Kaos (1984)

Directors:

Paolo Taviani
Vittorio Taviani

Writers:

Luigi Pirandello (stories)
Paolo Taviani (writer) ...

Release Date:

14 February 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Plot:

The film consists of four stories plus epilogue, set in 19th-century Sicily. THE OTHER SON - A mother...

Plot Keywords:

Full Moon | Sicily | Olive | Emigrant | Vase

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Margarita Lozano	...	Mariagrazia (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Claudio Bigagli	...	Batà (segment "Mal di luna")
Omero Antonutti	...	Luigi Pirandello (segment "Colloquio con la madre")
Franco Franchi	...	Zi' Dima (segment "Giara, La")
Biagio Barone	...	Salvatore (segment "Requiem")
Regina Bianchi	...	Pirandello's mother (segment "Colloquio con la madre") (as Régina Bianchi)
Ciccio Ingrassia	...	Don Lollò (segment "Giara, La")
Enrica Maria Modugno	...	Sidora (segment "Mal di luna")
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nello Accardi	...	Peasant (segment "Requiem")
Enzo Alessi	...	Avvocato (segment "Giara, La")
Sabina Belfiore	...	Maiden (segment "Requiem")
Maria Berranova
Giovanni Blandino	...	Mariagrazia's husband (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Massimo Bonetti	...	Saro (segments "Mal di luna" and "Colloquio con la madre")
Carlo Cartier	...	Doctor (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Giovanni Catania	...	Carreteer (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Laura De Marchi	...	Young Pirandello's grandmother (segment "Colloquio con la madre")
Maria Teresa Di Fede	...	Young Mariagrazia (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Enzo Gambino	...	Young emigrant (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Claudio Gazziano	...	Old man's son (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Domenico Gennaro
Giorgio Guerrieri
Fernando Jelo
Maria Lauretta	...	Advocate's wife (segment "Giara, La")
Maria Lo Sardo	...	Sara (segment "Giara, La")
Anna Malvica	...	Sidora's mother (segment "Mal di luna")
Giovanni Marsala	...	Jeli (segment "Giara, La")
Angelo Mezzasalma	...	Carabinieri's officer (segment "Requiem")
Salvatore Mignosi
Laura Mollica	...	Emigrant's wife / Francesca (segments "Altro figlio, L'" and "Requiem")
Matilde Piana	...	Water woman (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Salvatore Rossi	...	Old man (segments "Altro figlio, L'" and "Requiem")
Franco Scaldati	...	Father Sarso (segment "Requiem")
Giuseppe Sorge	...	Emigrant (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Pasquale Spadola	...	Baron (segment "Requiem")
Tony Sperandeo
Giovanna Taviani	...	Young Pirandello's mother (segment "Colloquio con la madre")
Giulliano Taviani	...	Pirandello's uncle as a child (segment "Colloquio con la madre")
Valentina Taviani	...	Pirandello's aunt as a child (segment "Colloquio con la madre")
Frida Terranova	...	Advocate's sister (segment "Giara, La")
Orazio Torrisi	...	Comizzi (segment "Altro figlio, L'")
Bartalo Vindigni	...	Grave digger (segment "Requiem")

Also Known As:

Chaos (USA)

Runtime:

UK:188 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Sicily, Italy

Company:

Filmtre

Movie Connections:

Edited into Bellissimo: Immagini del cinema italiano (1985)

Pirandellian masterpiece.

The Taviani Brothers evoke the mystery, drama, and stark beauty of Sicily in this wondrous three-hour film, with its four earthy stories and sublime epilogue. In "The Other Son" a demented Sicilian mother (Margarita Lozano) longs to hear from her sons who have emigrated to American and forgotten her,. Memories of a traumatic rape experience as a young woman prevent her from being able to accept the love of her only devoted son who follows her around with his cows. "Moon Sickness" tells about a young bride who discovers that her husband likes to howl at the full moon. She is not without an erotic moonsickness of her own which makes her crave sex wit her cousin when the husband is unable to perform his marital duties. "The Jar" features comedians Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia in a classic comic narrative about a mean landowner's large broken olive jar and the jar-mender who gets trapped inside and their ensuing battle of wits. "Requiem" deals with rural shepherds who want to have a graveyard to bury thir dead. In the epilogue "Conversation with Mother", we see playwright/storyteller Luigi Pirandello returning to his native Sicilian town after years of success on the mainland. He encounters the spirit of his mother who recounts a fabulous fairy-tale journey taken when she had been a child. It is a stunning twenty-minute sequence that must surely rank with the best moments in the history of Italian cinema. The images of the children rolling down the mountain of pumice on the "Pumice Island" are of a poetic lyric intensity. The shot of Pirandello sitting silently in the chair that no longer contains the mother he had been speaking to is also utterly moving. Nicola Piovani's passionate and transporting musical score (he would later do the music for LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL)adds immeasurably to the the experience of this powerful work of art.