Summoned home for their mother's funeral, three very dissimilar brothers (in physiognomy as much as in profession or philosophy) reacquaint themselves with their peasant roots and with each other. They reminisce, they dream bad dreams, they sit around and talk, or they do nothing at all while sad music plays on the soundtrack. Francesco Rosi has unarguably given his movie a countenance suited to a funeral: somber, pensive, patient, and rather devitalized. He has also given it a crisp image and crisp sound, and has attempted here and there, sometimes ill-advisedly, to make it more "cinematic" via flashbacks and fantasy sequences. The heated discussions on politics, terrorism, labor, capital punishment, etc., get nowhere, accomplish nothing, but it is a victory for the movie that all the characters remain sympathetic and the judge certainly more so than his fellow judges in Rosi's Illustrious Corpses. With Philippe Noiret, Charles Vanel, Michele Placido. (1981) — Duncan Shepherd
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