The Nonexistent Knight

Agilulfo is the perfect knight under Charlemagne, noble and dutiful. In truth, he is nothing more than an empty suit of armour, held together entirely by his will to exist, and unable to relinquish his ‘consciousness of being’. Because if he did, he would cease to exist. Pino Zac’s adaptation of Italo Calvino’s fable (1959) of chivalric virtue in an empty set of armour is wonderfully matched, combining acted scenes with animation and puppetry. The restoration was carried out from the original black and white and colour 35mm negative and mono 35mm optical negative soundtrack. 4K scan by Cinecittà, Rome, in 2023.