The Good Soldier (1982 film)

The Good Soldier
Directed by	Franco Brusati
Screenplay by	Franco Brusati Ennio De Concini
Produced by	Mario Gallo
Starring	Mariangela Melato
Cinematography	Romano Albani
Edited by	Roberto Perpignani
Music by	Maurizio Fabrizio
Release date	1982 (1982)
Language	Italian

The Good Soldier (Italian : Il buon soldato, French : Le Bon Soldat) is a 1982 Italian-French romantic drama film co-written and directed by Franco Brusati. It premiered at the 39th edition of the Venice Film Festival.

Cast

• Mariangela Melato as Marta
• Gérard Darier as Tommaso
• Giampaolo De Angelis as Tommasino
• Bruno Zanin as Marco
• Carla Bizzarri as Aunt Adele
• Toni Barpi as Uncle Pietro
• Jean-François Balmer as the Lawyer
• Gérard Lartigau as Luca
• Siria Betti as Marta's Mother
• Carlo Monni as Giovanotto Torretta
• Clara Colosimo as Friend
• Diana Dei as Friend

Production

Brusati drew inspiration for the script from a true story that occurred in Livorno. ^[1]

Release

The film had its world premiere at the 39th Venice International Film Festival, in the main competition section. Following its mixed reception, Brusati assembled a new, shorter cut of the film, which was released in Italian cinemas in February 1983. ^{[2] [3]}

Reception

Corriere della Sera's film critic Giovanni Grazzini  [ it ] noted that while the Venice cut was marred by "the continuous oscillation between realism and surrealism [...] where images and voices were often way over-the-top", the new theatrical version "by cutting out some of the unpleasantness and giving the whole more compactness, [...] remedies to a good extent the failures of the screenplay". ^[4]

Paolo Mereghetti noted that even with the new cut the film remains "indefensible", characterized by "subtle conformism", "over-the-top grotesqueness", and a "discordant poetic tone". ^[5]

References

1. Tornabuoni, Lietta (18 July 1982). "Brasati: Giravo il Buon soldato e soffrivo, anzi tremavo di paura". La Stampa . No. 147. p. 15. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
2. Cervone, Paolo (19 January 1983). "Brusati: «Ecco le modifiche»". Corriere della Sera . p. 23.
3. s. reg. (27 February 1983). "Mariangela, il buon soldato è donna". La Stampa. No. 48. p. 25. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
4. Grazzini, Giovanni (5 February 1983). "E' donna il «buon soldato» che non accetta sconfitte". Corriere della Sera. p. 19.
5. Mereghetti, Paolo (2010). "Il buon soldato". Il Mereghetti 2011. Vol. 1. Baldini Castoldi Dalai. p. 521. ISBN   978-88-6073-626-0.

External links

• The Good Soldier at IMDb