Kaos (1984)

Kaos (originally Chaos in the US) is a 1984 Italian anthology drama film directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani based on short stories by Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936). The film's title is after Pirandello's explanation of the local name Càvusu of the woods near his birthplace in the neighborhood of Girgenti (Agrigento), on the southern coast of Sicily, as deriving from the ancient Greek word kaos. The film is based on Pirandello's collection Novelle per un Anno (Short Stories for a Year). The film was made in Italy in 1984. The cinematographer was Giuseppe Lanci, and the wonderful music was composed by Nicola Piovani, who also wrote the music for The Night of the Shooting Stars (also by the Taviani brothers), as well as for films by Federico Fellini and for Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful. Piovani’s musical style is extremely difficult to classify or characterize: it combines, in a remarkably beautiful way, “rough” Sicilian folk music with quasi-classical music, sometimes of a floating, dreamlike character that slightly recalls Impressionist music.

The film is called Kaos after Pirandello’s birthplace (today called Villaggio Pirandello, “Pirandello Village”), and its name is associated with the Greek god of chaos. The Agrigento region, where the village is located, is filmed in the linking sequences between the episodes, in breathtaking landscape shots that include wild cliffs, valleys, mountains, fields, beaches, and ancient ruins. The longest cinematic sequence is the opening one, immediately after the brief verbal prologue, where the combination of landscapes and the unique music produces an almost hypnotic intensity.