Especially On Sunday

"The Blue Dog," which opens the trilogy, tells the story of Amleto (Phillipe Noiret), a barber who is followed by a dog with a blue spot on his head. The unwanted mutt shadows Amleto everywhere--even into church. One night, as the dog barks outside his window, Amleto shoots it and is immediately overcome by remorse. After a man tells him the dog survived, he searches high and low for it. A shepherd finally tells him the dog died, and Amleto is crushed. He visits the dog's gravesite and hears a familiar bark. It is the dog. Laughing and cursing, he runs down the road with the mysterious pet.

In "Especially on Sunday," directed by Bertolucci himself, Vittorio (Bruno Ganz) meets Marco (Andrea Prodan) and Anna (Ornella Muti) by a river and offers to give them a lift. Anna, who is very flirtatious with the obviously intrigued Vittorio, explains that Marco has suffered a nervous breakdown and that she always visits him on Sunday. Over lunch, Marco tells a surreal story about a hotel room into which neither he nor Anna can enter at the same time. They go to Vittorio's house where Vittorio repeatedly woos Anna. Despite her forward behavior--she allows herself to be seen undressing--Anna stymies Vittorio's advances, helped by Marco's constant presence. Vittorio leaves the house and walks by a woman who has apparently been stood up. He calls Anna, but even on the phone they are not alone, for Marco kisses her and cries while they talk. Vittorio hangs up. The dateless woman returns and starts necking with him. Marco and Anna run by and catch a bus.

In "Snow on Fire," directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, Caterina (Maria Maddelena Fellini) makes a confession to her village priest. Disturbed by the passionate moans of Sposa (Chiara Caselli), her son's young wife, Caterina has been spying on the newlywed's love-making. And even though Caterina has locked eyes with Sposa, the old woman can't bring herself to stop. The priest orders Caterina to cease. One night, Caterina drops her medicine on the floor. She picks up the scattered pills and peaks down at the newlyweds. Sposa sees her and dutifully rouses her husband for sex. Caterina dies that night. Soon after, Sposa goes to confession. She explains that relations with her husband have cooled, and tells the story of her spying mother-in-law. "I wanted her to share some of my pleasure," she says about the woman she now misses. Later, Sposa notices water dripping from Caterina's room. She goes upstairs. Snow is falling through a hole in the roof.

Bertolucci doesn't want to tie up loose ends, he wants to celebrate them. The three elipitical stories here all feature odd, almost incomprehensible relationships. By never fully explaining why the blue dog follows Amleto, or how Marco and Anna are involved, or what, exactly, drives the tacit agreement between Caterina and Sposa, Bertolucci has sculpted a series of poetically-tinged mysteries. The acting is uniformly good, and Italian cineastes may find the performance of Fellini's sister, Maria, a rare treat. One thing that feels forced, however, is the thread that ties the three pieces together--a loose story about a man on a motorbike who leads a small boy to a house full of birds. It is slight and unnecessary bookend that comes as an anticlimax after the final tale. (Sexual situations.) leave a comment