Fantaghirò 2

Fantaghirò 2
German DVD cover
Directed by	Lamberto Bava
Produced by	Lamberto Bava Andrea Piazzesi
Written by	Gianni Romoli
Starring	Alessandra Martines Kim Rossi Stuart Brigitte Nielsen
Music by	Amedeo Minghi
Cinematography	Gianlorenzo Battaglia
Edited by	Piero Bozza
Production company	RAI
Release dates	20 December 1992 (1992-12-20)
Running time	200 minutes (2 parts)
Country	Italy
Language	Italian
Budget	Over 5 billion[1] Italian lira

Fantaghirò 2 (also known as The Cave of the Golden Rose 2) is the second television film in the Fantaghirò series, directed by Lamberto Bava and originally aired in 1992 as a two-parter (and so is known in certain releases as Fantaghirò 3 and Fantaghirò 4). Most of the principal cast of the previous film returned for this installment.

The story of Fantaghiro 2 tells the continuing adventures of the titular princess (Alessandra Martines), daughter of a king without a male heir (Mario Adorf).Fantaghiro fights for the heart of Prince Romualdo (Kim Rossi Stuart) against the wicked Black Witch (Brigitte Nielsen) who opposes their pure relationship and has cast her love spell over the prince.

Plot

Following the events of the first film, Princess Fantaghirò and Prince Romualdo are due to be married. But the Black Witch, an evil ruler of the Dark Kingdom, is disgusted by their love and wishes to destroy it, and to this end she kidnaps Fantaghirò's father. The couple decide to hold off their wedding, and Romualdo leads their army to save Fantaghirò's father. On the journey to the Dark Kingdom, Romualdo and his men encounter Forest Elves and their Queen, who force them to submit to a series of tests to prove that their intentions are pure. Romualdo passes and the army continue on their way. They eventually reach the borders to the Dark Kingdom where they make camp for the night before attacking the castle. As they are resting, the Black Witch, magically disguised to look like Fantaghirò, arrives and seduces Romualdo to kiss her. He faints and the witch takes him to her castle.

Elsewhere, the real Fantaghirò has decided to secretly go to the Dark Kingdom on her own. She cuts off her hair and travels with her horse Golden Mane. Along the way, she encounters bandits led by the Lemon Gobbler, but she manages to escape. She soon arrives at Romualdo's camp, which has been left abandoned. Unknown to Fantaghirò, the Black Witch's magic has erased Fantaghirò from Romualdo's mind and caused him to desperately fall in love with the witch herself. Fantaghirò enters the Dark Castle and learns that Romualdo's men have all been thrown in the dungeon. She negotiates with the Dark King to have a single duel between Fantaghirò and the Dark Kingdom's champion to decide the victor, with the losing kingdom submitting to the other. The Dark King agrees but, Fantaghirò is horrified to discover that she has to fight her beloved, who does not recognise her.

While the duel is going on, the Black Witch's minions Bolt and Lightning rebel against their mistress. Bolt poisons the witch, and when she falls asleep, they release Romualdo's men from the dungeon. Cataldo and Ivaldo subdue Romualdo, stopping him from killing Fantaghirò. Everyone quickly flees from the castle, taking the Dark King with them as hostage. Everyone manages to escape the Dark Kingdom except Romualdo, who runs back into the Black Witch's arms, and Fantaghirò, who goes after Romualdo. Fantaghirò and the witch then face-off, with Fantaghirò emerging victorious in a battle of wits and destroying her rival. The Dark King is unmasked as being Fantaghirò's father, subdued by the witch by the use of her hypnotic powers, and now that the spell that had been placed on him is broken, the group return to their kingdom.

However, Romualdo's memories have not returned to him. Fantaghirò, with the help of the White Witch, recreates the events of the previous film where they crossed paths for the first time. Romualdo starts to regain his memories but in doing so, it is revealed that a residue remnant of the Black Witch has been hiding in his mind, and the witch reappears to transforms Fantaghirò into a lowly creature off-screen. The White Witch comes to their rescue by shooting Lighting transformed into an arrow to finish-off the Black Witch. Romualdo then guesses correctly that Fantaghirò has been turned into an ugly toad, and upon kissing her, the two are reunited again.

Cast

Production

Bojnice Castle was the Black Witch's castle in the film

Director and producer Lamberto Bava made Fantaghirò 2 in Czechoslovakia to limit the costs.^[2] It was shot in July 1992 at Bojnice Castle, Bouzov Castle, a park and an artificial castle in Lednice, and in-studio in Bratislava by a mixed Italian/Czechoslovak crew of over 100.^[3][2][4][5] The film's special effects were created by Armando Valcauda, known from his work on the horror film Demons and its sequels, and the costumes were designed by Marisa D 'Andrea.^[3] The production cost 6 billion Italian lira.^[3]

Kim Rossi Stuart claimed that he enjoyed the role of the evil Romulado, nicknamed "Romul' altro" ("Romul 'other") by the film crew, saying that "naughty second identity" was more fun to play than the "sympathetic cliche" of an honest and fair Romualdo, and especially liking the scenes of him being intimate with Brigitte Nielsen's Black Witch. During the filming of the fight between Romualdo and Fantaghiro, performed with no stunt doubles, his sword actually struck Alessandra Martines in the head, luckily causing no severe injury.^[3][6] Nielsen said her character was to be "more than a witch, but a queen, the type of Grimilde" from Disney's Snow White.^[7]

Release

The film premiered on Canale 5, broadcast in two parts.^[3] The first part was originally scheluded for December 21, but was aired one day earlier to avoid the competition of the final episode of the sixth season of crime drama La piovra.^[6][8] The move sparked a "chain reaction" of programs being accordingly shuffled on other Italian channels.^[9] Fantaghirò 2 was later dubbed into multiple languages for foreign television broadcasts and released on home video (VHS and DVD) in Italy and in several other countries. The film and its prequel and sequel were recut (reduced and intersected with each other) into a 200-minute compilation film titled La meravigliosa storia di Fantaghirò ("The Wonderful Story of Fantaghirò") in 1995.^[10]

Reception

Fantaghiro 2 proved to be a commercial success, receiving the audience of 6,601,000 (25.11%) (first part)^[11] and 9,160,000 (30,6%) (second part)^[4] when first aired in Italy. Italian daily Corriere della Sera hailed the film maker Lamberto Bava, saying he has learnt the lessons of his father and comparing his work to Ridley Scott's Legend, and also applauding Nielsen for her "difficult" role as the Black Witch.^[4] Polish weekly Tele Tydzień gave it three stars out of five.^[12]

Sequel

In the 1993 sequel, Fantaghirò fights against the handsome but cruel wizard Tarabas (Nicholas Rogers) and his mother, the witch Xellesia (Ursula Andress), to bring back to life the prince Romualdo, turned into a stone statue, and save the child princess Esmeralda. The Black Witch also returns.

References

External links

• Fantaghirò 2 at the Internet Movie Database