Bud Spencer became one of the most iconic and most popular of all Italian actors of the second half of the 20th century, in large part due to films with period and exotic settings. In some of those films, he played a pirate. So, many of his nostalgic fans probably weren't too surprised to see Spencer playing the elderly pirate in Singing Behind Screens, a 2003 Italian period drama written and directed by Ermanno Olmi.

Spencer in the film plays both narrator and pirate captain Andorrano. The plot begins in modern times when a young man visits a brothel only to watch a stage play based on the real events in early 19th century Chinese history. Zheng Yi Sao, also known as Widow Ching (played by Jun Ichikawa), was the wife of Zheng Yi, a pirate captain who had managed to gather not only huge wealth but also build a huge fleet of ships able to dominate the South China Sea and plunder the coast of Imperial China, impervious to government attempts to prevent him. When Zheng Yi suddenly died, Widow Ching took control of his fleet and continued to rob and extort ships and coastal settlements. The Imperial fleet under Admiral Ting Kwai (played by Sultan Temir Omarov) manages to gain the upper hand over Widow's fleet only after some of her commanders betray her. Outnumbered, outgunned and aware that her piracy days might be over, Widow Ching decides to negotiate the terms of surrender.

Singing Behind the Screens was released to cinemas shortly after Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, one of the most commercially successful films of all time. Due to the similarity of subject and the presence of Bud Spencer, some people at the time might have been forgiven for thinking that the Italian film was an attempt at cheap exploitation of the Hollywood blockbuster. In reality, Singing Behind Screens was the complete antithesis of Pirates of the Caribbean. Its creator, Ermanno Olmi, is one of the grand elders of Italian cinema, best known for trying to maintain the Neorealist tradition in his work and for winning the 1978 Palme d'Or for his period social drama The Tree of Wooden Clogs. Partly because he had to maintain his reputation, and partly because he wanted to be as different from commercial blockbuster creators, he used the fascinating real-life story of Widow Ching for what amounts to a pretentious arthouse drama. There is nothing associated with the conventional pirate film in Singing Behind Screens. Almost the entire film takes place indoors, with the great fleets being reconstructed in the form of a few junks floating on Lake Skadar in Montenegro. The 75-year-old Bud Spencer, definitely not in the shape to play an adventurous hero, delivers a surprisingly solemn dramatic performance that would look quite odd to his fans. But, once this shock wears off and curiosity is satisfied, viewers will have to deal with Olmi's hermetic, cold and pretentious style that would require too much patience from most viewers.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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