Palio: A Dusty Slice of Sienese Obsession

Is it worth your time?

If you like old Italian cinema that smells like horse stables and genuine, unhinged local pride, yeah, watch it. If you need a movie with a plot that actually moves from A to B without getting distracted by a street festival, you’ll probably hate it. It’s dusty, it’s loud, and it feels like a postcard that got left out in the rain.

The Palio is a race, but mostly it's an excuse for grown men to act like absolute lunatics. Watching the jockeys circle that square, you start to realize it's all just a very high-stakes version of neighborhood gossip. One jockey looks at another like he wants to steal his lunch money, and honestly? He probably does.

There is this moment near the middle where everything just goes quiet for a second. It’s jarring. Everyone is screaming, the horses are kicking up enough dirt to bury a small sedan, and then—silence. Just a guy standing there looking confused. I had to rewind twice to make sure I wasn't just losing my mind.

The vibe

It’s not as polished as something like The Last Laugh, but it has this raw, weird energy. Sometimes the camera work feels like it’s hiding behind a lamp post, just spying on people. It works, though. It feels like you’re actually there, getting stepped on by a horse.

• The horses look way more stressed than the actors.
• The crowd scenes are just pure chaos, I love it.
• There’s a guy in the background of the third act who clearly forgot he was on camera.
• The dialogue is mostly just men shouting about honor and women they haven't talked to yet.

Is it a masterpiece? No. Is it a fascinating look at people who care way too much about a horse race? Definitely. It’s got that same weird, historical itch you get from watching La revue des revues, where you’re just happy to be seeing how people moved and talked back then.

Sometimes the movie gets stuck on the romance stuff, and you just want them to go back to the square. The horse politics are way more interesting than the flirting. I don't know, maybe that's just me. 🐎

It’s a strange little relic. You’ll watch it, you’ll get annoyed by the jockeys, and then you’ll forget it for a week before remembering that one shot of the dirt flying. That’s enough for me.