Allonsanfan is one of those rare foreign language films about which dedicated viewers know a lot without having gotten a chance to see it. It is rather unfortunate that this classic film directed by Taviani brothers has neither been shown repeatedly on TV screens around the world nor its DVD is as easily available as that of "Braveheart".If we look closely at the productivity of Italian cinema,we will come to know that there is only an Italian film ("La nuit de Varennes" directed by Ettore Scola) which similar to it in terms of style and content.Allonsanfan is quite similar to a Hungarian auteur Miklos Jancso's film but with no nudity,no brutality and no humiliation.At the core of this film is a detailed description of the tough life of a determined revolutionary.Sometimes he is trusted by his followers, sometimes he is not.Family ties are of great importance for him as any other aristocrat.The only unusual aspect of his behavior is that he does not know how to maintain them.Betrayal is a repetitive element of this film as there are plenty of disloyal souls linked to our strongman.This is the reason why he fails to remain neither a true revolutionary nor a true aristocrat.The portrayal of incest is rather out of place for this film.It loses its credibility because of prevalence of dramatic situations.It is true that "Allonsanfan" is visually exquisite but it is somewhat difficult to follow the film's flow as not much of historical context is provided to the viewer.One can say that events happen of their own accord.It is only after reaching the halfway mark that viewers comprehend that Allonsanfan is one of the this film's important protagonists.A positive thing about it is its star cast with remarkable performances by Marcello Mastroianni.A must see for all the admirers of auteur cinema especially of Vittorio and Paulo Taviani.

Of course you have to like the Taviani brothers style, something rather hard for viewers contaminated with the fast moving, predictable (even when trying hard to be unpredictable) plots of Hollywood McDonalds-style commercial movies. Taviani brothers take a bitter look at Italy of the '70's, the time when several leftist revolutionary groups, like the Brigade Rosse, the Autonomia Operaia and the Lotta Continua, chose the path of armed struggle against Italian capitalism, ending in a horrible massacre of politicians, judges, and innocent people. Just like them Fulvio, is of a wealthy, aristocratic origin and his revolutionary stance is just sentimental, not backed by real-life status. He gets easily disillusioned, but, caught in a moving sand, however he struggles to reclaim his past life he gets trapped and is swallowed in the end. It is hard to watch a film that you cannot identify with anyone, but it is worth a try.