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
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 evil queen takes him to her castle where she makes him her lover.

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 passion for the sensual witch herself, who takes him as her own lover. 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 as she destroys her rival by convincing the evil woman to demonstrate her powers by turning herself into a statue that the princess then smashes to pieces. 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 and release

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.[2][3][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 (Romualdo) in 2007

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 sultry 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] Martines went to the hospital while still wearing her costume.[7] Nielsen said her character was to be "more than a witch, but a queen, the type of Grimilde" from Disney's Snow White.[8] Angela Molina, who has both played both the White Witch and the White Knight in the first Fantaghirò, was replaced by Katarina Kolajova for the second film; Kolajova later married Cataldo's actor Stefano Davanzati whom she met on the set.[7]

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][9] The move sparked a "chain reaction" of programs being accordingly shuffled on other Italian channels.[10] 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.[11]

Fantaghiro 2 proved to be a commercial success, receiving the audience of 6,601,000 (25.11%) (first part)[12] and 9,160,000 (30,6%) (second part)[4] when first aired in Italy. Polish weekly Tele Tydzień gave it three stars out of five.[13] 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] Nielsen's character was received so well that the popular villainess returned for three successive chapters of the saga.[14][15]

Sequel

Main article: Fantaghirò 3

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.

References

  1. ↑ "Tra una settimana " Fantaghiro' 2" e gia' si pensa all' avventura numero 3". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  2. 1 2 "FANTAGHIRO' CONTRO LA STREGA - la Repubblica.it" (in Italian). Ricerca.repubblica.it. 1992-08-28. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Fantaghiro' 2, attenti a strega Brigitte". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  4. 1 2 3 "Dalla parte delle streghe su "Fantaghiro 2"". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  5. ↑ "la Martines e una Nielsen " strega " in Cecoslovacchia per Fantaghiro' 2". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  6. 1 2 "Alessandra Martines fra elfi, fate e streghe". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  7. 1 2 Maggino, Aurelia (2014-06-20). "Fantaghirò: le 20 curiosità sulla serie tv che non sapevi". Gossipetv.com. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  8. ↑ "La cattiva: inseguo sempre la TV". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  9. ↑ "Fantaghiro' evita la Piovra, anticipato a domenica". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  10. ↑ Di Silvia Fumarola (1992-12-19). "PARTITA A SCACCHI CON I PROGRAMMI - la Repubblica.it" (in Italian). Ricerca.repubblica.it. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  11. ↑ "La meravigliosa storia di Fantaghirò (1995)". FilmTV.it. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  12. ↑ "en plein fantastico delle reti Rai". Archiviostorico.corriere.it. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
  13. ↑ "Fantaghiro 2 - Teletydzien.pl - Księżniczka Fantaghiro (Alessandra Martines)" (in Polish). Teletydzien.pl. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  14. ↑ "Fantaghirò: 10 curiosità sul cast e sulla serie tv cult | Televisionando". Televisionando.it. 2015-12-21. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  15. ↑ "Che Natale sarebbe senza Fantaghirò? La saga fantasy torna su Mediaset". Film.it. 2015-12-21. Retrieved 2016-01-14.

External links

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