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Carmelo Bene

Carmelo Bene

Actor

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

Born: September 3, 1937 in Campi Salentina, Lecce, Italia

Died: March 16, 2002 (Age 64)

Streaming Sources for all Carmelo Bene Movies & TV Shows

Carmelo Bene  Movies & TV Credits

Title Rating Job Role(s) Year
Movie
7
ActorDon Giovanni1970
Movie
7
ActorCreonte1967
Movie
6.4
ActorErode Antipa / Onorio1972
Movie
6.5
ActorThe Protagonist1968
Movie
6.9
ActorHamlet1973
Movie
5.2
Actor1970
Movie
5.3
ActorBilly Desco1970
Movie
6.9
ActorPoet1969
Movie
5.7
ActorPrete1967
Movie
5.7
ActorSelf1969
Movie
7.2
ActorPannocchia1971
Movie
7.7
ActorSelf (archive footage)2023
Short Film
7.1
ActorThe Man1968
Short Film
ActorJean des Esseintes1973
Short Film
7.2
ActorSelf2000
Short Film
ActorHimself1965
Short Film
Actor1966
Movie
7.7
ActorAmleto1978
Movie
7.8
ActorPinocchio / Geppetto / Mastro Ciliegia / Grillo Parlante / Mangiafuoco / Volpe / Lucignolo1999
Movie
8.2
Actor1997
Movie
8
Actor1977
Movie
7.6
ActorAmleto1990
Movie
Actor1997
Movie
7.8
ActorRiccardo III1981
Movie
8.3
Actor2003
Movie
8.1
Actor2002
Limited Series
Actor1998
TV Special
7.4
Actor1983
Movie
7
DirectingDirector, Producer, Writer1970
Movie
6.9
DirectingDirector, Writer, Art Direction, Costume Design, Music Coordinator1973
Movie
6.5
DirectingDirector, Novel, Writer, Producer, Production Design, Costume Design1968
Movie
6.4
DirectingDirector, Writer, Producer1972
Movie
6.9
DirectingDirector, Writer, Producer1969
Short Film
7.1
DirectingDirector, Writer, Novel1968
Short Film
DirectingDirector, Adaptation1973
Movie
7.7
DirectingScreenplay, Director, Producer, Art Direction, Costume Design1978
Movie
7.8
DirectingDirector, Producer, Art Direction, Makeup Designer, Costume Design, Writer1999
Movie
8.2
DirectingDirector, Writer1997
Movie
8
DirectingDirector, Adaptation1977
Movie
7.6
DirectingDirector, Writer, Producer1990
Movie
DirectingDirector, Adaptation, Art Direction, Costume Design1997
Movie
7.8
DirectingDirector, Adaptation1981
Movie
8.1
DirectingDirector2002
Movie
8.3
DirectingDirector2003
Limited Series
DirectingDirector1998
TV Special
7.4
DirectingDirector, Writer1983
Title Rating Job Role(s) Year
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