[photopress:gomorra.jpg,thumb,alignleft]Death is a dirty business
In terms of cinematic markers for the Mafia, Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990) has now maintained a generational hold over public perceptions of the world of organized crime and its associated values of honour, family and tradition, which almost ennoble the atrocities committed by the Corleone clan.
The approach from director Matteo Garrone (Primo amore (2004)) in Gomorra, which was honoured with the jury’s Grand Prix at Cannes this year, plus several prizes at the European Film Awards 2008, places the emphasis far more on realism – a latter-day Donnie Brasco (1997), if you like, set among the Neapolitan mafia, known as the Camorra.
Young Totò (Salvatore Abruzzese) finds himself drawn to the Camorra from an early age (shades of Goodfellas (1990)). Marco and Ciro (Marco Macor and Ciro Petrone, both excellent) are somewhat older and brasher, believing that they can pull the wool over the eyes of the local Don who runs the neighbourhood, in stealing cocaine and the like.
The older community members are also involved – Pasquale (Salvatore Cantalupo) is a tailor who is offered an opportunity to teach his trade in an illegal Chinese-run counterfeiting workshop, which does not sit well with his current illegal employers, who are funded by the Camorra. University graduate Roberto (Camine Paternoster), starts working for Franco (Toni Servillo), who runs an illegal toxic waste business that makes millions for the Camorra, while Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato) is a Camorra ‘submarine’, who helps the families of the imprisoned Camorra faithful keep up payments until their men return.
Superbly adapted by Maurizio Braucci from Roberto Saviano’s novel (the author is apparently at present in hiding, following death threats from the mob), Garrone’ s perspective provides a far more in-depth study of the extent to which crime is king in southern Italy, rather than studying moral delinquencies at an individual level.
And perhaps most alarming is the sober conclusion that Garrone presents concerning this ‘crime universe’, that it exists precisely because there is no alternative on offer.
137 mins. In Italian.
