Superb! They will need the mandrake (an herb that makes witches invisible as an ointment and as a drink gives women fertility) to get closer to the beauty because Machiavelli believed that it was honest rather than superticious to reach the favors of a beautiful woman through "the filters" and metaphysical supports, read with a drug, than by the charms alone of a gentleman of dubious intentions and -by the way, also- predicaments. Indeed, to dispense the love of a woman who is not even known is Ligurio's first great virtue in this comedy, as long as he has some benefit of material preference apart from the feasts. There is only one role carried out by Jean Claude Brialy that I love more than that of Donjuan, that of alcafar and celestino -apparently- of little time, but yes, an opportunist without comparison like here. "La Mandragola", a spicy and recalcitrant comedy; the first for noble causes that clearly show that the weaker sex is the strong, that is, the ladies; the second, to mature the cryptic politics, the one that ostracized geniuses like Machiavelli, must be initiated, if anything, by the customs of those who choose at the highest risk of the ad populum fallacy. Machiavelli's caustic humor is alive thanks to Lattuada who, as we already know, was interested in more than two or three classic texts, and now it is the turn of the author of The Prince. Sneaking between the baths, even knocking down the wall with the other males in order to warm up, seeing the bare back of a commoner, dodging an accident of death by walking indolently on the yew trees, Callimaco with his servant Siro has scrutinized among the confidences of Lucrecia Calfucci, the one who loves or thinks she loves, verbigratia, hot stones and Lucca oil to supposedly get pregnant (without success though), determined to conquer her, here is romanticism for its own sake, or free romanticism for the pure art of flirting brought to the level of purpose. It is not the only and much less the first case (remember Romeo and Juliet) where the Christian curia works as a bailiff, sold to the highest bidder, -in this case not hesitating to quote Job, having relations with his daughter- and being the friar manipulated by Ligurio to impersonate a doctor and thus allow Callimaco to enter the conjugal bed with Lucrecia without Nicio the husband noticing. The refreshing comedy closes with the question: And to Paris when we return? In a sarcastic tone, the servant to the master Callimaco after not only having managed to spend the night with the beautiful lady, but after having obtained the congratulations of the same husband who has done it. Invited to eat.
Review of La mandragola
La mandragola
(1965)
Machiavelli's caustic humor is alive thanks to Lattuada
20 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers