Jean Verthein

Sweeping historical and family drama with the conflict between the agricultural laborers and aristocratic household. The family saga is intertwined with the rise of Italian fascism before the world wars. DeNiro, Despardieui, Sutherland, Lancaster and Sanda are sterling in this complex Bertolucci landmark film. I benefitted from having been a high school exchange student in Italy. Subsequent studies in Modern European Historia, Romance languages influened my own writing of LAST GENTLEMAN in the MIDDLE DISTANCE (NYC and Lisbon: ADELAIDE Books, 2019. In this 1920s period, fascism rose faster in German Lower Saxony than elsewhere. The countryside incubated evil in startling circumstances. So who could live, who could die? Who could flee and who must stay?