Operatic Microhistory

Il momento della verità (The Moment of Truth, 1965), a thematic departure from earlier films, is a bold experiment in shooting “freely” without a script. The film, informed by a keen sense of class consciousness and Rosi's penchant for location shooting, centers on the career of a matador, Miguel Mateo “Miguelín,” a peon who leaves the country for the city to escape poverty. Visually, Rosi’s searing exposure of the corruption and exploitation rampant in contemporary Spain is achieved through the use of a long 300mm lens. Sacrificial rituals also lie at the heart of Carmen (Bizet’s Carmen, 1984), Rosi's only experiment in opera adaptation. Also shot in Andalusia and featuring actual soldiers, gypsies, and locals, Carmen counterposes realistic settings to staged theatricality.