For Love and Gold (1966)

Brancaleone (Vittorio Gassman) leads an inept group of Crusaders to the sea in this offbeat war comedy. The Crusaders hope to find a ship that will take them to the Holy Land to reclaim the area for Christianity. The situation allows for plenty of sight gags and ribald humor. Catherine Spaak co-stars with Gassmann in this amusing effort from director Mario Monicelli.

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L'armata Brancaleone (known in English-speaking countries as For Love and Gold or The Incredible Army of Brancaleone) is an Italian comedy movie released in 1966, written by the famous duo Age & Scarpelli and directed by Mario Monicelli. It features Vittorio Gassman in the main role. It was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. The term Armata Brancaleone is still used today in Italian to define a group of badly assembled and useless people. Brancaleone is an actual historical name, meaning the paw of lions in heraldry jargon. Brancaleone degli Andalò was a governor of Rome in the Middle Ages. The plot is structured as a series of sketches revolving around different parodies of the Middle Ages world: it is itself a parody of the classical knights' quest typical of Middle Ages tales. Age and Scarpelli devised for the characters a striking, mocking form of a mixture of Italian (including its dialects) and Latin languages, which is probably the main feature of the film and one of the keys to its success. Gassman's overbearing and pompous recitation was also perfect for the role. The main musical theme of the film was also a great success. According to Monicelli, the idea for the movie was spurred by a simple scene written by Age and Scarpelli, about two mediaeval peasants talking about women. Monicelli suggested that they shoot a movie which avoids the stereotypes of the usual Hollywood Middle Ages movies. It would instead show "the other face" of the era: poor people, underdogs, ignorance, mud, cold, misery. There is no such stereotype left standing: the oppressed villagers are capable of violence themselves (they are prey to the bandits, but join them to attack their saving knight); the clergy, depicted by the hallucinating monk, fanatical to the extreme, always capable of explaining misfortunes by "lack of faith" of his entourage; the miserly Jewish merchant; the heroine/princess in distress, who instead of ending up with the hero asks to be deflowered by another man just to spite him. Finally, the archetypical medieval hero, the knight, has in the clueless Brancaleone its greatest parody, always jeopardized by following his chivalric code of conduct; as for his dreams of glory, he leads an army of underdogs that are a little more than a band of cowardly bandits who flee from fights and feign submission while actively trying to manipulate him from the bottom. Underdogs and humiliated people were constantly present in Monicelli's art, but in this case they are showed mainly from a comical side. Another important theme of the film is male friendship, which was also an important element in movies such as La grande guerra and the later Amici miei. The costumes often provide a near-surreal effect, particularly in the wedding banquet and Byzantine castle scenes. Their designer, Piero Gherardi, won a Silver Ribbon for them in 1967. Wikipedia

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Special Features: - Cinegiornale - Prima del restauro - Cast Artistico - Cast Tecnico

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