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QUER PASTICCIACCIO BRUTTO DE VIA MERULANA (aka THAT AWFUL MESS ON MERULANA AVENUE) is a four episodes TV mini-series directed in 1983 by Piero Schivazappa, based on the homonymous novel by Carlo Emilio Gadda and starring Flavio Bucci, Scilla Gabel, Jean Boissery, Pietro Biondi, Franco Javarone, Micaela Pignatelli, Giacomo Piperno, Maria Luisa Santella, Massimo Sarchielli, Simonetta Stefanelli, Eleonora Morana, Paola Morra, Franca Scagnetti, Bruno Scipioni, Bruno Tocci. In 1959 the novel was adapted for the big screen with the title UN MALEDETTO IMBROGLIO directed by Pietro Germi. Rome, March 1927. During the early years of Fascism, the Commissioner of Police Squad of Francesco "Don Ciccio" Ingravallo (Bucci), witty and proud of Molise region roots, is in charge of nvestigating a jewel theft against elderly woman from Veneto, the widow Menegazzi. Later in the same building that had been the crime scene of the robbery, the wife of a wealthy man, Mrs. Liliana Balducci (Gabel) is killed. The location of the robbery and the murder is a dark building in Via Merulana 219, known as the "Palace of the gold", located not far from the Colosseum. The story starts with the description of the environment around lady Balducci and it widens to the Castelli Romani area from where the lady' housekeepers and the "grandchildren" originate, girls who she welcomed as daughters to compensate for loneliness and lack of maternity. Around a crowd of extras: the mawkish and wizened Countess Menegazzi, a victim of theft, the Commander Angeloni "prosciuttofilo" (Biondi), the sergeants of the police, the police of Marino hunt for clues in the countryside, the blurred figures of maids and grandchildren. The noir plot has no solution and does not end with the discovery of the guilty one. According to the conception of Gadda reality is too complex and kaleidoscopic to be explained and reduced to a logical rationality. For him, life is a messy mess, a "Mess" of things, people and languages. Riz Ortolani has composed an orchestral OST with a recurring main theme with the typical sounds of the twenties, alternated with a melancholy love theme which is then reprised by vocal version in the end credits, and various suspense background themes. At the time, RCA released only a 45 rpm single containing the main theme featured in the opening credits and the End Titles song played by Erika Grassi. For this CD with a the total time of 50:40 the stereo master tapes of the original session were used.
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