Sightlines · reception

How Kaos was received

1984 · Vittorio Taviani · Kaos on Sightlines

The arc

Warmly received in 1984 as proof the Taviani brothers' hot streak (Padre Padrone, The Night of the Shooting Stars) was still going, it then drifted into art-house semi-obscurity — and has since climbed back as the film Letterboxd cinephiles quietly call their masterpiece.

What’s debated

The eternal anthology-film debate: fans rank the Pirandello episodes against each other and argue over whether the film only becomes transcendent in its final stretch — or whether that's unfair to everything before it.

Its footprint

Its signature image — a crow with a little bell tied round its neck, flying over the Sicilian coast to Nicola Piovani's score — is endlessly screenshotted and referenced, shorthand for the whole film; the children sliding down white pumice cliffs into the sea is close behind.

Where it stands

A beloved-but-underseen jewel of 1980s Italian cinema — the three-hour Sicilian epic cinephiles press on each other with 'trust me, it flies by.'

Did you know? The title isn't Greek mythology showing off: Pirandello was born near Agrigento in a spot locally called Càvusu — a dialect corruption of the Greek 'chaos' — and liked to say he was 'a son of Chaos.' Also, it's actually co-directed by both Taviani brothers, Paolo and Vittorio, who shared credit on everything.