Thirty years passed since the release of Theo Angelopoulos’ Ulysses’ Gaze. Gian Maria Volonté was supposed to star in it, but died of a heart attack while filming, and left behind a legacy that knew no equal. Volonté’s performances were veritable examples of expressive transfiguration, both when playing fictional characters and when playing historical figures. His aptitude for metamorphosis was almost surreal. The Italian actor joined international stardom with his performance as Ramón Rojo in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, though one year earlier than that, in 1963, Volonté had already shown his abilities in a RAI-produced film by Vittorio Cottafavi, Il taglio del bosco. The trio Volonté – Petri – Pirro was a cocktail of explosive, prognostic, genius alchemy. Left unbridled, Volonté was able to contribute fully to multi-award-winning masterpieces such as We Still Kill the Old Way, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, The Working Class Goes to Heaven (also released as Lulu the Tool), and Todo Modo (also released as One Way or Another).
As Marina Cicogna once remarked, Volonté rarely managed to be a secondary actor; he needed significant roles to fully immerse himself and deliver his best performance. The documentary Volonté: L’uomo dai mille volti, directed by Francesco Zippel –...
These are militant, politically charged films, as much as Gian Maria Volonté was a militant and political actor. Some works were ahead of their time, too, showing police-led repression on the eve of the strategy of tension era of recent Italian history, or imagining the killing of a large Italian party two years before the real-life kidnapping and murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro. Just a couple instances of surprising foresight. By contrast, ten years later, Volonté will play the real Moro in a reconstruction of the fifty-five days Moro had been held captive. The 1986 film Il caso Moro, by Giuseppe Ferrara, was based on what materials were available at the time. In it, Volonté plays a dry, realist performance. Also absolutely notable is Volonté’s work with filmmakers Francesco Rosi (Many Wars Ago, The Mattei Affair, Lucky Luciano) and Giuliano Montaldo (Sacco & Vanzetti, Giordano Bruno). Marina Cicogna once said that Gian Maria Volonté found it tricky to play supporting roles. He needed big roles to fully immerse himself in and give his best to. Francesco Zippel’s documentary Volonté. L’uomo dai mille volti tells the story and the memorable career of a genius of film.
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