Requiescant

{{short description|1967 film}} {{More citations needed|date=September 2009}} {{Infobox film | name = Requiescant | image = Requiescant.jpg | caption = Italian [[film poster]] | director = [[Carlo Lizzani]] | producer = Carlo Lizzani | music = [[Riz Ortolani]] | screenplay = [[Adriano Bolzoni]] [[Armando Crispino]] Lucio Battistrada Carlo Lizzani (uncredited) [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]] (uncredited)<ref>{{cite book|last=Cox, Alex|author-link=Alex Cox|title=10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western|publisher=Oldcastle Books |date=2009|isbn=978-1842433041}}</ref> | story = [[Renato Izzo]] Franco Bucceri | starring = [[Lou Castel]] [[Mark Damon]] Pier Paolo Pasolini [[Barbara Frey]] [[Rossana Martini|Rossana Krisman]] Mirella Maravidi [[Franco Citti]] [[Ninetto Davoli|Nino Davoli]] | cinematography = Sandro Mancori | editing = [[Franco Fraticelli]] | studio = Castoro Film Mancori–Chretien Istituto Luce Tefi Film Produzione | distributor = Consorzio Italiano Distributori Indipendenti Film (CIDIF) | released = {{Film date|1967|03|10|df=yes}} | country = [[Italy]] [[West Germany]] | runtime = 107 minutes | language = [[Italian language|Italian]] | gross = }} '''''Requiescant''''' (often translated as ''Kill and Pray'') is a 1967 [[Spaghetti Western]] film [[Film director|directed]] by [[Carlo Lizzani]] and starring [[Lou Castel]], [[Mark Damon]], [[Barbara Frey]] and [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]], in one of his few acting roles.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Requiescant|title=Requiescant|publisher=spaghetti-western.net|accessdate=2014-04-23}}</ref>

==Plot== At Fort Hernandez near [[San Antonio]], a group of [[Mexico|Mexican]] villagers are betrayed and murdered by [[Military forces of the Confederate States|Confederate]] soldiers under the command of the aristocrat Ferguson. A little boy survives and runs into the desert, where he is rescued by Jeremy, a priest, who is there with his small family. The priest raises him as he was his own son. Although heavily religious, the boy also proves to be an excellent gunslinger. Growing up, he gets along particularly well with his stepsister Princy, who one day rebels against her family and joins a traveling troupe.

Setting out to find her, every time he kills an enemy he dismisses him by pronouncing the Latin phrase: "Requiescant!" ("May they rest in peace"), which earns him his nickname. When he comes to San Antonio, he finds that the city belongs to former officer Ferguson. In the saloon he finds Princy working as a prostitute and Ferguson's subordinate Dean Light as her pimp. Ferguson refuses to let Princy walk away with Requiescant. When Requiescant learns of his true identity, he supports the priest Don Juan (played by renowned writer, poet and film director [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]]) in his uprising against Ferguson. After a clash, Requiescant kills Ferguson and frees the townspeople from tyranny.

==Cast== {{div col|colwidth=20em}} * [[Lou Castel]]: "Requiescant" * [[Mark Damon]]: George Bellow Ferguson * [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]]: Father Juan * [[Barbara Frey]]: Princy * [[Rossana Martini]] (as Rossana Krisman): Lope * [[Mirella Maravidi]]: Edith Ferguson * [[Franco Citti]]: Burt * [[Carlo Palmucci]]: Dean Light * [[Ferruccio Viotti]]: Father Jeremy * [[Ninetto Davoli]] (as Nino Davoli): El Niño * [[Lorenza Guerrieri]]: Marta * [[Luisa Baratto]] (as Liz Barrett): Pilar * [[Nino Musco]]: old mute * [[Anne Carrer]]: Lavinia * [[Vittorio Duse]]: "El Doblado" * [[Massimo Sarchielli]]: Leonardo Marquez * [[Pier Annibale Danovi]]: Felipe {{div col end}}

== Reception and critiques == In Italy the film grossed almost half a billion [[Italian Lira|Lire]].<ref>R. Poppi, M. Pecorari: Dizionario del cinema italiano: I film Vol. 3. Gremese, 1992, S. 445</ref> Journalist [[Ermanno Comuzio]] praised it, saying: "''The film is halfway between the traditional western style and the new cinema - the usual motifs mix with themes of a democratic movement. These two dimensions are optimally coordinated here.''"<ref>Comuzio in „Cineforum 68", October 1967</ref>

[[Ulrich P. Bruckner]] highlights the political dimension of the film: "''Mark Damon, normally the hero, goes against his image and plays the vampire-like villain Ferguson, with pale make-up and dressed entirely in black, who is a perfect contrast to Pasolini's Don Juan. Both believe only in their own truth; the revolutionary underdog Don Juan, who was forced to join the revolution and fight against the oppressors, and on the other side the aristocrat Ferguson, who cannot accept the fact that there can be equality between the ruling and the ruled.''"

[[Lexicon of international film|The German Lexicon of international film]] described ''Requiescant'' as a "realistic western (with Pasolini in the role of a priest) about pre-revolution Mexico, without sufficient psychological foundation and with a certain dose of brutality".<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/10170 | title=Requiescant | work={{ill|Lexikon des internationalen Films|de}} | publisher=[[Filmdienst]] | access-date=2017-03-02 }}</ref>

==Releases== [[Wild East Productions]] released a limited edition region 0 NTSC DVD on 1 November 2004, preserving the film's original widescreen aspect ratio. The DVD has the English title ''Kill and Pray'' on the box art but the title on the print used for the DVD transfer is the original Italian ''Requiescant'' title. The 2004 DVD is currently out of print, but the film was re-released under the title ''Kill and Pray'' in another limited edition R0 NTSC DVD in 2011 alongside ''Dead Men Don't Count'', also starring Mark Damon.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0063500|title=Requiescant}}

[[Category:1967 films]] [[Category:1967 Western (genre) films]] [[Category:Spaghetti Western films]] [[Category:West German films]] [[Category:1967 Italian-language films]] [[Category:Films directed by Carlo Lizzani]] [[Category:Films scored by Riz Ortolani]] [[Category:1967 Italian films]] [[Category:Italian-language German films]]