#595: ROSI, Francesco: The Moment Of Truth (1965)
ROSI, Francesco (Italy)
Commentary
None.
Interview
The Moment Of Truth [1965]
Spine #595
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verità), from director Francesco Rosi, is a visceral plunge into the life of a famous torero — played by real-life bullfighting legend Miguel Mateo, known as Miguelin. Charting his rise and fall with a single-minded focus on the bloody business at hand, the film is at once gritty and operatic, placing the viewer right in the thick of the ring's action, as close to death as possible. Like all of the great Italian truth seeker's films, this is not just an electrifying drama but also a profound and moving inquiry into a violent world — and it's perhaps the greatest bullfighting movie ever made.
107 minutes
Color
Color
Monaural
in Italian
2:35:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2012
Director/Writers
Cowritten by Pedro Portabella, Ricardo Muñoz Suay and Pedro Beltrán.
Francesco Rosi was 43 when he wrote and directed The Moment of Truth.
Other Rosi films in the Collection:
#228: Salvatore Giuliano (1962)
#355: Hands Over The City (1963)
#1043: Christ Stopped At Eboli (1979)
The Film
Other Rosi films in the Collection:
#228: Salvatore Giuliano (1962)
#355: Hands Over The City (1963)
#1043: Christ Stopped At Eboli (1979)
The Film
Perhaps in 1965, bullfighting was still thought of us a macho mano-a-toro type of mass entertainment. Although it still exists as such in Spain, and many other parts of the world, it seems — or should seem — sickening to the 21st century viewer.
Is Rosi non-judgmentally bringing us this close-up (300 mm lens!) gore, which was so sickening to his first DP (Gianni di Venanzo) that he had to be replaced (Pasquale de Santis).
Miguel Mateo “Miguelín” (Miguel) — a real torero — is convincing in the role. Pedro Basauri “Pedrucho” (Padrucho, the maestro) is goofy as the old man who teaches desperate kids how to handle the muleta. Linda, the American lady (Linda Christian) is just a plain old stereotype.
The rest is just blood soaked innocent animals.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Twenty-two page booklet featuring an essay by critic Peter Matthews.
51
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Twenty-two page booklet featuring an essay by critic Peter Matthews.
“There is scant edification to be gained from watching young men being tossed like so many rag dolls, ceremonial horses getting gored in the flanks, or the bulls being continually impaled by festive harpoons before having their spinal cords severed. Rosi catalogs the atrocities with a clinical detachment that merely intensifies their horror.”
Commentary
None.
Interview
With the director from 2004.
He didn’t seem to know what he wanted to do after the success of Hands Over the City.
Extras Rating (0-40):
He didn’t seem to know what he wanted to do after the success of Hands Over the City.
Extras Rating (0-40):
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