The Secret of Santa Vittoria ~ Art Cinema

Comedy/Drama

Italian/PG-13/139 min.

The bestseller from The Great Impostor's Robert Crichton inspired this leisurely serio-comedy, which takes up where Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist left off--with the death of Benito Mussolini. The dictator's departure should come as good news for the hilltop town of Santa Vittoria, but new problems lay ahead (Federico Fellini favorite Giuseppe Rotunno shot the sun-drenched movie in Italy). Feeling betrayed by Il Duce, wine merchant Italo Bombolini (La Strada's Anthony Quinn) drinks his disappointment away to the consternation of his rolling pin-wielding wife, Rosa (The Rose Tattoo's Anna Magnani). Nonetheless, the townspeople like the "drunken, stupid clown," as Rosa calls him, enough that they appoint Bombolini mayor. To prepare him for duty, the college-educated Fabio (Swept Away's Giancarlo Giannini) introduces the new civic leader to Machiavelli, who wrote, "Things are never what they seem." When Fabio brings news that the Nazis plan to raid their wine reserves, Bombolini and Tufa (Sergio Franchi), a former soldier, heed those words and arrange to hide one million bottles in a Roman cave. Capt. Von Prum (Hardy Krüger) suspects subterfuge, and orders a search of every nook and cranny, while attempting to woo war widow Contessa Caterina (Queen Margot’s Virna Lisi). At 139 minutes, Judgment at Nuremberg producer/director Stanley Kramer’s Golden Globe-winning film’s celebration of solidarity lends it an enduring appeal.