Subject
“Er più – Storia d’amore e di coltello” (The Big Man – A Story of Love and Knives) is a film of 1971 by Sergio Corbucci, inspired by the figure of Romeo Ottaviani, the Roman bully famously known as “er Tinèa” or “er più de Trastevere”, who exercised his dominance over the late 1800s and first decade of the 1900s. In this excerpt, set in the frigidarium bath of the Villa dei Quintili, at the fifth mile of Via Appia Antica, a toast is made at one of the fox-hunting parties periodically organised in the Roman countryside through the 19th and the early years of the 20th centuries.
Suddenly, a melee breaks out between two factions of Roman bullies. Nino Patroni, “Er Più” of the Borgo district (Adriano Celentano), with a friend and his brother-in-law Antonio “Totarello” Cerino (Ninetto Davoli) flee the battle, chased by a pack of dogs. Retreating head over heels, the three flee cross the villa grounds, from the noble residence to the entrance on Via Appia Antica. Passing through the arches of the aqueduct that fed the noble estate, then through an abandoned cistern, they finally topple into a pond. This pond, still existing today, is of considerable interest for the presence of plants quite rare to the Roman landscape, among which angelica, wild parsnip, marsh mallow and Lysimachia. Since at least the 16th century, this same pond has appeared in prints and drawings of the fifth mile of Via Appia Antica, immortalised in imagery. The pool is in fact artificial, fed by a complex system of wells and cisterns. The scene ends at the monumental nymphaeum originally flanking the entrance to the Villa dei Quintili, with grandiose features enhancing the majesty of the complex. Er Più climbs the ancient structure, fortified in the Middle Ages, only to fall ruinously before the eyes of Rosa Turbine (Claudia Mori).
Director
Sergio Corbucci
Year
1971
