THE TRAITOR

Marco Bellocchio is one of the most consistent and most adventurous of today’s Italian directors – an achievement all the more remarkable given that he made his feature debut almost fifty years ago. After making a few shorts, Bellocchio announced himself with his ferocious first feature, the acclaimed Fists in the Pocket (1965). For the next several years, films such as China Is Near (1967) and Nel nome del padre (1971) found Bellocchio examining the turbulent world of leftist politics and revolutionary dreams with an eye both sympathetic and jaundiced. During the 1980s and 1990s, under the spell of unorthodox – and, to some, controversial – psychoanalyst Massimo Fagioli, Bellocchio’s emphasis turned to examining the interweaving of family dynamics and sexual desire as they produce and undermine personal identities. More recently, Bellocchio has turned to more straightforward narratives in a number of films that examine Italy's recent past and its present, from The Nanny (1999) to one of his most recent works, Dormant Beauty (2012). What has remained constant is Bellocchio’s searching critique of the institutions that control individuals and organize the flow of power: the army, political parties, schools, the state and its laws, the Church, and the family.