•
Rating:
Like Sin City, but in 1970s Naples. Said like that, it sounds cool, and indeed the potential is enormous. But I'm not convinced that the work behind the camera by cartoonist Igort really works. There are as many reasons for interest as there are for skepticism.
Some sequences truly live off the comic book vision of the original work (volume from 2002). A dark room full of junk and well-hidden weapons, the big nose and hat under the downpour, the Fantozzi-type car driving away from a dilapidated house in the suburbs, the showdown on the rooftops with the huge CAMPARI sign in the background. In short, aesthetics on aesthetics, sometimes even delightful.
And the actors are noble too. Servillo could not ask for an easier role (perhaps too easy), Buccirosso is impeccable, and even Golino manages to bring intensity; she's really badass here.
However, I don't know, there's something that doesn't sit well with me. It's like an annoyance I feel watching the shoot-outs unfold so cheerfully, so aestheticized. I don't like it, not when we're talking about the Camorra. Sin City is one thing, Naples is another. And then the plot is really skeletal; it's not remotely important (as admitted by Igort himself), but comics and cinema are two different worlds, and without a solid structure, a large part of the story feels a bit gratuitous.
The images in the theater fly by quickly; you can't linger for long, as on a comic book page, and maybe because of this, cinema demands more solidity. There are still some final ideas (also poorly prepared, a little “gifted”) that are not displeasing, but it's more raw meat on the plate.
Even the vision of 1970s Naples doesn't impress. Apart from the coffee makers, some fresh set design (the fortune teller Mister Ics's corner is truly beautiful), and a couple of effective maxims (in Servillo's impeccable dialect, they remain memorable: “A man is seen by how he kills”), I was saying apart from these sparks, the environmental narration is almost absent. There are many indoor scenes, two-person dialogues, flashbacks to explain some details. There is no ensemble story, as was done excellently, for example, in the recent La paranza dei bambini.
In short, Italy certainly needs a lot of "genre" in cinema, this is a courageous attempt, but I find it impossible to call it "successful." I'm sure there will be no shortage of other attempts, because the well to draw from (between Camorra, Mafia, etc.) is too deep, and I doubt that the anti-epic cut (perhaps even anti-aesthetic, come to think of it) of Bellocchio's Il traditore could have imitators.
Loading comments slowly
