Paolo e Vittorio Taviani
Cesare deve morire

Probably judging it a masterpiece is a bit excessive. But it's close.

Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, refined and knowledgeable creators, deliver a work with many directorial facets, far from the Hollywood shouts and the chaos of holiday comedy, as never before.

"Caesar Must Die"  was born in 2012 and received several awards, so it might seem obvious to praise it from start to finish.

My intent is to deliver an honest and personal critique, without being influenced by what is said and written by critics of class and depth.

Apparently, it's about a documentary shot in a prison where inmates hope to escape the monotony of their sentence by auditioning for the theatrical project inspired by Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". The film starts with the final part of the performance, it seems the audience enjoyed it. The shots are raw and uncertain, in color.

Then the Taviani brothers take a step back. 6 months earlier, the auditions, the selections, the hopes of those who audition and the use of black and white. This time the direction is confident, clean, the close-ups are touching and elevate the dramatic part of the film.

From the involvement of the selected actors, starts a film that in the first half-hour is knotty, slow, not very engaging.

Then it is discovered that passion takes over the inmates' time, who dedicate themselves heart and soul to the project.

Total immersion, and we viewers watch these criminals and no longer see them as figures who have lost their freedom.

In their artistic space, they have freed themselves. In every sense.

And here the stroke of genius: to break the film, almost in two parts, two inmates drop out of character. They return to being themselves, they have to sort something out between them, we are not given to know who, what, when, and why. Then everything recomposes, because what matters is to complete the preparation, all are convinced of it.

The film rises in an emotional crescendo, never shouted, which sees the actors increasingly involved in the drama of the piece, the guards patiently waiting for the inmates to finish rehearsals in the courtyard, during the air time that inevitably stretches, other inmates who, though not in the cast, are involved and shout from behind the bars, immersed and engaged, participating with ardor. Rebibbia comes alive with passion and theatricality, seemingly sparing nothing and no one, and the prison itself becomes an involuntary theater.

The message is very strong, it's understood, but generously underlined at the end when an inmate, just back in his cell, says "since I got to know art, this cell has become a prison."

The strength of the Tavianis, to deliver the ultimate message, was to choose an environment where the deprivation of freedom is taken to the extreme. And it is with this extreme that they demonstrate the strength of their message. Rebibbia, like Shakespeare, are mere pretexts. The real issue is "to free oneself" by expressing oneself, expressing oneself and freeing oneself through art, whatever form it may take.