SYNOPSIS

SE POSSO PERMETTERMI / CHAPTER II is the sequel to the short movie of the same name made in 2019 by Marco Bellocchio and his students in Bobbio as part of the Bottega XNL – Fare Cinema 2023 advanced film training course.

In the first episode, Fausto, an educated man incapable of action, returns to Bobbio following the death of his mother: in his interactions with the town’s characters, he cannot refrain from expressing his unexpected (and inappropriate) judgements sincerely, albeit anticipated by the apparent politeness of a ‘if I may say so…’ (‘se posso permettermi’). In this second chapter, we find Fausto three years later. He never left Bobbio and lives in his mother’s house swamped with books: he is aged and impoverished, does not work and has no pension, and has to sell the house. In the course of a day Fausto, invincible in his inertia, observes a paradoxical procession of visitors: the mellifluous parish priest of the village; a mysterious man with his absurd idea of a ghost-themed business; the captain of the Carabinieri who proposes to Fausto a reparatory marriage with his daughter, who has become pregnant by a stranger. Finally, late at night, a couple of thieves enter the house with Barbara’s complicity. Fausto surprises them, as always impassive and bored, and reassures them, there is nothing left, neither gold nor paintings, everything is sold. The three of them just chat until the sun rises, when the thieves leave and Barbara puts the coffee on the stove.