The change of locale, to post-war Italy, would surely be acceptable to the original story's author, Borges, who often affects a hypothetical and equivocal air in his two- or three- or four-page fictions. Not as acceptable, probably, would be the pretentious puffing up of the story ("Theme of the Traitor and the Hero") and the sticky pace, which make abundant room for a pensive, posturing, pretty-faced hero, and for a distant, deteriorating heroine (Alida Valli), surrounded by more vegetation, more decay, more memories than a Tennessee Williams character, and for director Bernardo Bertolucci's coltish camera moves — the short-winded tracking shots, the breathless spring through thin tree trunks, and so forth. Produced for Italian television. (1970) — Duncan Shepherd
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