A blind mother and her four children live in a country villa. A difficult family life, marked by profound psychological problems. Augusto, the most “normal”, aspires to a family, well-being and social integration. The brothers Alessandro and Leone, like their sister Giulia, suffer from mental disorders. Not even twenty-five years old, Bellocchio signs the story, screenplay and direction of one of the most dazzling and irreverent works of Italian cinema of the Sixties, staged with an elliptical language and a nervous syntax very close to the emotional temperatures of the Nouvelle Vague. After having obtained the Vela d’Argento for best direction in Locarno and thanks to the aura of a cursed work that it immediately acquired, Bellocchio’s debut film became a national case and the most prestigious intellectuals (Soldati, Moravia, Calvino, Pasolini) intervened on it. After Ossessione di Visconti, there had never been such a sensational and authoritative debut in Italian cinema. Always on the edge of the grotesque, a cold portrait of the bourgeoisie in black and a great film on the moral desertification of Italian society. Harsh, cruel, anguished.
Born and raised in Bobbio, Marco Bellocchio attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome at a young age. His first film, I pugni in tasca (1965), is one of the most mature and bold debuts in the history of Italian cinema. After La Cina è vicina (1967), a slogan film about the Italian bourgeoisie, he directed, among others, Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (1972), a bitter reflection on journalism. One of the most politically committed directors, he denounced the abuses of institutions (Nel nome del padre, 1972, Matti da slegare, 1975, Marcia trionfale, 1976) alternating documentary with fiction cinema. With the psychoanalyst Massimo Fagioli, he directed Il diavolo in corpo (1986), inaugurating a prolonged cinematic journey along the routes of the unconscious. In 1997 he brought to the screen a text by Heinrich von Kleist, The Prince of Homburg, which achieved great success among critics and audiences, confirming himself as a lucid, rigorous and passionate director. Having confirmed his success with a film adaptation of Pirandello's novel (La balia, 1999), he turned his attention to the dilemmas of the present and recent history (L’ora di religione, 2002, Buongiorno, notte, 2003, Il regista di matrimoni, 2006). The only Italian in competition, in 2009 he participated in the Cannes Film Festival with Vincere, obtaining great acclaim from international critics. At the last Venice Film Festival he presented Sorelle mai, a film in six episodes set in a family setting.