Love & Anarchy

Original title: Film d'amore e d'anarchia, ovvero 'stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza...'

1973
R
2h 4m

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

3.7K

YOUR RATING

Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato in Love & Anarchy (1973)

When a friend is murdered by the Facists, a melancholy farmer takes up residence in a Roman brothel as he and an anarchist prostitute plot to assassinate Mussolini.

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Comedy Drama Romance

When a friend is murdered by the Facists, a melancholy farmer takes up residence in a Roman brothel as he and an anarchist prostitute plot to assassinate Mussolini.When a friend is murdered by the Facists, a melancholy farmer takes up residence in a Roman brothel as he and an anarchist prostitute plot to assassinate Mussolini.When a friend is murdered by the Facists, a melancholy farmer takes up residence in a Roman brothel as he and an anarchist prostitute plot to assassinate Mussolini.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

3.7K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 4 wins & 3 nominations total

User reviews16

Featured review

8/10

8/10. Recommended.

It's the second Wertmüller movie i watched. I liked a lot SWEPT AWAY. And this is even better.

It's hard to describe it in a foreign language since i am a non-native English speaker. It's multilayered, deep and there are a lot to uncover and a lot to make you contemplate. On the surface, there is a naive, simple country young man who gets entangled in pretty unknown situations to him, from women to Resistance and Rebels. You might even say this is a comedy for the most part.

But as the movie progresses, especially during the ending, it sets a lot of questions. Things are not exactly what they seem. Should we sacrifice ourselves for a higher purpose? Or it's delusional and vain? What is a hero? Are they being manipulated? Or it's better in any case to "die like a dog than to live like one?"

This is an anti-fascist movie and that is not something negotiabe in every logical human being. But as i said, it's not a simple and superficial movie. It makes you think.

It's a 2 hours movie and it doesn't drag for a second. At times, it's hilarious. Pace is great, acting is great, ending is powerful. A very good political comedy/drama/romance movie.

athanasiosze
Jan 18, 2025
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Trivia
Errico Malatesta, who is quoted at the end of the film, was an Italian anarchist propagandist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expelled from Italy, England, France, and Switzerland. After World War I, he returned to Italy where his Umanità Nova, an anarchist newspaper, had some popularity before its closure under the rise of Mussolini. Malatesta was a committed revolutionary. He believed that the anarchist revolution was inevitable and that violence would be a necessary part of it since the state rested ultimately on violent coercion.

Quotes
Salome: In my opinion, I can't stand these people that are so intelligent yet create such a shitty world.

Crazy credits
Before end credits: "I wish to repeat my horror that attacks, which besides being bad in and of themselves are also stupid, because they harm the very cause they are trying to serve...But those assassins are also saints and heroes...And they will be celebrated once the brutal facts are forgotten, and all that is remembered is the idea that inspired them and the martyrdom that made them saints.--Errico Malatesta."

Alternate versions
For the initial American release, editor Fima Noveck created a prologue which featured a montage of photos of Mussolini, along with a crawl explaining his rise to power and the violent activities sanctioned in his name during his reign.