Nostra signora dei turchi

Fragmentary, poetic and often surreal semi-theological treatise. Bene gives a mostly solitary performance, frequently talking to himself, and when another character appears it's usually some sort of a "Madonna". Set and costume design are rich and luscious. Weird and crazy and enjoyable without being readily decipherable.

Invokes for me that old Roman scatological slant, which may present itself as a veneer coating the film materials (an impression I garner from Salo for example) or feels like real squalor has settled into the classical architecture, and an unacknowledged ancient sewage exists beneath the feet that can only be repressed. This is not my negative assessment, but I'm not always tided over by this seamy affect, for example I enjoy only a few Joe D'Amato movies. May have preferred in monochrome tbh.