In the heart of Rome, a stone’s throw from the Pantheon, in a fifteenth-century palazzo, stands the “Temple” of Italian fencing. The Accademia d’Armi Musumeci Greco, founded in 1878, holds over a century of entertainment history: here the noble art of the sword meets cinema, theater, and opera.

Renzo Musumeci Greco was born in Rome in 1952, fourth generation of a dynasty of fencers dating back to his great-grandfather Salvatore Greco dei Chiaramonte. His father Enzo—legendary fencing master who taught swordsmanship to Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster—brought him to Cinecittà from childhood. In 1968, at sixteen, Renzo debuted in Anton Giulio Majano’s television miniseries “La freccia nera.” Since then, over two hundred productions spanning cinema, television, opera, and theater.

He has choreographed duels for Luchino Visconti in “The Innocent,” for Valerio Zurlini in “The Desert of the Tartars,” for Carlos Saura in “I, Don Giovanni” with cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. He has worked with Roberto Rossellini, the Taviani brothers, Franco Zeffirelli, Ridley Scott. He has trained actors such as Vittorio Gassman, Giancarlo Giannini, Alessandro Preziosi, Alessio Boni, Kim Rossi Stuart. In 2021 he coordinated the fencing scenes for “House of Gucci” with Al Pacino, Adam Driver, and Lady Gaga.

A teacher at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, at the Teatri Stabili of Naples, Tuscany, and Rome, Renzo Musumeci Greco passes down ancient knowledge: how to transform an actor into a believable swordsman, how to make a duel spectacular without losing technical rigor, how to make blades dance in safety.

In this documentary, with the extraordinary participation of Massimo Ranieri, Donatella Baglivo tells the story of a family that made the history of Italian cinema behind the scenes—where crossed swords tell stories of honor, revenge, and passion.