The playwright Dario Fo, here in the role of a painter, re-elaborates one of the cruelest details of the painting "La mort de Sardanapale" ("The Death of Sardanapalus" - 1827) by Eugène Delacroix, lending the physiognomies of Federico Fellini and Sophia Loren to the characters, perhaps to highlight, ironically, the lack of any artistic bond between the director and the actress.