Luigi Capuana took fifteen years to write 'Il Marchese del Rocciverdana' and it is generally regarded as his masterpiece. It is set in rural, semi-feudal Sicily and concerns a nobleman whose intense passion for a servant girl leads to his committing a murder for which an innocent man is condemned. He confesses to a priest knowing that he is protected by the secrets of the confessional and is confident that his elevated social position will keep him above the law. He does not anticipate that his increasing sense of guilt and remorse will eventually destroy him......
Capuana himself must surely have drawn upon his own experience of having had an affair with his family's maid and being unable to acknowledge paternity of their children because of the mother's lower social status.
Pietro Germi has drawn the very best from his cast and to my knowledge this represents the finest hour in the careers of Erno Crisa as the Marchese, Marisa Belli as Agrippina the maid and Liliane Gerace as his wife Zosima, all of whom are splendid. Agrippina, dressed in black against the arid, bleached landscape, resembles a mythical figure of doom.
One cannot fail to mention cinematographer Leonida Barboni and composer Carlo Rustichelli whose contributions to Germi's films are immeasurable. Barboni's images here are stunning and Rustichelli's score in the style of 'Verismo' opera is one of his most lush and powerful. The passion and conviction of this film swept me along and I am sure that I am not alone in recognising Capuana's debt to Dostoevsky.
