Good Morning Night Marco Bellocchio

"Aldo Moro," the words reverberate through Good Morning, Night. In 1978, Aldo Moro was the prime minister and the head of the Christian Democrat party in Italy. In March of that year he was violently kidnapped and held in a secret room of a rented apartment by four people working for the communist Red Brigade. For nearly two months he was kept while the Red Brigade broached negotiations for Moro's release with everyone possible, up to and including the Pope. When their demands failed to be met, rather than appear ineffectual, the Red Brigade shot Moro to death. His murder sent shockwaves throughout Italy. Good Morning, Night is an interior snapshot of Moro's kidnapping. Some actual footage from news broadcasts of the Moro kidnapping is used, but the bulk of the film takes place within the rented apartment, giving an insider's view as the Red Brigade members become disconnected from the world and edgy with each other. The focus of the film is 22-year-old Chiara, the sole woman in the group of four. Played with sensitivity by Maya Sansa, Chiara's inner struggle between the crime they are committing and what she believes in is illuminated. She works in a government library during the day, a fly on the wall to discussions of the crime around her, and an unwilling ear to her kind male co-workers' opinions about the Red Brigade. At night she prepares Moro's meals and becomes increasingly curious about, and sympathetic to, the noble Moro. In her dreams, he walks freely about the apartment and she helps him. Directed by the celebrated Marco Bellocchio, Good Morning, Night walks softly, but packs a big wallop. A well-paced, thoughtful piece, it is sympathetic to both sides in its study of the Moro kidnapping, portraying the Red Brigades as civilised people who are fighting for change, and Moro as a courageous man coming to terms with his inevitable death. (Filmalbatros SRL/Rai/Italia Cinema)