| Brancaleone at the Crusades | |
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| Directed by | Mario Monicelli |
| Produced by | Mario Cecchi Gori |
| Written by | Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Mario Monicelli |
| Starring | Vittorio Gassman, Adolfo Celi, Stefania Sandrelli, Beba Loncar, Gigi Proietti, Lino Toffolo, Paolo Villaggio |
| Music by | Carlo Rustichelli |
| Distributed by | Titanus Film |
| Release date(s) | 1970 |
| Running time | 116 min. |
| Language | Italian |
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Brancaleone at the Crusades (Italian: Brancaleone alle Crociate) is an Italian comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli in 1970, the sequel of the famous L'armata Brancaleone.
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Plot
The film starts where L'armata Brancaleone has ended. Brancaleone da Norcia (again played by Vittorio Gassman) is a poor but proud Middle Ages knight leading his bizarre and ragtag army of underdogs. However, he loses in a battle all his "warriors" and therefore meets the Death's incarnation (a clear parody of Bergman's Seventh Seal). Having obtained more time to live, he forms a new tattered band. When Brancaleone saves an infant of royal blood, they set on to the Holy Sepulchre to bring him back to his father, Bohemund of Taranto (Adolfo Celi), which is fighting in the Crusades. As in the first film, in his quest he lives a series of grotesque episodes, each a hilarious parody of Middle Ages stereotypes. These include: the saving of a young witch (Stefania Sandrelli) from the stake, the annexion of a leper to the band, and a meeting with Gregory VII, in which Brancaleone has to solve the dispute between the pope and the antipope Clement III. On reaching Palestine, Brancaleone obtains the title of baron by the child's father. He is therefore chosen as a champion in a tournament to solve the dispute between the Christians and the Saracens in the siege of Jerusalem. The award for the winner is the former leper, who has revealed to be instead a beautiful princess, Berta, who adopted the disguise to travel to the Holy Land in relative safety. After having nearly defeated all the Moor warriors, Brancaleone is however defeated by a spell cast on him by the witch, who, having fallen in love with him, could not stand seeing him married with the princess. He starts therefore to wander in despair in the desert, and again the Death comes to claim her credit: Brancaleone, brooding and world weary as he is has no qualms about dying but asks to be allowed to die in "knightly" fashion, in a duel with the Grim Reaper itself. Death agrees and the confrontation begins...after a fierce exchange of blows Brancaleone is about to be cleft by Death's scythe but is ultimately saved by the witch, who gives her life for the man she loved.
Cast
- Vittorio Gassman - Brancaleone da Norcia
- Adolfo Celi - Re Boemondo
- Stefania Sandrelli - Tiburzia da Pellocce
- Beba Loncar - Berta d'Avignone
- Gigi Proietti - Pattume, Colombino
- Lino Toffolo - Panigotto
- Paolo Villaggio - Thorz
- Gianrico Tedeschi - Pantaleo
- Sandro Dori - Rozzone
- Shel Shapiro - Zenone (as Norman David Shapiro)
Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (May 2008) |
- One of characters of the film refers to having been raped in Battipaglia, in Puglia. However, this city was founded only in 1829.
External links
- Film page (in Italian)
- Film page (in English)
- Brancaleone at the Crusades at the Internet Movie Database
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