{"id":12563,"date":"2015-11-07T12:59:37","date_gmt":"2015-11-07T17:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12563"},"modified":"2015-11-07T13:11:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-07T18:11:21","slug":"dvd-jesters-supper-the-la-cena-delle-beffe-1942","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12563","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Jester\u2019s Supper, The \/ La cena delle beffe (1942)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"JestersSupper1942\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Standard<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> One 7 Movies<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a00 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0May 12, 2015<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Drama \/ Suspense<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0After being humiliated and losing his love, a former servant exacts cruel revenge on a pair of sadistic brothers in this vivid adaptation of Sem Benelli’s play.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 Stills Gallery.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sem Benelli\u2019s play<\/a> is a nasty little gem, compacting the cruel trickery and intricate plotting of an epic Shakespearean tragedy into something more modest in scale, but no less devastating.<\/p>\n

Osvaldo Valenti is outstanding as Giannetto, a former servant who uses his unexpected Iago skills to ensnare Neri (charismatic and Flynnesque Amedeo Nazzari), his chief tormentor by getting him to participate in a foolish act of bravado that has him arrested and locked up as insane.<\/p>\n

Only Giannetto is able to work the judges and sanction leniency and \/ or his freedom, but until there\u2019s a favourable apology given directly to Giannetto, loutish aggressor Neri will remain strapped to a cross, tortured and verbally tormented by the former lovers wrangled for a visit by Gianneto.<\/p>\n

Alessando Blasetti and Renato Castellani’s script is brisk and perhaps a bit too abrupt at the end \u2013 there\u2019s a need for one more dramatic beat to hammer home the tragic end to every character in this sordid drama \u2013 but it\u2019s told with power and efficiency from Blasetti, a skilled director who employs swerving camera moves and sharp editing.<\/p>\n

Equally important to the drama is Giuseppe Becce\u2019s smart score that augurs Giannetto\u2019s own personal struggle as he quickly realizes he has no choice but to see through his full scheme. The scenes between Valenti and Nazzari in the dungeon are the most galvanizing, since there\u2019s no common ground between the two rivals from differing classes; the only elements that join them are mutual hatred, and pretty Ginevra (Clara Calamai), the lover whom Neri stole from Giannetto\u2019s arms with particular brutality.<\/p>\n

Benelli\u2019s play was also adapted into an opera<\/a> by the author, set to music by Umberto Giordano, but it\u2019s fair to say both The Jester\u2019s Supper<\/strong> and many of the high caliber talent in the film are largely unknown in North America. One 7 Movie\u2019s DVD is adequate \u2013 the transfer has visible compression, but at least it\u2019s from a decent source print \u2013 but the stills gallery (manufactured from frame grabs) is a poor substitute for extensive bios on the cast & crew.<\/p>\n

An isolated score would\u2019ve been marvelous \u2013 Becce\u2019s themes and lush variations are exquisite \u2013 but at the very least, the disc makes available a rare work by Blasetti. Besides Too Bad She\u2019s Bad<\/strong><\/a> (1954), few of his films have been released in North America.<\/p>\n

The Jester\u2019s Supper<\/strong> is also of note in being one of several films starring Valenti, whose fascist associations ultimately cost him his life days before Italy\u2019s liberation during WWII.<\/p>\n

Valenti was executed by anti-fascist soldiers alongside his lover Luisa Ferida, both huge stars in the 1930s and 1940s, and whose final years were dramatized in the 2008 biography Wild Blood \/ Sanguepazzo<\/a><\/strong>, directed by Marco Tullio Giordana.<\/p>\n

Ferida\u2019s role as one of Neri\u2019s jilted lovers is quite modest, whereas horror fans will enjoy an early performance by Calamai, one in which she raised eyebrows and the ire of censors when Neri tears off Ginevra\u2019s top, exposing her bare bosom. While Calamai\u2019s postwar output became infrequent, she appeared in Luchino Visconti\u2019s film noir Ossessione<\/strong> (1943) and drama Le notti bianchi <\/strong>(1957), and made a final screen appearance in Dario Argento\u2019s Deep Red <\/strong>\/ Profondo Ross <\/strong>(1975) as a very<\/em> protective mamma.<\/p>\n

Becce\u2019s long film scoring career extended from Germany to Italy, and included several classic genre films, such as Fritz Lang\u2019s Destiny<\/strong> (1921), F.W. Murnau\u2019s The Last Laugh<\/strong> (1924), Leni Riefenstahl\u2019s The Blue Light<\/strong> (1932), and Gustav Machaty\u2019s Ecstasy<\/strong> \/ Ekstase<\/strong> (1933)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sem Benelli\u2019s play is a nasty little gem, compacting the cruel trickery and intricate plotting of an epic Shakespearean tragedy into something more modest in scale, but no less devastating. Osvaldo Valenti is outstanding as Giannetto, a former servant who uses his unexpected Iago skills to ensnare Neri…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[4075,4073,4074,4072,4071,4066,4065,4070],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3gD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12563"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12592,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12563\/revisions\/12592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}