Few of us can say with any certainty that we’re familiar with the work of the Italian poet Gabriele D’Annuzio. Or even that we recognize the name.
But as he proves in his creatively made documentary film Fiume o Morte! Croation filmmaker Igor Berzinović not only knows who D’Annuzio was but he is well aware of just how much the man affected – if temporarily – what is now known as the Croatian city of Rijeka.
As Berzinović makes clear, D’Annuzio – born in 1863 – was by the turn of the 20th century a leading member of Italy’s literary scene. Afterward, he served with distinction in the Italian army during World War I and then became involved in politics. It was that latter chapter of his life around which Berzinović shapes his movie.
And that chapter unfolded in Rijeka, a city set on the northern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Because its deep-water port can handle oversize cargo ships, Rijeka became the main seaport of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Over time, however, several different countries fought to claim it.
Following the defeat of the Axis powers in World War I, Rijeka was ceded to Italy, which seemed right because the city had historically been known by the Italian name of Fiume (which means river). And while a struggle for control of the city would not be resolved until Italy’s defeat in World War II, an international agreement deemed Fiume, from 1920 to 1924, to be an independent city-state. Its official name: the Free State of Fiume.
It was during that period that, for 15 months, D’Annuzio made himself an integral part of Fiume’s history. An arch Italian patriot, D’Annuzio held the kind of strong sentiments that are said to have been an influence on Italy’s fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Upset that Italy was willing to give up control of Fiume, he led a group of soldiers into the city on Sept. 12, 1919, and ousted the international forces then in charge.
D’Annuzio’s hope was that Italy would annex Fiume, a desire that the Italian government soon dashed. So D’Annuzio, whose followers had grown by the thousands, announced that Fiume was now the Italian Regency of Carnaro, and he was Il Duce – Italian for the leader, not coincidentally the same title that Mussolini would later adopt.
Ultimately, the Italian army invaded. Five days of fighting ensued in a struggle known as “Natale de Sangue” (or “Christmas of Blood”) and some 51 people died – at least one of whom expired after saying the words that would become the film’s title, Fiume o Morte! – which, no surprise, means “Fiume or death!”
A defeated but undaunted D’Annuzio then left Fiume – later to become Rijeka – and returned to Italy, where he engaged in Fascist politics, was awarded the title of Prince of Montenevoso and died in 1938 in his villa on Lake Garda.
Croat director Berzinović captures most of this small chapter of Fiume/Rijeka in a manner that is as good-humored as D’Annuzio’s ambitions were vainglorious. For starters, he attempts to re-create a number of the historical scenes as they supposedly happened, though not in any ordinary documentary fashion. He dresses up the actors playing D’Annuzio and a few of his followers in the uniforms of their time and has them parade through the Rijeka streets of today – drawing curious gazes from the city’s bemused citizens.
He even casts several men, all of whom are bald, to play D’Annuzio himself. And some of them, at least, are quite good at capturing the arrogance of a man who would be, if not king, then at least a prince engaged in a noble quest. By the way, any similarities between D’Annuzio and a Spanish lunatic from the 17th century who jousted with windmills are purely coincidental.
Yet it’s how Berzinović begins his movie, which is streaming on various services, that makes the strongest point about D’Annuzio and his egotistical pursuit of an eternal legacy. Berzinović stops several Rijeka residents and asks them if they’ve ever heard the name Gabriele D’Annuzio. The majority of them answer in a single word: No.
So much for those who believe their importance extends even a scintilla beyond the aura of their own personal egos.
Movies 101 host Dan Webster is the senior film critic for Spokane Public Radio.