It is 17 September 1974, he is twenty-two and he has already obliterated the first of his lives.
Nicholas has fled London for Venice after spotting a newspaper headline which horrified him. Looking for a diversion from his fury at Fellini’s interference in his work, Danilo finds it in the beautiful red-haired boy he sees sketching, taking him back to his hotel, later offering him a job when he discovers that Nicholas has talent. They assemble the beginnings of designs needed to recreate Venice for Casanova, taking them back to Rome where Nicholas moves in with Danilo. Work is hard but Nicholas fits himself into this fascinating new world, doing what’s needed, and proving his worth. Soon the money runs out and there’s a new project: Pasolini’s Salò a reimagining of De Sade’s The 120 days of Sodom played out against the backdrop of the eponymous republic where Mussolini was installed by the Nazis, a site with personal resonance for both Danilo and Pasolini. With its austere costumes, stark settings and horrific violence, the film is the antithesis of Casanova, Pasolini’s strict discipline contrasting with Fellini’s strutting egotism. The work is gruelling, mentally and physically. When Casanova resumes, Nicholas and Danilo return to Rome where the delight of the film’s completion is interrupted by news of Pasolini’s brutal murder. There’s a convenient confession but no one believes the confessor.
His palette is limited to black, to white, to grey, to brown. Victim and perpetrator. Victim and collaborator. Victim and enforcer. A dynamic with no escape. This isn’t a film about innocence. It’s an indictment, and he is readying himself to testify.
Laing folds her research seamlessly into this elegantly constructed and expressed novel immersed in the world of film. Just as Pasolini used Salò to draw parallels between fascism in the 1940s and the political violence of the 1970s, Laing implicitly does the same with the Years of Lead and our own time while telling Nicholas and Danilo’s love story. We see events from Nicholas’s perspective, a naïve yet worldly young man, often ill at ease but entranced by the all-consuming world of cinema and its creators. Laing’s descriptions of sets and costumes are strikingly evocative while her cool precision lends a distance to some of the more graphic descriptions of Pasolini’s work making it all the more effective, not least in the brutality of his murder which remains unsolved. The blurb uses the word ‘noirish’ presumably for the mystery of what’s brought Nicholas to Italy, but this is much more a beautifully executed novel of ideas wrapped up in an homage to Italian cinema which sounds a loud warning about our own times.
Hamish Hamilton: London 9780241783962 288 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)
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I had already reserved this at the library and I see I am now Top of the Queue. I do ask myself whether I really want to read ‘a loud warning about our own times’. The newspaper headlines do that on a daily basis!
I know. She does leave with a great deal to think about.
I also thought this worked really well – much better than her earlier novel – and although there are parallels to our own time, it also immersed me so deeply in the movie-making of that earlier era that it didn’t feel tied to the headlines. A (slightly surprising) success!
I didn’t read Crudo which didn’t appeal but I was worried about the research element which she handles that well. Some novels feel like Christmas trees weighed down with too much of that!
Ha – great simile!
Thank you. Can also be applied to the British tax system. Knock it down and start again!
✊
This sounds unmissable – I have some bookshop.org tokens and I’m off to buy it now!
Hurrah!
I’ve never read Laing’s nonfiction but this sounds fantastic. Love books set in the film world.
I was very struck by it, Cathy. Lots to think about and beautifully expressed.
One of my colleagues was impressed by this too, so I’m glad I have a NetGalley copy to read soon.
That’s good to hear. One to take your time over.
I think Laing is an interesting writer. She is so diverse in her output. I read Crudo a few years ago. This book sounds really interesting, especially as the context is the Italian film industry. I was introduced to these Italian film makers in University and it was a privilege to view their films. And the circumstances about Pasolini’s awful murder are still unclear. He was an outspoken and courageous artist.
She has such a wide range of interests, doesn’t she. Given your study of the period, I’d be interested to know what you think of this one if you read it, Lucy.
Oh my tbr stack is so high at the moment. If I order books in the local library I usually read them quickly to avoid a fine.
Good plan!