Future director Francesco Barilli stars in this film about a young radical torn between his rebellious political views and the easy middle-class lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. Barilli rebels in another way as well, engaging in a love affair with his pretty aunt (Adriana Asti), but soon becomes conflicted in that area as well, choosing in the end to conform to traditional expectations. This early Bernardo Bertolucci film makes a bit too much of its protagonist's philosophical
underpinnings, but is filled with amusing allusions to various films and literary works in its attempt to explore themes of man's surrender to societal pressures. Bertolucci later explored the same themes on a much larger canvas in his controversial classic 1900. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
The contrary attractions of sensuality and politics have been the subject of many of Bertolucci's films, but the conflict is presented most passionately and personally here.
In all of Bertolucci's movies, there's a central conflict between the 'radical' impulses and a pessimistic (and/or willing) capitulation to the mainstream of bourgeois society and culture.
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