In ‘the gay know‘ (also know as ‘the gay science‘) Nietzsche proposed, or rather insisted, on the need for knowledge beyond scientific truth that arises and grows from intuition and life. The philosopher writes for joy (that’s the gay in the title), but he gives rise to a pain that would be said to be as deep as it is historical. It is a suffering, yes, that does not want to be penance but pure and clear salvation. Probably, he would abhor this almost religious terminology, but there remains the certainty that pleasure, joy and jubilation come first. Although they appear at the end of the road, they are what give meaning to the trip itself and, therefore, they come first.
‘The Braibanti case‘ (in the original caption ‘The Lord of the Ants or The Lord of the Ants) is a film built from the suffering, from the injustice of a man harassed, persecuted and, finally, condemned for being what he is. But what is interesting -and what makes it different, beautiful and even ‘Nietzschean‘- is that the important thing is simply freedom, the pleasure of before, the gay suffering. The story of the playwright and poet Aldo Braibanti is told. In the 1960s, he was arrested for a strange, but very real crime, which came under the heading of “brainwashing.” He was accused of having perverted a young man who, in truth, was nothing more than his lover. And for that he humiliated himself and went to prison. The humiliation came to him both from the ranks of the most faithful conservatism to the indestructible seeds left by Mussolini, and from the communism in which he was a militant. In truth, the conviction came simply for being homosexual. As one of the characters says: “In Italy homosexuality is not a crime because that would be as much as recognizing that it exists”. Gianni Amelio tells what counts, not so much because of its relevance and validity, but also because of the need to keep memory alive. In another way: he advances slowly and retreats fast.
The director distances himself from the temptation of preciousness, hidden allegory or perfect reconstruction to focus on the rigor of the crude. The camera disappears in the cold presentation of an eminently cold data and story. And cruel. Each of the interpretations Louis LoCascio in front they limit themselves to reading a script that in its clarity is already interpreted from delicate, firm and tremendously painful writing. And so, The result is a chronicle of the past so precise that it would be said to be the best possible portrait not only of the present but of any harassed time, past, ongoing or, most dangerous, to come. But (and the ‘but’ is what counts), the pain is not the reason or the cause. What is relevant is intuition, life, the stubborn pleasure of resisting. The gay suffer.