Buongiorno, Notte

Early 1978, a fake young Italian couple moves into a new flat that will in fact serve as headquarters for their terrorist organisation, the Red Brigades. Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian Democrats, was kidnapped during a particularly bloody attack, then kept in a small windowless room adjoining the flat. From then on, the film becomes an oppressive and fascinating huis-clos during which Chiara, the only woman in the revolutionary group, lets doubt and guilt take hold of her. Admittedly, the young woman has every reason to suffer from this physical and ideological isolation. She alone integrates the outside world during the kidnapping, she is the only one to witness the indignation of the Italian people, who refuse to understand the meaning of this action. She then ponders the sense of these violent acts of protest, which could only serve themselves, as part of another overly schematised vision of Italian reality: the radical opposition between the proletarian masses and the upper classes. The images of the sacrificed policemen shot down in cold blood, repeatedly covered by the media, gradually lead her to the counter viewpoint of a public opinion that refuses to glorify them for their protest movement.
…Chiara’s motivation changes and her obsession becomes how to free Aldo Moro without betraying her fellow combatants. This is the crux of the whole ambivalence of commitment: how can you engage in an ideological movement whilst also respecting your individuality?
Clément Graminiès (Critikat.com, December 2004)