Il Mestiere delle Armi/The Profession of Arms (Film 2001 - MULTI SUB)

The Profession of Arms (Italian: Il mestiere delle armi) is a 2001 Italian film directed by Ermanno Olmi. Audio in Italian with subtitles in English, Spanish and Italian (click on CC for subtitles).

The film tells the story of the last days of the leader Giovanni delle Bande Nere, pseudonym of Ludovico di Giovanni De' Medici, an Italian condottiero in the service of the Papal State during the Italian wars in the first half of the 16th century.

After the formation of the League of Cognac between the Papacy, France and the Republic of Venice against the excessive power of Charles V, King of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, an imperial army of Lutheran lansquenets under the command of the veteran Georg von Frundsberg descends into Italy with the aim of sacking Rome and punishing the Pope. The inferior papal armies, commanded by Giovanni de' Medici, try to chase them in the midst of a harsh winter.

Giovanni delle Bande Nere's profession of arms is now surpassed by new instruments of death: firearms like the cannons of Georg von Frundsberg's army, against which armor is no match. It is not just a technological innovation in the art of war, but a crisis of those values ​​that once inspired combat; individual courage or the skill of the strategist no longer counts; there are no longer hand-to-hand combats where the bravest wins, death now comes from afar and leaves you no escape; what matters are technical skills, knowing how to use the new weapons and, above all, having money to buy the new powerful and expensive artillery. General Georg von Frundsberg's falconets mark the end of an era: the Middle Ages and the age of knights and their castles had long since ended under the blows of cannons that soon put an end to the long feudal sieges.

Filming took place from January 17 to April 7, 2000, mainly in Bulgaria, as well as in the following Italian locations:
- Basilica of Sant'Andrea in Mantua, where the body of Giovanni delle Bande Nere is exposed;
- Rocca Sforzesca in Soncino;
- Ducal Palace in Mantua, residence of Frederick II in the film;
- House of the Blessed Osanna Andreasi, home of Frederick's lover;
- Palazzo Barbò in Torre Pallavicina, where Giovanni's bedside is set up.

Cast & Characters:
Hristo Zhivkov - Giovanni de Medici
Sergio Grammatico - Federico Gonzaga
Dimitar Rachkov - Luc'Antonio Cuppano
Fabio Giubbani - Matteo Cusastro
Sasa Vulicevic - Pietro Aretino
Desislava Tenekedjieva - Maria Salviati de Medici
Sandra Ceccarelli - Nobildonna di Mantova
Franco Andreani - Ambasciatore di Carlo V