The Prince of Homburg

The Prince of Homburg

1997. Italy. Directed by Marco Bellocchio. With Andrea Di Stefano, Barbara Bobulova, Toni Bertorelli. As comfortable with period dramas as he is with contemporary narratives, Bellocchio gave his film (based on the play by Heinrich von Kleist) the subtitle “The Morals of War.” The patriarchy of army and fatherland is vividly explored in one of the key battles of the 17th-century war between Germany and Sweden. Exterior scenes and steely prison cells are filled with sharp shadows cast by an otherworldly, luminous moon, while candlelight softens and warms the reconstructed interiors of the castle’s war room and the women’s drawing room. The prince’s struggle between his love of life—and of the young Natalie—and military codes of dignity and heroism is gorgeously expressed through Kleist’s rich language and Bellocchio’s ability to hold us at the threshold between dream and reality. In Italian; English subtitles. 89 min.