The Spider's Stratagem (1970

1970 in film

The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....

) is a political film

Political cinema

Political cinema in the narrow sense of the term is a cinema which portrays current or historical events or social conditions in a partisan way in order to inform or to agitate the spectator...

 directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...

.

The screenplay was written by Bertolucci based on "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero

Theme of the Traitor and the Hero

"Theme of the Traitor and the Hero" is a short story by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges originally published in 1944 in number 112 of the review Sur....

" story written by Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...

.

Plot

Athos Magnani, a young researcher, returns to Tara, where his father was killed before his birth, at the request of his mistress, Draifa. The father, also named Athos Magnani (a wartime anti-fascist hero) and looking exactly like the son, was killed by a fascist in 1936—or so says Draifa, the town statue, and everyone in the city. As the son untangles the web of lies this story is constructed from, he finds himself ensnared in the same web.

Cast

• Giulio Brogi
  Giulio Brogi
  Giulio Brogi is an Italian actor. He has appeared in 39 films and television shows since 1967. He starred in the 1974 film Morel's Invention, which also starred Anna Karina.-Selected filmography:* The Spider's Stratagem...
  
  : Athos Magnani, father and son
• Alida Valli
  Alida Valli
  Alida Valli , sometimes simply credited as Valli, was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films, including Mario Soldati's Piccolo mondo antico, Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, Carol Reed's The Third Man, Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido, Luchino Visconti's Senso, Bernardo...
  
  : Draifa
• Tino Scotti
  Tino Scotti
  Tino Scotti was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 65 films between 1940 and 1984.He was born in Milan, Italy, and died in Tarquinia, Italy.-Selected filmography:* Todo modo...
  
  : Costa
• Pippo Campanini: Garibazzi
• Giuseppe Bertolucci: portatore di leone