BUONGIORNO, NOTTE (GOOD MORNING, NIGHT)

Italy, 2003, 105 minutes, Colour.
Maya Sansa, Luigi lo Cascio.
Directed by Marco Bellocchio.

Good morning Night is a quotation from a poem by Emily Dickinson, indicating the paradoxes of her life, her solitariness, her being a recluse. It is applied here to the fate of the Italian prime minister in 1978, Aldo Moro.

The Moro case was famous around the world. Moro was a fine-living man, a sound politician, interested in finding some kind of rapport between left and right in Italian politics. During the 70s, student groups from the 60s exercised their authority by terrorist activities. One of these groups was the Red Brigade. They abducted Moro in June 1978, keeping him for almost two months in an apartment in Rome. They finally killed him. Instead of the uprising that they had anticipated, people turned against them and Moro was seen as a martyr.

Marco Bellocchio comes from a long Italian tradition of great cinema and of directors from the Left. Making films from the 1960s, he has a great variety of films including, in 2002, L'ora Della Religione. It was an interesting look at the church at the beginning of the 21st century and the way that the church was used for their own purposes by aristocratic Roman classes.

Bellocchio has reconstructed the abduction of Moro and his imprisonment. However, he focuses principally on the four Red Brigade members who keep charge of Moro. While there is a great sense of realism, there is also an atmosphere of exploration of symbols and of imagination. The young woman of the group, who speaks against imagination, experiences a change of heart as the days go on and she experiences the reality of Moro's presence, his beliefs, his letters to his wife and to other people, including Paul VI. In her dreams she imagines herself saving him and his walking free. She is also influenced by a book of letters from partisans executed by the fascists (and these scenes are visualised from old Italian films).

The film is very well acted, the figure of Moro emerges as a very decent man, aware of his plight, partly bewildered, a man of great faith, able to explain to the Red Brigade how strict their ideology is, even compared with the history of the Catholic Church.

1. The impact of the film in Italy? Outside Italy? Audience knowledge of the Moro case? The reminder of this reality of Italian politics of the 70s?

2. Rome in the 1970s, the apartment, the streets? Italian television? The use of contemporary footage, especially for the government and for Paul VI?

3. The daily reports on the case?

4. The audience and the facts, enough information given in the film, the blend of reality and dreams? A record of what happened? A reconstruction of the drama? An exploration of its meaning?

5. Italy, the government in the 70s, left and right, Moro's role, those for and against him? His becoming a symbol of the politics of the time? The criticism of the Christian Democrats? His being a good man? Being put on trial by these individuals of the Red Brigade, their judgment on him, the execution?

6. The Red Brigade and the student movements in Europe of the late 60s and the 70s? A realistic look at their mode of action? Wide acceptance of these groups, membership? Or not? The personalities of those who belonged, idealists, their ideologies? Their Marxist fundamentalism? Cruelty? The consequences - and all in the name of a good cause? The opening, the flat, darkness, light coming into the darkness? The spiel of the estate agent? The couple taking the flat? The four terrorists and their presence, working to prepare the prison? The young man committed yet his longing for his girlfriend, Mariano as the boss, Primo and his work? The preparations, the neighbour and her sheet dropping down, the neighbour and depositing the baby on the day of the abduction, the neighbour telling Chiara about her husband's infidelity? Ready to receive Moro?

7. The abduction, seen off-screen, the information from the television pictures, the dead guards, the people's response? The interviews, the newspapers, headlines? The role of the media?

8. Chiara and her age of 23, why involved? Seeing her getting the apartment, her rejoicing when Moro was abducted? Going in the bus to get the medicine? At work, the library, the ordinary life she led, her idealism? The signs in the lift? Her answering the phone, her aunt, the cemetery and the visit with the signs of the cross and prayer? Her friend in the library, the discussions with him, his analysis of what she was really like, her giving hypothetical statements and his answering? Meals, cooking, looking at Moro and listening to him? His letters? Her book about the fascist executions? Her changing, her decision about Moro's letter to the Pope? Arguing with the boy at work, his explaining his screenplay (which Moro had) and the meaning of Emily Dickinson's words? Her dreams, letting Moro go, poisoning the other members, Primo not taking the poisoned soup, Moro not eating? Her seeing Moro going through the room, out to freedom in the street - yet the reality of his execution?

9. The young man and his wanting his girlfriend, Chiara telling him that he was a soldier, leaving and coming back? Primo and his work? Mariano, the masks, the discussions with Moro, the official interrogations, the statements of ideology? Moro explaining ideology to him? The trial, the judgment, the execution?

10. Moro and their treatment of him, humane, the discussions, especially about the church and terrorism, the Crusades and the Inquisition, burning witches, attitude towards the body? The trial, the judgment?

11. Moro in himself, a man of dignity, his political experience, not getting any information? Handling his imprisonment, feeling abandoned? Writing many letters, to his wife (and its being published), his letter to the Pope?

12. The government interviews, their attitude towards the terrorists, their not helping Moro?

13. Pope Paul VI, seeing him with the group, pushing the letters from the table, the nuns rushing to pick them up? His illness, his illness, his writing the letter to the terrorists, pleading for unconditional release? His being carried in the sedia gestatoria, the voice-over of Paul VI's actual words about Moro?

14. Moro as a martyr, a religious man, ready to die, faith, his not wanting to die because of his grandson?

15. The aftermath for Italian politics, society, the character of Moro and his role as a martyr?