Archive for the ‘mafia’ Category

Rebel with a cause

Marco Amenta’s La siciliana ribelle (2009) tells the true tale of Rita Atria (Veronica D’Agostino), the 17-year-old daughter of a slain Sicilian Cosa Nostra boss and sister to his dead son, who in 1991 broke ‘the Family’s’ sacred code of omertà (silence) and aided anti-Mafia police with their investigations.

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Behind the throne

Showbiz has its divas, writes Gerald Loftus – politics, at least in Italy, has ‘il divo’. AKA Giulio Andreotti, alias Mr. Italy, Little Caesar, eternal Giulio, Beelzebub, Gobetto (‘cute little hunchback’), and probably many more diminutives not fit for a G-rated film review.

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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.

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Family values?

To call Donnie Brasco a ‘gangster movie’ would be like calling Dawn of the Dead (1978) ‘a film about some sick people wandering about’ – this has so much more to offer than the usual Mafiosi stereotypes (although they are there in spades).

The story is based on true events in the life of FBI Agent Joseph Pistone (Johnny Depp), who infiltrated the Mafia posing as a crooked jewel specialist, Donnie Brasco. The real focus of the film is how his job – which rapidly becomes his way of life – interferes with his family commitments as he struggles to keep his identity a secret and stay in the lives of his wife and children. The other side of Joe is revealed too, as he becomes emotionally closer to his target, Lefty (Al Pacino). The bond between them is tangible and excellently portrayed by both leads.

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