Enrico IV (1984)

The Marquis di Nolli, his fiancée Frida, a psychiatrist, Matilde—Frida’s mother—and Belcredi, Matilde’s partner, go to the castle where the marquis’s uncle has shut himself away in madness for twenty years. After falling during a costumed horseback ride attended by Matilde and Belcredi, he became convinced that he was Henry IV of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor. There, his sister and di Nolli maintain him with servants and convincing furnishings, making him believe that he really is living in the Middle Ages. This includes visits from prostitutes, with whom Henry spends his time and by whom he has presumably had numerous children. Every year, when the snow falls, Henry puts on a penitent’s robe and kneels before the window of Matilde of Canossa’s castle to seek the pope’s forgiveness, which is invariably denied, provoking his fury. But there is no other way: one year they tried forgiving him, and it made him even angrier. During the journey, the psychiatrist leafs through a photo album and asks Matilde why he had chosen to dress up as Henry IV. She replies that, since her name was Matilde, she would have played Countess Matilde of Canossa. When he was young, he had courted her fervently, but she and the others in the group had only laughed at and ridiculed him. Di Nolli, meanwhile, is in mourning because his mother has recently died, and has come to visit Henry believing he was close to recovery. Their presence at the castle is therefore a last-ditch attempt to bring Henry back to his senses. On arriving at the castle, guided by the servants, the group begins putting on costumes: the psychiatrist as a papal envoy, Belcredi as a humble friar in his retinue, and Matilde as the emperor’s mother-in-law. The emperor reluctantly welcomes his guests. The psychiatrist devises a counter-shock to bring Henry back to his senses: after pretending to leave, they would put Frida and di Nolli in place of the two large paintings in the throne room. At ten to eight, when Henry passes through the room, Frida would begin calling to him; then the great chandelier would be lit with electric bulbs, shocking Henry. With Frida and Matilde close by, this would bring him back to himself. But neither they nor the castle servants know that Henry has been sane again for some time and has deliberately continued his charade for his own amusement, as a kind of revenge on those who had called him mad even before then.