The Jester's Supper

The Jester's Supper (1942)

La cena delle beffe

In Florence, at the time of Lorenzo de Medici, known also as Lorenzo the Magnificent, the aristocrat brothers Chiaramantesi rule with an iron fist the streets of the city. Ruthless and fierce, the two brothers have chosen as their special victim the innocent and harmless Giannetto. Even though determined to not react to the cruel pranks of the brothers, Giannetto is forced to take a stand when Ginevra, a beautiful girl that works in the Chiaramantesi household, is dragged into the game. To defend his honor and protect the girl, Giannetto works out a fiendish plot that will end in blood and madness.

Date of release
1942-02-10
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (17)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Romance, Drama
Director
Alessandro Blasetti

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: The Jester's Supper

The Jester's Supper is a 1942 Italian historical film directed by Alessandro Blasetti and starring Amedeo Nazzari, Osvaldo Valenti and Clara Calamai. It was based on a play of the same title by Sem Benelli, which had later been turned into an opera by Umberto Giordano. Like the play, the film is set in the 15th century Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent and portrays a rivalry that leads to a series of increasingly violent practical jokes.

Production and reception

It was shot at Cinecittà in Rome partly using sets that had been constructed for Blasetti's earlier The Iron Crown which was set in the same era. Amedeo Nazzari, the leading Italian star of the decade, was cast strongly against type. Usually Nazzari played romantic heroes or action men, but in the film he plays a loutish character and appeared without his trademark moustache.

The film was extremely popular and boosted the career of Clara Calamai in particular. In one scene her dress is ripped off by Nazzari, briefly exposing her breasts in one of the first topless scenes in Italian cinema. It was one of several films in which Osvaldo Valenti and Luisa Ferida, later executed in 1945, appeared together.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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