he was!
- No! No!
His name was Bull.
He made himself call Bull.
Well, I would have liked to see!
To me, of the bull,
he only had the horns!
Why does Draifa make us sit with him?
Look, he doesn't even budge!
He looks at us as he did back then!
Ask him if he remembers
his share-cropper, Donino.
Who, during the blackout,..
crapped in an alley.
The cops arrived,..
"What have you done?"
Donino replied, in such a voice:
"What I've done is my own bounty,
for the Duce and for the Party!"
Remember, huh?
No, he remembers nothing!
He doesn't like it.
- I bet he doesn't.
No, he never remembers anything.
I'm tired of looking at his face!
- I don't even look at him.
Come on, drink!
- Let's drink on it!
Let's drink on it!
Viva!
- Viva!
Viva what?
With such people in front?
Hurrah for us!
He won't drink, even! Wanna drink?
- He can't even say it!
You won't drink with us?
No, huh?
Enough, or I'll start crying.
And you make him cry too.
Well, let's drink on it again.
What a voice!
- Did you ever study? - Terrific!
I studied with Manzuolo.
With whom?
- Manzuolo... - What does it...
As a bullock, a young steer!
A lion.
You... you...
me.
But you, a lion?
You, have never eaten one!
Remember? That escaped lion?
That circus...
Yes, a German circus!
A young lion, a beautiful...
He had a name...
Sultan!
- Yes!
They caught him, then. Perhaps because
of the excitement, the poor thing..
died of a fever.
Look, Beccaccia,..
you'd better confess
that you killed Athos Magnani.
And you gotta say it tonight, get it?
And now leave, go away!
Athos!
There.
- Thank you.
"In the tower, the stillness
was already intense,"..
"The poplars of Rio Salto
were whispering."
"The Norman horses,"..
"standing in their stalls
crunched their oats."
"Over there stood the mare,"..
"wild, born among the pines
of the briny shore,"..
"whose nostrils still held"..
"the spray,"..
- Continue.
"and in her sharp ears the yells."
"By her, an elbow on the manger,
my mother said to her softly:"
''O little mare, little wild mare,"..
''you carried him,
who won't return,''...
I almost forgot! Mr. Beccaccia was here.
He's expecting you right away!.
Where?
At the theatre. He wants to talk to you.
He said to hurry,
before people return from the cemetery.
Why, they're all at the cemetery?
They say there's a sacrilege!
It's good to feel alive
right where he died.
When he was alive, I couldn't stand
your father, not even in photo.
Nor do I like seeing you around here.
With what they did to your father's
grave, they're already saying it was me.
I leave the dead in peace.
Are you afraid I'll discover
the truth of my father's death?
I'm living quietly here now,
and I don't want to be talked about.
Last night my friends were only joking.
Next time they'll be serious,
if you don't leave Tara immediately.
But I want to tell you something.
Unfortunately,
it wasn't us who killed your father.
We didn't even have that satisfaction,..
unfortunately.
Come on, get in.
It was...a horrible sight,
at the cemetery.
Now you know
what sort of people they are.
Tell the truth...
You want to know the truth,
don't you?
Let me out, I don't feel well.
- The truth...
The truth. Your father used to say
that truth means nothing.
Listen, stop.
I feel sick.
What counts is
the consequence of truth.
The truth is worthless!
Where are we going? Stop.
We want to talk to you,
the three of us, quietly.
It was quiet at Draifa's house too!
Draifa...
The night Athos died,,.
Draifa was not in Tara.
- Stop.
Where she was,..
- I feel sick!
no one knows!
I feel sick!
Stop!
Stop!
Where is the lady?
She's sleeping. I'll wake her up
in half an hour. If you care to wait.
The lady cannot sleep at night.
Only in the morning she can.
Playing?
- I paint my nails. - I can see that!
What kind of a boy are you?
What's going on, who's there?
Lady, it's him! There's him! He's here!
OK, I understand, he's here.
Prepare the coffee, and almond cake.
Signora, he's climbing the stairs!
He's coming upstairs!
I hear you! All right, he's coming up!
Excuse me.
I'm leaving.
Couldn't you wait downstairs?
I'm sick of Rasori, Gaibazzi, Costa,
of the whole Tara. You all lie, always!
You, for instance,
were not in town the night of the murder!
I was in Mantua.
He had sent me there.
And that night they killed him!
Here! Happy now?
This morning they took me to the Po.
Costa, Rasori and Gaibazzi.
They frightened me.
I ran away.
Why?
You were right, you know?
The informer was not a Fascist.
The spy is one of them,
all three of them!
My father discovered them and,
out of fear, they killed him.
However,
this story does not interest me anymore.
And neither you are interested!
I'm done, here.
- No. You can not leave yet.
I've a train at nine.
Our revenge will be more cruel,
more atrocious.
Will be made up of glances, half-words.
We will create a void around them.
They'll know hell on earth!
Lady, listen.
You must begin to forget, now.
You haven't understood a thing.
You haven't understood a thing.
You can't go away any more!
You can't.
Come, come.
I...I need someone to help me.
Alone, I can't manage.
To look after my properties,..
to spend all this money.
I figured it out already. I have a
young niece, very young, 19 years old,..
Really a beautiful girl.
Shee needs to work.
We could keep her here with us.
Athos, we'll be happy.
Athos...
Give me the key, lady.
You're back now, and you can't go away.
Bye Athos!
- Bye!
She was a foreign gypsy,
from Naples, or around there.
In the darkness she said,
and in darkness he died.
It's in the darkness
of the theatre that they shot him.
The motorcyclist, was dressed in black.
Athos took the letter
and put it in his pocket.
They found it unopened.
It read: ''If you enter the theatre,
you will die.''
You did it!
Or you, or you!
He didn't even turn around,
and was shot in the back.
He didn't turn because he knew well
the man he saw in the mirror.
One of you!
It's true.
We killed him.
But all the staging,
the gypsy, the motorcyclist, the letter?
He should have understood, suspected.
Why did he let himself
be killed like that?
It all seems fake.
He had agreed with you!
Yes!
We had agreed.
It's him, who wanted to be killed.
Because...
he had betrayed.
Why did you do it?
You told on to the Fascists, huh?
No.
To the cops.
You went to their station?
- No.
Then, where did you meet them?
I didn't meet them
I made an anonymous phone call.
Why did you become a spy?
Spy! Spy! Spy! Spy!
Tell us!
Tell us what you told them!
I told them..
behind the embankment road,
there's a shack.
Look around,..
search,..
you'll find a bomb.
All I ask,
is to take me to a high place.
I want to see Tara from above.
I feel like my legs are boneless today.
Listen...
For Tara,
for the entire region,..
my name has a sound of rebellion,
courage.
If they get to know..
of my betrayal,..
all our work
will become useless, understand?
You won't be you who'll kill me.
A traitor can damage even when dead.
What is more useful is..
a hero!
A hero, sure!...
Whom people can love.
I shall be murdered by a Fascist.
Cowardly.
We'll offer the spectacle
of a dramatic death,..
which might carve
in the popular imagination,..
so that they continue to hate,
hate, hate, more and more!..
Fascism.
It will be a hero's legendary death!
A great theatrical spectacle!
We will rehearse!
We will rehearse as at the theatre.
A cast of hundreds.
The whole town of Tara will
participate, without knowing it.
The whole Tara..
will become a great theatre.
There wasn't much time.
The show that we prepared,
the details, the words he uttered,..
have become legend.
And still endure.
At times, we even had to improvise.
Athos drew...
he drew from books he had read.
Like,
the story of the gypsy, for example.
He drew it from the witches of "Macbeth".
He got the idea of the letter
from "Julius Caesar".
The warning of death,
the motorcyclist in black...
It was a cousin of mine,
one from Cremona.
Yeah!
He had planned everything!
Not everything.
Then you came,
and discovered the truth.
That means the mechanism
was not perfect.
True.
It wasn't perfect!
Unless...
Unless what?
Right!
After so many years,
someone discovers the truth,..
and feels like shouting it,
like writing it on walls.
But this someone..
is forced to keep secret..
what he discoved.
Because he realizes that he is part
of the plot of Athos Magnani.
And that's where
Athos Magnani was wrong!
But which was the plot of Athos Magnani?
The mayor told me I had to be present.
I have come.
I am here.
I wish I weren't here.
We have to uncover
the monument to my father,..
to speak about him,
and his death.
I'm his son, his only son.
Really identical.
Who is, Athos Magnani?
A traitor, or a hero?
I wish my name weren't Athos Magnani.
This name has...
a meaning, a sound..
of rebellion,..
of courage, and...
What was the real plot of Athos Magnani?
"Young man, where will you go
with no ticket you can show?"
The ticket...I just..
haven't got one!
An assassination...
The assassins...
An assassination
destined to fail from the outset.
Costa, Rasori, Gaibazzi,..
my father's friends.
His loyal comrades.
They aided him in the struggle,..
close to him to the end.
A traitor.
Athos, you're a coward.
You're hard on me, Draifa.
What reason had he to betray?
You won't be you who'll kill me.
A traitor can damage even when dead.
What is more useful is..
a hero.
A hero, sure!...
Whom people can love.
I shall be murdered by a Fascist.
Cowardly.
We'll offer the spectacle
of a dramatic death,..
which might carve
in the popular imagination,..
so that they continue to hate,
hate, hate, more and more!..
Fascism.
There's a..
a phrase that...
"A man"..
"is made of all men."
"He is worth as much as all of them,
and all are worth as much as him."
I forgot my suitcase at the station!
The train to Parma will be
twenty minutes late.
The train to Parma will be
thirty-five minutes late.
You got today's papers?
They haven't arrived.
It happens.
Sometimes they even forget we exist.
Freely inspired by the story
"Theme of the Traitor and the Hero"
by Jorge Luis Borges
Please...
- Tara!
"Athos Magnani Street"
Where's a hotel?
- First left, first right. - Thanks.
No, first he must turn right.
- Turn left... - No!
I'll ask again
when you've sorted it out.
"Youth Society of Culture"
Is there a hotel?
"ATHOS MAGNANI, A HERO COWARDLY
MURDERED BY FASCIST BULLETS"
Do you have a room please?
I don't know...
For how long?
I don't know.
Name and surname.
The register is over there.
What's your name?
- Athos Magnani.
What?
- Athos Magnani.
Identical...
Identical... just look!
Really identical!
To whom?
- Your father!
Do you know a certain Draifa?
Mmmm... Draifa!
- Where does she live?
Not near, by foot.
You'll need a bicycle.
Wait, I'll help you.
I'll come out and show you the way.
Yes. Is it far?
- No... ten, fifteen minutes.
So where to?
OK, now straight ahead,..
then take the embankment road.
When you see the overpass,
the house is nearby.
Are you Draifa?
Come!
Don't be afraid!
See how you look like him?
It is not true that he came from Rome,
nor from Cremona, nor from Ferrara.
Your father's murderer is someone
from Tara, someone from here.
Your father was famous here
as an anti-Fascist.
They shot him in the back,
at the theatre,..
during Rigoletto.
Sure, you won't find his name
in history books...
but here, for us, he lives on.
He had many friends,
and even more enemies.
He overawed everybody.
He was afraid of nothing, not even of me.
I was very young,
and he wouldn't separate from his wife.
And I'm more jealous than Othello.
Why did you want to meet me?
After his death,
your mother was pregnant.
Yes, with you!
But she disappeared!
She was afraid of the Fascists.
Not me, I stayed.
They wouldn't dare.
They all respect me.
How did you get my address?
- It was a miracle.
I saw your picture in a Milan newspaper.
I was stunned. The image of Athos!
Unbelievable! Athos resurrected.
We never found out who killed him.
Now that you're here,
you'll find him, won't you?
When did it happen?
The 15th of June,
1936.
There's a train in an hour.
If I hurry, I'll catch it,
You look tired! You must be hungry.
Sit down and eat.
He loved to eat well.
They must have shot him during the
applause, since no one heard the shot.
I talk too much, huh?
Here in Tara they have the cinema,
telephones, television; all a fa?ade.
Here everything stopped
the night they killed him.
Say the truth,
I sound a little crazy?
You were very close to my father?
Close?
His acknowledged mistress!
I still am, for them.
As if nothing had changed.
Athos is there, young Athos, heroic,
handsome Athos, murdered Athos.
He died before seeing
the liberation he dreamed of.
It sounds like a mystery classic.
Joke about it!
Anyway, they never found the murderer.
There was an investigation, right?
It was a joke! They were all in cahoots!
Imagine, the cops found an anonymous
letter in his pocket. Still closed!
They opened it, and it said
he'd die if he went to the theatre.
Like Julius Caesar.
- Who?
Julius Caesar,
before entering the Senate.
Like Athos, same thing!
There is another strange fact.
- Another legend?
No, he told me this in person.
A gypsy,..
at the tavern,
a few days before the crime,..
read his hand and predicted his death,
I swear.
Macbeth.
The witches' prediction.
You must have studied a lot.
It's late. I...
should go.
See you tomorrow.
Tomorrow...
I've a train tomorrow.
Who knows!
- No, I have it at 9:45.
Lady?
Lady!
What are we doing?
Lady, what are you doing?
Lady?
Lady!
Lady?
Lady!
Lady?
- It's nothing...
How are you?
- It's nothing, I feel better now.
Really? Want some water?
I'll get you a glass of water!
No, no, nothing.
I feel better now.
You frightened me.
Maybe because you're barefoot.
I like it a lot.
I always have, since childhood.
I'm always barefoot!
Are you sure to be fine?
But you had to go, right?
Didn't you have to go?
Then go, go!
Well, I can stay.
- Go now. Go!
No, no, you must go.
You may go.
There's no need, lady... - Go now.
I don't need anything, you can go.
Look, I'm in no hurry. If you like...
- Go, go!
'Night.
- Go!
(Emilian dialect)
Aren't there any young people
in this town?
No young people in town?
How old am I?
How old?...About 70.
Seventy-five, and a pregnant girlfriend!
Me!
Huh!
I'm seventy-four,..
I'll buy a drink..
for anyone who pisses farther than me!
# We rebels wave.. #
# the blood-stained flags. #
# We shall raise barricades.. #
# to obtain freedom. #
Say, is there a place where...?
Down the courtyard.
Athos Magnani.
Athos...
Magnani...
Hi there, rabbit!
Half each.
So?
They locked you in, huh?
Have you met my father, too?
But it is true
that he was really identical?
Hey!
Open up!
Oh, you're here!
I couldn't find you!
I was worried.
Who did it?
Nobody.
See,
tonight you've had a drink too many!
Who did it?
Oh, we're all friends, here!
Sure! All friends!
We're all friends here!
All friends!
All friends here!
Neath the setting sun
the fair maiden leaves the fields,..
holding in her hand
a bunch of roses and violets,..
to deck herself she is preparing,..
tomorrow, at the feast day,
her chest and hair.
Sitting with the neighbors
on the stairs, the old woman spins,...
Where's your father?
- At the cemetery.
He was run over by a car
on St. Martin's Day.
Your grandfather, I meant.
- In the yard, washing bottles.
Give me a pack of American cigarettes.
Nothing foreign.
You know the guy
who came in my room this morning, huh?
Yes, the one who woke me up.
I don't know anybody!
We're all friends here.
I found the cigarettes!
But I smoke them without filter.
How do we do?
Here, here!
-What are you doing?
There, good! You smoke it, huh?
Here.
Bye, thanks.
It was MN the bike's plate of the man
who came to your room this morning!
Do you know him?
No, but I know one with a similar bike.
With a MN plate?
Male or female?
With a Mantua plate?
With a CR plate.
Come here,
let's see if it's male or female.
It's a male.
No, I say it's a female.
- It's a male. Look.
No, it's a female.
- Male, like you!
No, it's a female.
You were expecting me?
Yes.
What was my father like?
A jester,..
very much so.
This is daytime...
- False!
This is full daytime, and I'll prove it.
- You're crazy!
This is a town of madmen!
Madmen and old men!
And of old madmen!
Yesterday they locked me in a stable.
With a horse.
"But here, we're all friends"!
This morning, hardly awake,
before coffee, a punch in the face.
"But here, we're all friends, you know?"
Since he died,
I've not been able to sleep.
An insomnia without dreams,
without anything.
???Hundreds of nights alert,
like a hound dog.
The murderer is from here,
I've always known
Now we both know it!
He's scared!
He wants you to go!
All I know is that I was leaving
this morning, and I'm still here.
So what, we're among friends.
Let's start with the enemies,
who then, are almost all dead.
The only one left is
the one who hated him the most.
Name is Beccaccia,
the biggest landowner in the region.
???His enemies, the real ones, were three.
three real friends...
A theatre owner,
a teacher, and a culatelli taster.
All dead too?
Dead!
No, they're still there, all 3 of them:
Costa, Rasori and Gaibazzi
Draifa, I never heard it!
What name is it?
My lunatic father was a Dreyfus fan.
Dreyfus, so Draifa!
And this Beccaccia, where does he live?
Across the highway.
He doesn't live. He reigns!
Don't insist, go away,
The master won't see anyone.
Good morning!
Young man, where will you go
with no ticket you can show?
Young man, where will you go
with no ticket you can show?
Hey!
I'm Gaibazzi!
I'm Gaibazzi!
Your father's friend.
Don't you recognize me?
I'm Gaibazzi! Come here.
I'm your father's friend.
Cling on, we're going to eat.
Come on, let's eat!
This is the chamber..
of the uranium.
These are 37 - 38 culatello.
These peasants are tiresome, damn!
They never want to please you...
do not...
There's this one, for instance...
- Are these prosciutti?
What prosciutti? They're culatelli!
The quintessence of prosciutto.
It's the rounded part, understand?
The name says it all.
This you see...
Excellent.
Smell.
Bad!
We were anti-Fascist, and..
and maybe
we didn't even know what it meant.
We had no program at all.
We couldn't have any because...
you'll see the other two. One..
has a drive-in,
the other is an elementary teacher.
None of us is very bright.
There! Smell the somm??
- Yes.
Ever happened to smell, for instance,
opening a drawer and smell..
where mice have nested? That smell of
mould, of wood shavings gnawed by mice?
I don't know if these belong to Negri.
But, they're always the best of all.
Because..
See, Negri is a man who offers
water to geese when it rains. That is,..
As stingy as hell, but..
Smell.
if there is some leftover soup,
it's for the pig.
He might deny it to his wife, because
he's for the pig. That's the man.
What was our anti-Fascism based on?
On...
We fancied conspiracies,
the "Ernani"...
or, "I congiurati", don't know, or..
or those two, Samuel and Tom,
"Un ballo in maschera"...
We saw ourselves as such characters,
got it? But we understood nothing!
Your father did.
He was something else.
Your father was...very different.
Your father knew what he...
These...
He was enchanting! We listened to him
speak, so cultured, well prepared,..
always documented.
I remember one night,..
he was playing cards at the caf?,..
They came and get him.
Took him out and beat him up.
Sickening!
You look extraordinarily like him!
It's as if I saw him! Just alike.
Besides being intelligent,
he also paid in person.
But us, nothing! None of us
paid in person. Understand? So...
It's obvious they knew very well
that we weren't important!
Well, now we'll have a bite of offal.
- What?
A forkful of offal!
What's this offal?
- Tripe!
The tripe, you see, it is..
it's a dish that, if it's well done,
it's delicious.
And...if it's badly done,..
it should be thrown in the cook's face.
He was always with us, because,
although we are three beasts,..
then you'll see the other two,..
we were the only ones who tried to..
understand,
that extraordinary man.
Not bad!
Huh?
Not bad!
The wine too.
A bit of wood taste.
A little flaw.
See, wine is like a man.
It can have flaws,
and still be pleasing anyway.
Indeed, a little flaw, at times,
but little, can even be good for it.
Here too, at the Festival,
the musicians made the invitation.
Beautiful! On a belfry or on a tree,
up high, like a bird, you know?
The clarinet, or the cornet,
repeating, anticipating..
the motifs of the ball,
polkas especially, and waltzes.
Your father always came, as well.
Once we went to the dance hall together.
He wore a belted jacket,
sand-colored, English style.
And a red kerchief.
Blow of clarinet.
Let's start. Come on.
Mussolini is coming
to inaugurate the theatre.
Mussolini's coming
to inaugurate the theatre.
Did you hear? "Viva il duce!"
- Is he back? - Yes, yes!
Viva! Viva!
Your father!
What are you doing?
Eat!
Yes, but it is...
It's too much, and I already ate...
- Too much? Come on, what're you saying?
No, look, you must eat it!
Look, I'll be offended!
I've already eaten.
You must eat... You must eat!
You must eat.
And drink. Drink.
Come on, eat!
I locked them!
I must lock them away
anytime that someone comes.
He had an extraordinary personality.
His death
could not but correspond with his life.
An exceptional death,
after an exceptional life.
I am glad.
You're Glad?
Have you gone crazy?
Even the Duce had to come,
in this lousy town!
Let's see who'll be here!
I'm taking off! Give me air!
It's you the stupid, not to understand..
that it's the Cremona Fascists
who made him come. To impress us!
It means they fear us!
Is it possible you can never grasp
the dialectics of things?
Not so loud.
This town is full of spies!
On a public holiday,
they had announced..
the arrival of Mussolini
for the theatre inauguration.
Costa and I
heard about it at Campo delle Piastre.
We must kill him!
Provided
we can ensure our immunity!
We're more useful alive than dead.
We must make sure that it
looks like the killer came from outside.
The day will come
when we can tell the truth.
I want to be here that day.
I swear I will.
Remember,..
Fascism will continue.
Fascism is now ingrained in people.
That's why we must kill him.
But, you sure you've eaten?
No ceremony with me!
No, I'm sure, of course.
Yes, the idea of killing him,
we had it all together.
We used to meet in a shack,
actually, an old truck,..
abandoned on the embankment pathway.
Why do you look at me like that?
We were all there.
Athos, Gaibazzi, Rasori and me.
And then, there were the crickets,..
the cicadas,..
and mosquitoes, to keep us company.
In my opinion,
a rifle..
won't do.
Of course! With all those guards!
Imagine!
It's suicide!
Lets suppose that someone gets in.
Lets suppose that he shoots,
what then?
Then, he'd be killed in thirty seconds!
From a gallery, or from a box,
he'd be found right away.
Then there will be more cockroaches in
plainclothes than in uniform, you'll see!
I've thought about it all day.
There is a way.
Well, tell us then!
- On the stage.
We'll have him shot by...by Rigoletto!
What's that got to do?
On the stage there'll be no guards.
The rifle, we'll smuggle it
amidst the singers' costumes.
Then, one of us
gets hired as an extra, and...
What? Extra?
- Yes, extra,..
extra.
Behind the scenes, in the theater!
The theatre! How beautiful,
at night, in the dark!
With that red lamp,
with the sets on the stage.
They seem actors reciting, singing...
Then it's full of holes, corners,
behind the curtain. No one sees you!
And the shot?
The shot? How is, the shot?
You're the expert.
We'll shoot during the "Maledizione".
There!
- "Maledizione"? Sorry, I...
At the end of the act,
when Rigoletto sings..
# Ah! La maledizion... #
I don't understand quite.
When Rigoletto sings, at the end
of the act: Ah, la maledizion!
Bang!
And the Duce is nice and dead!
Why do you look at me so?
It was so dark in there,
we could hardly see each other.
None of us is such a good shooter
to be sure to kill him in one shot.
I mean, mathematically sure.
- Morale?
Morale...
A slow fuse...
A detonator...
A stick of dynamite...
Midnight...
applause...
Light the fuse...
What then?
And then, the Duce didn't come to Tara!
Why not?
Because...
Because a Fascist found the bomb
in the shack and informed the police.
Only a miracle saved us!
They questioned us for hours, but had
to release us for lack of evidence.
And so, everything came to nothing!
And Athos Magnani died
instead of Mussolini.
What do you mean?
Let's suppose he was killed
for vendetta...a political vendetta.
Let's suppose
he was killed by Tara's Fascists.
No, impossible!
They're all cowards!
They used someone from outside.
OK, let's suppose it was a hired killer,
who wasn't found then and won't be now.
It remains, anyhow,..
a quite impressive coincidence.
What coincidence?
My father was killed in the theatre,
during "Rigoletto",..
the same way
the Duce was supposed to be killed.
No one knew
how Mussolini was to be killed.
No one!
No one but you three.
Four, in fact.
If it rains, the screen will be ruined.
Will you help me hoist it?
Come.
There is the rope.
Be careful, it costs me a fortune!
Only one thing is clear.
Whoever fired that shot,
in that theatre, with that music,..
made a hero of Athos Magnani.
Yet,
you looked at me with a strang grin.
This the way to Milan?
That way, by the theatre.
Milan must be after Mantua.
I did the military, there!
Listen.
Is that the theatre?
- That's where they killed Athos Magnani.
I was on my way to you.
Occasionally I have to come to town,
to do some shopping.
I'll carry this.
The heat wave has begun today.
The real one, the one of the Po valley.
Give me your arm.
You've discovered something important,
right?
Those three were expecting me.
Of course they were!
They'd be offended
if you hadn't visited them. - No, no.
They had met before, and had agreed.
Agreed on what?
On what to tell me.
Are you sure?
- Yes, I am.
Sure, they prepared themselves.
Yet I'm sure they told the truth.
They spoke about the plot?
But if it's the truth,
why come to an agreement?
What will you do now?
In this town,..
you decide to do something,..
and find out
it has been foreseen by others.
What will I do now? Nothing. I'll wait.
- They trust you.
So they told you everything.
Only a few of us know.
What are you thinking?
- Nothing.
Of course you're thinking of something.
What was he like, more closely?
You have to hold it tighter.
- Like this?
Yes. And higher.
Come on, move that thing!
- But I'm moving it!
Harder, harder!
- You must help me!
Move those hands! Go on!
Stretch it, stretch it!
It's a bad strain, you know?
There!
Turn!
Wait.
- Put it like that.
Is it alright?
- Tighten it. - There.
That way.
- Let me turn, so it helps.
Turn, turn, turn!
Faster, faster!
Turn, turn!
Enough, I can't see.
Wait, I have to tie it now!
Your head is spinning?
Your head is spinning!
Who's best, me or your wife?
Take a photo, because
it's the last time you'll see me.
I can't stand it any more.
I want a normal New Year's Eve.
Not at 11, because
at midnight you must be with your wife.
I want to sleep with you,
wake up with you.
I want to get bored with you,
eat with you.
I feel mutilated.
I can't stand it this way,
I feel... mutilated.
As if...
As if I was missing an arm.
Athos, you're a coward.
You're hard on me, Draifa.
Things will change, you'll see.
Things will change.
Athos!
You look tired, sit down.
It might have been fear.
Or that he was behind my back,
and I couldn't see his face.
But I realized it was all over.
Really.
It was the last time.
The last time I saw him alive.
Help me to get up.
You wanted to scare me, then!
Lady!
Lady?
Lady!
Lady?
Lady!
On the veranda! There's a chaise longue.
Stay there, I'm busy.
Go!
What are you doing,
keeping an eye on me?
Well?
Drink it all, the lady said.
What would that be?
- A turtle-dove, by Jove!
A turtle-dove?
- Yeah!
It sounds like a train.
- But give me a break!
Doesn't It sound like a train?
Ready? Ready, ready!
Ready!
Look, now you make me do it wrong.
# If you don't know him,
look at his face. #
# You see Agenore Beccaccia,
grenades and caresses with dagger. #
Look at him!
Impassive!
Petrified.
Like a Fascist monument.
But you too will crumble,
believe me.
And he's still tough with people!
Maybe a bit less now.
Hush...
-...the enemy is listening!
And the enemy,..
Yes, yes..
was me!
How right!
He was virile, he was!
- No! No!
His name was Bull.
He made himself call Bull.
Well, I would have liked to see!
To me, of the bull,
he only had the horns!
Why does Draifa make us sit with him?
Look, he doesn't even budge!
He looks at us as he did back then!
Ask him if he remembers
his share-cropper, Donino.
Who, during the blackout,..
crapped in an alley.
The cops arrived,..
"What have you done?"
Donino replied, in such a voice:
"What I've done is my own bounty,
for the Duce and for the Party!"
Remember, huh?
No, he remembers nothing!
He doesn't like it.
- I bet he doesn't.
No, he never remembers anything.
I'm tired of looking at his face!
- I don't even look at him.
Come on, drink!
- Let's drink on it!
Let's drink on it!
Viva!
- Viva!
Viva what?
With such people in front?
Hurrah for us!
He won't drink, even! Wanna drink?
- He can't even say it!
You won't drink with us?
No, huh?
Enough, or I'll start crying.
And you make him cry too.
Well, let's drink on it again.
What a voice!
- Did you ever study? - Terrific!
I studied with Manzuolo.
With whom?
- Manzuolo... - What does it...
As a bullock, a young steer!
A lion.
You... you...
me.
But you, a lion?
You, have never eaten one!
Remember? That escaped lion?
That circus...
Yes, a German circus!
A young lion, a beautiful...
He had a name...
Sultan!
- Yes!
They caught him, then. Perhaps because
of the excitement, the poor thing..
died of a fever.
Look, Beccaccia,..
you'd better confess
that you killed Athos Magnani.
And you gotta say it tonight, get it?
And now leave, go away!
Athos!
There.
- Thank you.
"In the tower, the stillness
was already intense,"..
"The poplars of Rio Salto
were whispering."
"The Norman horses,"..
"standing in their stalls
crunched their oats."
"Over there stood the mare,"..
"wild, born among the pines
of the briny shore,"..
"whose nostrils still held"..
"the spray,"..
- Continue.
"and in her sharp ears the yells."
"By her, an elbow on the manger,
my mother said to her softly:"
''O little mare, little wild mare,"..
''you carried him,
who won't return,''...
I almost forgot! Mr. Beccaccia was here.
He's expecting you right away!.
Where?
At the theatre. He wants to talk to you.
He said to hurry,
before people return from the cemetery.
Why, they're all at the cemetery?
They say there's a sacrilege!
It's good to feel alive
right where he died.
When he was alive, I couldn't stand
your father, not even in photo.
Nor do I like seeing you around here.
With what they did to your father's
grave, they're already saying it was me.
I leave the dead in peace.
Are you afraid I'll discover
the truth of my father's death?
I'm living quietly here now,
and I don't want to be talked about.
Last night my friends were only joking.
Next time they'll be serious,
if you don't leave Tara immediately.
But I want to tell you something.
Unfortunately,
it wasn't us who killed your father.
We didn't even have that satisfaction,..
unfortunately.
Come on, get in.
It was...a horrible sight,
at the cemetery.
Now you know
what sort of people they are.
Tell the truth...
You want to know the truth,
don't you?
Let me out, I don't feel well.
- The truth...
The truth. Your father used to say
that truth means nothing.
Listen, stop.
I feel sick.
What counts is
the consequence of truth.
The truth is worthless!
Where are we going? Stop.
We want to talk to you,
the three of us, quietly.
It was quiet at Draifa's house too!
Draifa...
The night Athos died,,.
Draifa was not in Tara.
- Stop.
Where she was,..
- I feel sick!
no one knows!
I feel sick!
Stop!
Stop!
Where is the lady?
She's sleeping. I'll wake her up
in half an hour. If you care to wait.
The lady cannot sleep at night.
Only in the morning she can.
Playing?
- I paint my nails. - I can see that!
What kind of a boy are you?
What's going on, who's there?
Lady, it's him! There's him! He's here!
OK, I understand, he's here.
Prepare the coffee, and almond cake.
Signora, he's climbing the stairs!
He's coming upstairs!
I hear you! All right, he's coming up!
Excuse me.
I'm leaving.
Couldn't you wait downstairs?
I'm sick of Rasori, Gaibazzi, Costa,
of the whole Tara. You all lie, always!
You, for instance,
were not in town the night of the murder!
I was in Mantua.
He had sent me there.
And that night they killed him!
Here! Happy now?
This morning they took me to the Po.
Costa, Rasori and Gaibazzi.
They frightened me.
I ran away.
Why?
You were right, you know?
The informer was not a Fascist.
The spy is one of them,
all three of them!
My father discovered them and,
out of fear, they killed him.
However,
this story does not interest me anymore.
And neither you are interested!
I'm done, here.
- No. You can not leave yet.
I've a train at nine.
Our revenge will be more cruel,
more atrocious.
Will be made up of glances, half-words.
We will create a void around them.
They'll know hell on earth!
Lady, listen.
You must begin to forget, now.
You haven't understood a thing.
You haven't understood a thing.
You can't go away any more!
You can't.
Come, come.
I...I need someone to help me.
Alone, I can't manage.
To look after my properties,..
to spend all this money.
I figured it out already. I have a
young niece, very young, 19 years old,..
Really a beautiful girl.
Shee needs to work.
We could keep her here with us.
Athos, we'll be happy.
Athos...
Give me the key, lady.
You're back now, and you can't go away.
Bye Athos!
- Bye!
She was a foreign gypsy,
from Naples, or around there.
In the darkness she said,
and in darkness he died.
It's in the darkness
of the theatre that they shot him.
The motorcyclist, was dressed in black.
Athos took the letter
and put it in his pocket.
They found it unopened.
It read: ''If you enter the theatre,
you will die.''
You did it!
Or you, or you!
He didn't even turn around,
and was shot in the back.
He didn't turn because he knew well
the man he saw in the mirror.
One of you!
It's true.
We killed him.
But all the staging,
the gypsy, the motorcyclist, the letter?
He should have understood, suspected.
Why did he let himself
be killed like that?
It all seems fake.
He had agreed with you!
Yes!
We had agreed.
It's him, who wanted to be killed.
Because...
he had betrayed.
Why did you do it?
You told on to the Fascists, huh?
No.
To the cops.
You went to their station?
- No.
Then, where did you meet them?
I didn't meet them
I made an anonymous phone call.
Why did you become a spy?
Spy! Spy! Spy! Spy!
Tell us!
Tell us what you told them!
I told them..
behind the embankment road,
there's a shack.
Look around,..
search,..
you'll find a bomb.
All I ask,
is to take me to a high place.
I want to see Tara from above.
I feel like my legs are boneless today.
Listen...
For Tara,
for the entire region,..
my name has a sound of rebellion,
courage.
If they get to know..
of my betrayal,..
all our work
will become useless, understand?
You won't be you who'll kill me.
A traitor can damage even when dead.
What is more useful is..
a hero!
A hero, sure!...
Whom people can love.
I shall be murdered by a Fascist.
Cowardly.
We'll offer the spectacle
of a dramatic death,..
which might carve
in the popular imagination,..
so that they continue to hate,
hate, hate, more and more!..
Fascism.
It will be a hero's legendary death!
A great theatrical spectacle!
We will rehearse!
We will rehearse as at the theatre.
A cast of hundreds.
The whole town of Tara will
participate, without knowing it.
The whole Tara..
will become a great theatre.
There wasn't much time.
The show that we prepared,
the details, the words he uttered,..
have become legend.
And still endure.
At times, we even had to improvise.
Athos drew...
he drew from books he had read.
Like,
the story of the gypsy, for example.
He drew it from the witches of "Macbeth".
He got the idea of the letter
from "Julius Caesar".
The warning of death,
the motorcyclist in black...
It was a cousin of mine,
one from Cremona.
Yeah!
He had planned everything!
Not everything.
Then you came,
and discovered the truth.
That means the mechanism
was not perfect.
True.
It wasn't perfect!
Unless...
Unless what?
Right!
After so many years,
someone discovers the truth,..
and feels like shouting it,
like writing it on walls.
But this someone..
is forced to keep secret..
what he discoved.
Because he realizes that he is part
of the plot of Athos Magnani.
And that's where
Athos Magnani was wrong!
But which was the plot of Athos Magnani?
The mayor told me I had to be present.
I have come.
I am here.
I wish I weren't here.
We have to uncover
the monument to my father,..
to speak about him,
and his death.
I'm his son, his only son.
Really identical.
Who is, Athos Magnani?
A traitor, or a hero?
I wish my name weren't Athos Magnani.
This name has...
a meaning, a sound..
of rebellion,..
of courage, and...
What was the real plot of Athos Magnani?
"Young man, where will you go
with no ticket you can show?"
The ticket...I just..
haven't got one!
An assassination...
The assassins...
An assassination
destined to fail from the outset.
Costa, Rasori, Gaibazzi,..
my father's friends.
His loyal comrades.
They aided him in the struggle,..
close to him to the end.
A traitor.
Athos, you're a coward.
You're hard on me, Draifa.
What reason had he to betray?
You won't be you who'll kill me.
A traitor can damage even when dead.
What is more useful is..
a hero.
A hero, sure!...
Whom people can love.
I shall be murdered by a Fascist.
Cowardly.
We'll offer the spectacle
of a dramatic death,..
which might carve
in the popular imagination,..
so that they continue to hate,
hate, hate, more and more!..
Fascism.
There's a..
a phrase that...
"A man"..
"is made of all men."
"He is worth as much as all of them,
and all are worth as much as him."
I forgot my suitcase at the station!
The train to Parma will be
twenty minutes late.
The train to Parma will be
thirty-five minutes late.
You got today's papers?
They haven't arrived.
It happens.
Sometimes they even forget we exist.