Marco Bellocchio had made seven films, beginning with Clenched Fists in the Pockets (I Pugni in Tasca) in 1965, before making an Italian adaptation of Chekhov's “The Seagull” in 1977. The setting is a country house - but in Russia, or Italy? “Bellocchio Italianizes his imagery and submerges his story into a social context which constantly creates a feeling of having lost one's bearings....” (RAI) The story is that of a famous, self-absorbed actress who extends herself only far enough to dominate her romantic, playwright son and her novelist-lover. Bellocchio does not attempt to relieve the claustrophobia of Chekhov's play (as did Sidney Lumet in the American version with a move to the outdoors); rather, there is a tone of psycho-drama to the film (considered by Variety too “morose” for commercial success). RAI offers, by way of explanation, the supposition that “The Seagull” represents for Bellocchio “the central myth of his personality... (in) the two contrasting faces of Konstantin and Trigorin”; and Bellocchio himself adds, “(It was) the subject of Clenched Fists in the Pockets over 10 years later. The Seagull threw me back in time and made me return to that madness, that anger which in those days was a deep-felt need within me to change the world.”