ROMANZO CRIMINALE
I have just come back from our local Picture House's free member's preview of Romanzo Criminale.
Move over The Godfather, and as for Goodfellas, well that was Serie B compared to this brilliant film.
The story has been done before, and we know the plot inside out, but nevertheless the film is stunning.
Three young criminals Lebanese [Pierfrancesco Favino], Ice [Kim Rossi Stuart], and Dandi [Claudio Santamaria] begin with a kidnapping and go on to form a crime organization that dominates the drug trade, with links to terroroists, the Mafia, and sinister governmental agencies. The film is cut with some interesting real news coverage of major events of the period, the Moro murder, the Bologna train station outrage and Italy winning the 1982 World Cup.
Overall the cinematography is superb, the action tense, and the cast brilliant especially Stefano Accorsi as Officer Scialoja who struggles over the years both to investigate the case, and also to control his own desires and emotions.
Rome provides a the scenic background to the tale, and Anna Mougalis and Jasmine Trinca provide the luscious Roman femininity.
Anna Mougalis as Patrizia the very high class prostitute is quite magnificent, but I think she would have terrified Inspector Morse.
Highly recommended. 153 minutes but it does not seem that long. [Italian with English subtitles]
Labels: films
posted by Uriah Robinson at 6:38 AM
5 Comments:
A propos of a number of your recent posts, have you seen that classic Italian movie Salvatore Giuliano?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder is More Fun Away from Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
No, I haven't but I knew he was subject of one of Mario Puzo's books?
Then came upon this at answers.com
A film of his life, Salvatore Giuliano, was directed by Francesco Rosi in 1961. A monument to Giuliano was raised in Montelepre in 1980. Novelist Mario Puzo published "The Sicilian", a dramatized version of Giuliano's life, in 1984. The book was made into a film in 1987, directed by Michael Cimino and starring Christopher Lambert as Giuliano. Probably the most significant work to date on Giuliano is Professor Billy Jaynes Chandler's "King of the Mountain," published in 1988 by Northern Illinois University Press.
I didn't know about the Mario Puzo novel or the movie based on it. The film I meant was the one by Francesco Rosi. I recommend it highly. There have to have been better actors than Christopher Lambert in it!
I didn't know about the Mario Puzo novel or the movie based on it. The film I meant was the one by Francesco Rosi. I recommend it highly. There have to have been better actors than Christopher Lambert in it!
I knew you meant the Francesco Rosi!
I just put the bit in about Christopher Lambert as an in family joke. My stepdaughter had a "thing" for him, obviously not based on his acting ability.
Sorry I will look out for the Rosi film.
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