Sacco and Vanzetti (film)

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Movie
German title Sacco and Vanzetti
Original title Sacco e Vanzetti
Country of production Italy , France
original language Italian , English
Publishing year 1971
length 120/124 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Giuliano Montaldo
script Vicente Aranda
Fabrizio Onofri
Giuliano Montaldo
Mino Roli
Ottavio Jemma
production Arrigo Colombo
Giorgio Papi
music Ennio Morricone (composition)
Joan Baez (lyrics and vocals)
camera Silvano Ippoliti
cut Nino Baragli
occupation

Sacco and Vanzetti (original title: Sacco e Vanzetti ) is an Italian-French feature film from 1971 directed by Giuliano Montaldo for the cinema , which is assigned to the genres of political , documentary and judicial drama . In terms of form and style, Montaldo, who also played a key role in the script, used elements of Italian neorealism .

The film premiered on March 16, 1971 in Italy. In May of the same year, Sacco e Vanzetti was a competition entry at the 24th Cannes International Film Festival (see section Awards ). The German-language dubbed version started in West German cinemas on May 10, 1972.

Content and intention

The film prepares the historical events surrounding the American US in the 1920s in the state of Massachusetts , held Raubmord process against from Italy to the US immigrant workers and anarchists Nicola Sacco (played by Riccardo Cucciolla ) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (played by Gian Maria Volonte ) dramaturgically. Here contemporary archival footage from various shown are also rare silent film - newsreels integrated into the movie plot, the worldwide among other mass demonstrations document for the release of titles people. To clarify the documentary character, the - re-enacted - introductory passage and the final phase of the film, which is otherwise shot in color, are also kept in black and white . The film introduces the opening credits , which portray the state wave of mass persecution after the First World War against (also supposedly) left-wing immigrants through the so-called Palmer Raids . In the final phase, it is the scene of the execution of the protagonists that is shown in black and white.

All in all, Montaldo's drama follows the opinion, which is also held by a majority in academia today, that Sacco and Vanzetti were innocent of the crime they were charged with and that they were actually sentenced to death because of their origin as immigrants and their political views as anarchists. This is illustrated in the film by the repression and prejudice-laden defamation of indictments and alibis of the accused by the prosecutor Frederick G. Katzmann (portrayed by Cyril Cusack ) and the judge Webster Thayer (portrayed by Geoffrey Keen ).

Using the example of the case of Sacco and Vanzetti , who after seven years of imprisonment and several rejected applications to reopen the case, were ultimately executed on the electric chair in 1927 and thus became victims of a judicial murder , Montaldo takes a political and a political stand against the death penalty biased judiciary that follows nationalist and xenophobic guidelines.

The plot of the film is closely based on the trial files and the researched historical events, which are essentially processed in the article Sacco and Vanzetti .

music

The soundtrack for the film was composed by Ennio Morricone . This also includes the title Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti , which is divided into three passages and for which the American folk singer Joan Baez wrote and sang the lyrics using quotes from letters from Sacco and Vanzetti. The third and final part of the film - the song Here's to You - subsequently became world famous. Not long after the film's premiere, various other prominent performers from different countries adapted this song with their own - sometimes multilingual - arrangements and cover versions . With its catchy melody , Here's to You developed into an internationally understood hymn for the victims of political justice, which has had a corresponding effect up to the present day and is now an evergreen that is more popular than the film itself.

Awards

The film was a contribution to the Cannes International Film Festival in May 1971 (see Cannes 1971 ). Riccardo Cucciolla won the Best Actor Award for his role as Nicola Sacco .

In 1972 the composer Ennio Morricone received the Nastro d'Argento ( Silver Ribbon ) award from the Association of Italian Film Journalists in the category of Best Film Music for his soundtrack to Sacco and Vanzetti . This committee also honored Rosanna Fratello for her portrayal of Rosa Sacco (Nicola Sacco's wife) in the category Best Young Actress and again (after Cannes 1971) Riccardo Cucciolla as Best Actor .

reception

In the Lexicon of International Films , Sacco and Vanzetti are assessed as follows:

Dramatized reconstruction of a legendary episode in American judicial history; in style and intention in the tradition of the Italian political thriller. "

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. different information in various literature and online references: For example, the IMDb gives the length of the film as 120 minutes, in the lexicon of international films as 124 minutes
  2. Listing of the first performance dates of Sacco e Vanzetti in some countries on imdb.com
  3. ^ Dataset on the entries and awards at the Cannes Festival in 1971 (www.imdb.com, accessed on May 10, 2015)
  4. List of nominations and film prizes for the film Sacco and Vanzetti (English), according to IMDb, accessed on May 13, 2015
  5. Lexikon des Internationale Films, 1995 edition, Volume 7 (letter S ), Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag, ISBN 3-499-16357-8 , p. 4742