Plot Summary:Gabriele d'Annunzio moved into his villa in 1921. In 1997, Heinz Emigholz began to film this building and the tale it told of its owner and architect Giancarlo Maroni.
D’ Annunzio Cave is a strange, loud and unique film . The film examines the at the time immensely popular Italian writer Gabriele D’ Annunzio opulent private residence. D’Annunzio published decadent and symbolist literature from the time he was 16 , had affairs with a number of his day’s most famous beauties, became a patriotic hero under 1 World War II and after the war cast himself as ” duce ” of a city in Croatia for a brief period. At one time a bel esprit , whose writings are still partly valued today, but also a source of inspiration for fascism.
Where the style of most of Emigholz ‘ film is quiet and panoramic, this film is handheld and intrusive . Where the soundtrack of the other films consists of footage from the site , there is in this film constantly voiceover from a cacophony of computer voices that read texts of d’ Annunzio , Joseph Conrad, Benito Mussolini and several others. There’s even background music here and there from Debussy, David Byrne and Brian Eno. It is a poignantly beautiful, noisy and poetically overwhelming film – with lots of color and fetish . From a forgotten time.