"La Certosa di Parma" (1981) TV mini-series

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Mauro Bolognini

Writers:

Tatina Demby (writer)
Jean Gruault (writer)

Release Date:

25 October 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Stendhal's epic tale of a young French officer in the Napoleonic wars, and his aunt - a duchess of legendary beauty and resourcefulness.

Plot Keywords:

Aunt | Napoleonic | French | Italy | Prison

Cast

Marthe Keller	...	Gina, Duchess Sanseverina
Andrea Occhipinti	...	Fabrizio del Dongo
Gian Maria Volontè	...	Comte Mosca / Count Mosca
Georges Wilson	...	Le prince de Parme / Ernesto IV., Prince of Parma
Pascale Reynaud	...	Clelia Conti
Lucia Bosé	...	La marquise Del Dongo / Marchesa del Dongo
Nelly Borgeaud	...	La princesse de Parme / Princess of Parma
Yann Babilée	...	Le prince héritier / Young Prince of Parma
Marc Porel	...	Le lieutenant Robert / Lieutenant Robert
Ottavia Piccolo	...	Marietta
Peter Capell	...	L'abbé Blanes / Abbado Blanès
Hans-Michael Rehberg	...	Le marquis Del Dongo / Marchese del Dongo
Jean Boissery	...	Ferrante Palla
Laura Betti	...	La Vivandière
Heiner Lauterbach	...	Le comte Pietranera

Also Known As:

"Die Kartause von Parma" (West Germany)
"La Chartreuse de Parme" (France)
"The Charterhouse of Parma" (USA)

Runtime:

USA:360 min (6 episodes)

Country:

Italy | France | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Colorno, Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Company:

France 3 (FR 3)

Movie Connections:

Version of Prima della rivoluzione (1964)

About our ancestor and father,Stendhal

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In my adolescence, Stendhal was to me an author of swashbucklers. Yet I was profoundly impressed by his style, by the charm of his two most known novels. So I did not revere him yet, but the style already made the profoundest impression upon me. I looked it upon as the ideal style (I repeat, I mean the style of his novels, of his narrations).

Then came a few sentences from a Nietzsche's book. That rehabilitated to me Stendhal as a classic novelist, if I am to use this label. Then there was a lesson at school, when our teacher resumed for us, briefly, LE ROUGE ….Again, I was very impressed—this time, by the very content of the novel, its richness and density and intrinsic interest.

The entire rehabilitation came from an essay by Genette, read in '97 (and reread later …). That essay lead me to join the cult, the club of our master. In short, the others' perspectives on his books greatly improved my knowledge of him. I was as impressed with his books as with others' enthusiasm for him.

I belong to those who find much more interesting his novels themselves, than the man who wrote them (i.e., I am not interested in his two main novels as personal ,private documents or confessions, but as fiction). I loathe _biographism. I loathe biographic explanations and approaches in literary criticism. I tax it as cheap, petty exploitation.