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Il Mestiere Delle Armi: Renaissance Technology and the Cinema Daniel

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Il Mestiere Delle Armi: Renaissance Technology and the Cinema Daniel IL MESTIERE DELLE ARMI: RENAISSANCE TECHNOLOGY AND THE CINEMA Daniel Leisawitz Les impressions tant élégantes et correctes en usance, qui ont été inventées de mon âge par inspiration divine, comme, à contrefil, l’artillerie par suggestion diabolicque. François Rabelais Lettre de Gargantua à son fils Pantagruel Gargantua (1531)1 And, better to effect a speedy end, Let there be found two fatall Instruments, The one to publish, th’other to defend Impious Contention, and proud Discontents: Make, that instamped Characters may send Abroad, to thousands, thousand men’s intent; And in a moment may dispatch much more, Then could a world of Pennes performe before. Samuel Daniel Civile Wars, Book 6 (1601) Introduction Ermanno Olmi’s 2001 film, Il mestiere delle armi (The Profession of Arms), recounts the last week in the life of Giovanni de’ Medici (1498–1526), known to his contemporaries and to history as Giovanni dalle Bande Nere. The first two-thirds of the film follow Giovanni as he and his Papal troops pursue the Imperial army of Charles V, led by General Georg von Frunds- berg, through the Po River Valley, until the two armies finally confront 1 “And in my time we have learned how to produce wonderfully elegant and accurate printed books, just as, on the other hand, we have also learned (by diabolical suggestion) how to make cannon and other such fearful weapons.” The English translation is taken from François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, trans. Burton Raffel (New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 1990), 157–158. 88 daniel leisawitz each other at the battle of Governolo, near Mantua. Frundsberg soundly routs Giovanni and his troops at their first assault, when the German gen- eral lets loose several small cannons, which he had secretly procured and hidden from view. Surprised by the artillery fire, Giovanni orders retreat, but not before he is struck in the leg by a cannonball, and is taken to Mantua to recover. The last third of the film relates Giovanni’s suffering and death as he slowly succumbs to septicemia as a result of his wound. The movie ends with Giovanni’s funeral and the dismantling of his mili- tary camp. The linear nature of the main plotline is complicated by various flash- forwards, flashbacks, and imaginings filtered through Giovanni’s con- sciousness. The viewer is also privy to events that unfold concurrently to Giovanni’s expedition and infirmity, of which he has no knowledge: these happenings involve various princes of Northern Italy whose alle- giances (both public and secretive) dictate their duplicitous, self-serving actions. The politics and selfish interests of the princes win out over the cause of protecting Italy from the invading armies, and ultimately lead to Giovanni’s—and consequently Italy’s—defeat. The mainly straightforward, yet intricate, structure of the film creates a nuanced and complex view of history, which is neither completely lin- ear nor completely cyclical. The very first scenes of the film—after the presentation of an ancient epigraph—consist of a series of flashforwards, creating a kind of fatalistic version of history: events will unfold as we have foreseen them. By the end of the series of opening flashforwards, we know how, when, and where Giovanni will die; we are simply igno- rant of the details surrounding his death. The final scene in the series of introductory flashforwards is a single, stationary, long, high-angle shot of the interior of the Basilica di Sant’Andrea in Mantua, directed down the nave toward the entrance.2 At first the church doors are closed and the scene is bathed in shadow. Then, the doors open, ushering in a beam of white light as two lines of soldiers file into the church. At this point, the title, Il mestiere delle armi, appears on the screen in white letters. It fades away as a voice echoes tenuously but steadily through the cavernous 2 The choice of the Basilica di Sant’Andrea has important implications as the setting of this scene. This church is a masterpiece of Italian Renaissance architecture, designed by Leon Battista Alberti for Ludovico III Gonzaga, though it took hundreds of years to finish. While Alberti’s famous façade of the church is not visible, its classical proportions are echoed in the interior side of the front wall, which is directly in front of the camera. It should also not be overlooked that November 30, the day of Giovanni’s death, is also the traditional feast day of Saint Andrew, an apostle and early Christian martyr. .
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