For part of its basic situation, and for the names given the central characters, [Before the Revolution] draws directly upon Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma; in its mood and tone it draws perhaps as significantly upon Flaubert's Sentimental Education. But in its meaning and its particular kind of appreciation for all the life it observes, Before the Revolution stands by itself, drawing essentially upon the sensibility and gift for understanding of the man who made it. (pp. 22-3)

Especially in its feeling for the lyric potential of each scene, Before the Revolution proceeds not toward one, but through many epiphanies. The film, which in the abstract recounts a series of small failures, becomes for the spectator a succession of glorious high points.

Some of these are minor triumphs: a first romantic meeting between Gina and Fabrizio near the Garibaldi monument in a square in Parma, with the whole...