one can not be but startle by the incredibly high reputation that zeffirelli have in some quarter and where he be revere a an artist and an author and visconti heir and a consummate aesthete and when the guy be so obviously much more banal a buffoon and a hack and a charlatan and a bluffer and a hustler and a swindler . he begin a a viscontian minion and torchbearer as well a an able _toadie . his skill and ability and deftness and real and admirable and be often spoil and miserably wreck by his hideous personality ( and persona ) . i have see a documentary about zeffirelli and feature interview with him a wellthe man and with his evil and viscous and mean smile and have something sinister and eerie and corrupt and decadent ( in a real life way ) and nasty and filthy and disturbing and deeply and severely and strikingly unpleasant . this be in accord with his career . in fact and he be like demme and like r. scott and like scorsese and mann and shyamalan and coppola and etc . where he be bad and he be horrendously so . not an author and but a hack with occasional ( significant ) achievement . some talk about him a if he have an art and a project and a continuityas if he be a bergmanand not only occasional and almost random success . return to the man and the public persona and he be and beyond the paranoid element and megalomania and fascinatingly unsettling . he look somewhat like a reptile and a mean and voracious and shrewd one . ( i like the look of visconti and antonioni and even the plebeian fellini . ) on a second viewing and i like much and fin exquisite and please his hamlet .