Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Allegro non troppo
Tagged: Film.
Italian live-action/Animated Movie (1976). Essential/Specialty. Produced by Bruno Bozzetto. Directed by Bozzetto. Special effects: Luciano Marzetti. Animation director: Bozzetto. Screenplay by Bozzetto, Guido Manuli, Maurizio Nichetti. Starring: Nestor Garay (Conductor), Maria Luisa Giovannini (Stagehand), Maurizio Micheli (MC), Nichetti (Animator). 74 mins, restored to 85 mins. Colour and tinted b/w.
The live-action sequences in this Parody of Disney's Fantasia (1940) are of little interest, but the animated sequences are exquisite: Allegro non troppo is arguably superior to its original.
In the Prelude à l'Après-midi d'un Faun sequence (music by Debussy), set in an Arcadian paradise, an ageing Satyr attempts unsuccessfully to relive his youth among the nymphs. The sequence accompanying Dvořák's Slavonic Dance #7 portrays the metronomic rise of militarism through the human need to imitate. Ravel's Bolero accompanies a truly astonishing piece of animation, which both parodies Fantasia's Rite of Spring sequence and wildly surpasses it, depicting the marching, rhythmic evolution of life from its lowly origins as a splash spilt from a Coke bottle. The sequence corresponding to Sibelius's Valse Triste is tragic: a half-starved stray cat, haunting a derelict house, sees there the Ghosts of its onetime occupants before fading to become a ghost itself. Vivaldi's Concerto in C Minor is matched to a simple but very funny tale of an epicurean bee trying to pollinate in a field terrorized (in bee terms) by a pair of roiling lovers. And the sequence set to an extract from Stravinsky's Firebird retells the Adam and Eve legend, with the Serpent the one to eat Eden's apple: his indigestion from so doing brings him apocalyptic Visions of a technological future. The overt subtext of this final sequence is that, although the Serpent is originally evil, his is mischievous Evil, and thus innocent: the eating of the apple destroys that innocence. This revisionist view of the nature of primordial evil is among the most interesting in extant fantasy Cinema. [JG]
links