This is an extraordinary film which needs at least 2 viewings to make you really appreciate its subtleties. Although headlined as four Pirandello stories with an epilogue, the prologue about the crow and the bell is also taken from a Pirandello tale. Each story has its own emotional intensity and although each is a separate, self contained entity, they are all linked by various visual devices a bit like leitmotifs in an opera. Look out for the images of drinking milk from a bowl, images of a woman dancing, images of a horse moving across a landscape or townscape, images of children rolling down a dusty slope, images of cooling oneself with water. They all come together powerfully in the epilogue, in which the penultimate scene set on the pumice island is without doubt one of the most visually beautiful in all cinema.
Other linking factors include the use of the same actors in the different stories and the music. The soundtrack is a masterpiece in its own right.
Some will find the length of the film offputting and I can see why it has been suggested that you make a break between the stories. But to watch the whole in one sitting allows you to appreciate the linking leitmotifs and gives accumulated power to the ending.
I just love this film.
Other linking factors include the use of the same actors in the different stories and the music. The soundtrack is a masterpiece in its own right.
Some will find the length of the film offputting and I can see why it has been suggested that you make a break between the stories. But to watch the whole in one sitting allows you to appreciate the linking leitmotifs and gives accumulated power to the ending.
I just love this film.