Captain Fracassa's Journey

Captain Fracassa's Journey

Film poster
Directed by Ettore Scola
Produced by Mario Cecchi Gori, Vittorio Cecchi Gori
Written by Théophile Gautier (novel)
Furio Scarpelli
Ettore Scola
Starring Massimo Troisi, Vincent Perez, Ornella Muti, Toni Ucci, Ciccio Ingrassia, Claudio Amendola
Music by Armando Trovajoli
Cinematography Luciano Tovoli
Edited by Raimondo Crociani
Distributed by Cecchi Gori Group
Release dates
  • 31 October 1990
Running time
 123 minutes
Country Italy
France
Language Italian

Captain Fracassa's Journey (Italian: Il viaggio di Capitan Fracassa) is a 1990 Italian comedy film directed by Ettore Scola. It was entered into the 41st Berlin International Film Festival.[1]

Plot

The story takes place in France during 1600. A ramshackle theater company of Commedia dell'arte (Comedy of Art) is to roam vast and boundless territories to reach the court of Louis XIV. However, it remains stationary for days on a single place. In fact, a member of the company is seriously ill and so the actor who plays Punch (Troisi) tells how it all took place in a traveler who sees the bandwagon. The theater company recently was already going to visit the King of France that he might have better luck presenting their games and shows, but they ran into a storm. There, the members have seen a ruined castle and entered it, as we are in a servant (Ciccio Ingrassia) and his young master fallen: Baron Sigognac. The servant understands well that the young man would spend a useless life if he continued to live with him, and throws him out the next day with the company so that it can find the fortune. The young man struggles to acclimate to the new conditions imposed on him, but gradually get used to and make friends with almost all the funny members of the company who all have an interesting story to tell about their past.

Sigognac will fall in love but also of Serafina, finding themselves in difficulty because of its poor conditions and fear of poverty also drag the baron, flees. Among cheerful evenings in villages to interpret and shows coarse farces and trouble with bandits in the woods, the company is in the court of the nobleman Bruyeres offering a satisfactory amount of money the company of the three girls to play shows just for him. That just happens during the evening also Sigognac, called in to replace a sick actor, must play a role. But the young man is totally inexperienced in the theater and its arrival on the scene is likely to drop all of the magical spell of the show. But the young unexpected jokes and also performs some carelessly tumbled by blowing up the audience in a roar of laughter. Now a new company was born in the theatrical mask that encloses together "Captain" and "Idiot Servant" Captain Fracassa. The success was immediate, but Sigognac will not be happy for long because that night he collides with a noble bearing violence to a girl of the company. Sigognac, paying appeal to his duties noble gentleman, a duel rival but proves to be more skilled than him and seriously injured. Below is a violent fever attacks the poor young man. Again here the beginning of the story: the members of the company, reduced to a few because of the death of some and neglect others, succeed with a last effort to reach Paris where staged their show with the Captain Fracassa. Fortunately, the performance of the Comedy of Art in France is a huge success and the actors become the courtiers of Louis.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ "Berlinale: 1991 Programme". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2011-03-26.

External links