Carmelo Bene
Born
September 3, 1937
Died
March 16, 2002 (64 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Campi Salentina, Lecce, Italia
The filmmaking career of Carmelo Bene (1937 - 2002) lasted from 1968 to 1973, six years out of a lengthy time spent in the theater that made Bene one of the most celebrated figures of the Italian avant-garde in the second half of the 20th century.
Bene first made a name for himself with a controversial production of Camus’ Caligula in Rome in 1959. Subsequent productions retained this sense of notoriety, and Bene (like Pasolini) quickly acquired a police record. Bene, however, would come to bemoan the controversy his work created, because it attracted an audience looking for shocks and titillation, while he himself was more concerned with reinventing the vocabulary of the theater: sets, gestures, texts.
Bene’s turn to cinema expanded that quest to reinvent. His films resist synopsis because, although they are often derived from narrative sources, Bene uses these sources against themselves and as a springboard for his critique of the stultifying traps of representation and interpretation. The films are wildly inventive and visually arresting on several levels: the performance styles of his actors, including eccentric movements, gestures and grimaces; the sets, costumes and makeup; the editing; and the use of the camera, with stable shots regularly punctuated by handheld camera work, extreme close ups and the occasional baroque use of zooms, dollies, cranes, elaborate pans and exaggerated camera angles. They resemble something like the work of Jack Smith crossed with the experimental Pasolini of Teorema and Pigsty.
One constant feature of Bene’s work is its satire of heterosexuality. The two sexes keep trying to communicate with each other, but always fail to do so. Bene’s work constantly deflates masculinist pretenses at mastery: his male characters tend to be hapless and often hysterical, while his female characters are alternately predatory and remote, and unknowable in either case. But this satire is merely the most visible form of Bene’s revolt against convention and communication. Over and over again in the films, everyday actions become hopelessly complicated or endlessly interrupted. His characters often end up staring quizzically offscreen or even into mirrors, as if they were no more sure than we are of the meaning of what they see. Indeed, identity and by extension agency seem to get suspended, along with meaning. What is left is glorious spectacle and enigmas for the eyes and ears: endless music; babbling, stuttering text; excessive and exciting images. – David Pendleton

È severamente vietata la sosta in palcoscenico ai non autorizzati. Un documentario di meno su Carmelo Bene
Himself (archive footage)
2024

The Last Days of Humanity
Self (archive footage)
2023

BENE! Vita di Carmelo, la macchina attoriale
2022

Tracce di Bene
Self
2017

Lorenzaccio, al di là di de Musset e Benedetto Varchi
2003

Necro not(to b)e
Sé stesso
2003

Otello o la deficienza della donna
2002

Pinocchio, ovvero lo spettacolo della Provvidenza
Pinocchio / Geppetto / Mastro Ciliegia / Grillo Parlante / Mangiafuoco / Volpe / Lucignolo
1999

Voce dei Canti
1998

Macbeth Horror Suite
1997

In-vulnerabilità d'Achille (tra Sciro e Ilio)
1997

Carmelo nei Canti Orfici
Himself
1996

Ai Rotoli
Self
1996

Cos'è il teatro?!
Himself
1990

Hommelette for Hamlet, operetta inqualificabile (da J. Laforgue)
Amleto
1990

L'Adelchi di Alessandro Manzoni in forma di concerto
1985
Le tecniche dell'assenza
Self
1984

Manfred, versione per concerto in forma di oratorio
1983

La poesia dimenticata
1982

Riccardo III
Riccardo III
1981

Modi di vivere - Giorgio Colli. Una conoscenza per cambiare la vita
1980

Amleto di Carmelo Bene (da Shakespeare a Laforgue)
Amleto
1978

Bene! Quattro diversi modi di morire in versi: Majakovskij-Blok-Esènin-Pasternak
1977

Claro
1975

One Hamlet Less
Hamlet
1973

Ventriloquio
Jean des Esseintes
1973

Salomé
Erode Antipa / Onorio
1972

Tre nel mille
Pannocchia
1971

Necropolis
1970

Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
1970

Red Hot Shot
Billy Desco
1970

Capricci
Poet
1969

Umano non umano
Self
1969

Our Lady of the Turks
The Protagonist
1968

Hermitage
The Man
1968

Catch As Catch Can
Prete
1967

Oedipus Rex
Creonte
1967
Carmelo Bene, il canto d'amore di Alfred J. Prufrock
1967

Bis
1966

Un'ora prima di Amleto, più Pinocchio
Himself
1965