Person Details

Birthday: 1937-09-03 00:22:18

Death: 2002-03-16 00:22:18

Aliases: No known aliases

Gender: Male

Place of birth: Campi Salentina, Lecce, Italia

Homepage:

Movie Involvements: 73

TV Involvements: 0


Most Famous Work

Biography

The filmmaking career of Carmelo Bene (1937 - 2002) lasted from 1968 to 1973, six years out of a lengthy time spent in the theater that made Bene one of the most celebrated figures of the Italian avant-garde in the second half of the 20th century. Bene first made a name for himself with a controversial production of Camus’ Caligula in Rome in 1959. Subsequent productions retained this sense of notoriety, and Bene (like Pasolini) quickly acquired a police record. Bene, however, would come to bemoan the controversy his work created, because it attracted an audience looking for shocks and titillation, while he himself was more concerned with reinventing the vocabulary of the theater: sets, gestures, texts. Bene’s turn to cinema expanded that quest to reinvent. His films resist synopsis because, although they are often derived from narrative sources, Bene uses these sources against themselves and as a springboard for his critique of the stultifying traps of representation and interpretation. The films are wildly inventive and visually arresting on several levels: the performance styles of his actors, including eccentric movements, gestures and grimaces; the sets, costumes and makeup; the editing; and the use of the camera, with stable shots regularly punctuated by handheld camera work, extreme close ups and the occasional baroque use of zooms, dollies, cranes, elaborate pans and exaggerated camera angles. They resemble something like the work of Jack Smith crossed with the experimental Pasolini of Teorema and Pigsty. One constant feature of Bene’s work is its satire of heterosexuality. The two sexes keep trying to communicate with each other, but always fail to do so. Bene’s work constantly deflates masculinist pretenses at mastery: his male characters tend to be hapless and often hysterical, while his female characters are alternately predatory and remote, and unknowable in either case. But this satire is merely the most visible form of Bene’s revolt against convention and communication. Over and over again in the films, everyday actions become hopelessly complicated or endlessly interrupted. His characters often end up staring quizzically offscreen or even into mirrors, as if they were no more sure than we are of the meaning of what they see. Indeed, identity and by extension agency seem to get suspended, along with meaning. What is left is glorious spectacle and enigmas for the eyes and ears: endless music; babbling, stuttering text; excessive and exciting images. – David Pendleton

Most Famous Work

Our Lady of the Turks
Average
7

Our Lady of the Turks

(1968) Writer
Salomé
Average
7

Salomé

(1972) Writer
One Hamlet Less
Average
7

One Hamlet Less

(1973) Writer
Capricci
Average
6

Capricci

(1969) Writer
Riccardo III
Average
0

Riccardo III

(1981) Adaptation
Amleto di Carmelo Bene (da Shakespeare a Laforgue)
Average
7
Pinocchio, ovvero lo spettacolo della Provvidenza
Average
8
Ventriloquio
Average
0

Ventriloquio

(1973) Adaptation

Acting

Year Character Movie/Tv
2023 Self (archive footage)
2022 N/A
2003 N/A
2002 N/A
2000 Self
1999 Pinocchio / Geppetto / Mastro Ciliegia / Grillo Parlante / Mangiafuoco / Volpe / Lucignolo
1998 N/A
1997 N/A
N/A
1996 Himself
1990 Himself
Amleto
1985 N/A
1983 N/A
1982 N/A
1981 Riccardo III
1980 N/A
1978 Amleto
1977 N/A
1973 Hamlet
Jean des Esseintes
1972 Erode Antipa / Onorio
1971 Pannocchia
1970 N/A
Don Giovanni
Billy Desco
1969 Poet
Self
1968 The Protagonist
The Man
1967 Prete
Creonte
N/A
1966 N/A
1965 Himself
Year Character Movie/Tv

Directing

Writing

Production

Art

Costume & Make-Up

Sound

Year Role Movie/Tv
1973 Music Coordinator
Year Role Movie/Tv

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