Good Morning, Night Movie Review:


The title comes from an Emily Dickinson poem about the struggle between choosing right and wrong, and this is a seriously involving film that gets us in the mind of a radical activist. The story is based on the kidnapping of Italian political party head Aldo Moro at the hands of the notorious Red Brigade in 1978. The film centres on Chiara (Sansa), living in a flat and pretending to be the wife of a colleague (Bellocchio) while Moro (Herlitzka) and two other operatives (Lo Cascio and Calcagno) are hidden in a secret cell behind a bookcase. The whole nation, including the Pope, gets involved in calling for Moro's release. Meanwhile, the Brigade's demands get less and less defined as they try Moro and condemn him to death, sparking a severe crisis of conscience for Chiara.

Beautifully filmed in a 1970s style, the film looks fantastic, and writer-director Bellocchio gets well into the minds of all of the characters, each of whom is subtly played with attention to telling detail. We vividly see Brigade members struggling in individual ways with the task before them, while Herlitzka provides an intriguing counterpoint as the eerily calm condemned man in his cell. There's a Hitchcock thing going on as well, with Chiara's near-innocence contrasted starkly with those around her, while the harsh realities of her actions get more dangerous by the moment. And Bellocchio cleverly weaves images and sounds, as well as news footage and old movie clips to make it all seem frighteningly authentic. So it's a pity when the story gets bogged down in arty navel-gazing in the final act; there are several cinematic devices that fog the film's earlier clarity. This hints at deeper meaning without revealing anything. And the film never recovers, as it becomes a sort of attack on Italian politics and religion rather than the much more resonant examination of terrorism and idealism that drew us in.



Rich Cline

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