cafe Pellicola - window to fine italian cinema

US Trailer

It’s that great excitement you get when you come across a truly rewarding film by a director you have never seen much of his work, when everything seems to work exactly how you’d want it to be. And Mafioso by Neorealist director, Alberto Lattuada is simply that perfectly fun film. It’s the same sad story, these cinematic gems have limited distribution anywhere and are hard to come by. Unless the film is within the programming roadmap of the great people at The Criterion Collection, which is the case here.

You may have heard about Alberto Lattuda through his collaboration with Federico Fellini on Lights of Variety (Luci del varietà -1950), but his long and widely acclaimed work is known for his unique sensibilities of telling a simple story of the individual without compromise. “A good director is the one that can keep his audience nailed to their seats. Because the moment you see someone leaves the room that means the director didn’t do a good job like a scene that went too long…” Said Lattuada in a rare interview in the bonus section of this DVD.

This film brings one of Italy’s greatest actors, Alberto Sordi, to tell the story of Nino who has the perfect life – great job, wonderful family – who lives in Milan. Simply an ideal poster of the early 60’s when Italy has experienced the Economic Miracle (Boom Economico) with massive economic growth, characterized by the transition from relying on agriculture to industrialization.

You might want to think about this industrialization having the same impact as the Internet and the Digital Age of today. In this sense, you can see the portrayal of Nino’s life in Milan almost as the same period prime-time animated series The Jetsons - who lives in a futuristic utopia, using all kinds of gadgetry in their home. The same you find here in a fun scene when Nino is shaving, while at the same time cleaning his shoes – using all kinds of machinery.

And like today’s reality shows that bring together two complete opposite characters for us to watch the ricochets – Nino takes his ultra-modern family to visit his family in a small Sicilian village for the first time. The interesting element in this film is Lattuada’s unique style of moving the audience from comedy to drama, from Milan to Sicily to New York and back again. All in a fast-paced plot where every scene, camera angle and soundtrack is carefully calculated.

The film is augmented by the pounding score of Piero Piccioni, glimpses of which you can sample from the above trailer; on one hand, depicting a man’s warm-loving admiration to his family, and his hometown with all the memories and traditions it represents. However flanked by a dramatic score that emphasizes the enigmatic duality of an ordinary life, even robotic to some extent, yet with old storms looming. The sense that what you see isn’t always telling. It’s about the concept of displacement and the need to comply with your roots in order to keep your family safe millions worlds apart. To that mix Piccioni adds light swing tunes, specifically in the public space scenes in the village.

The opening and closing scenes vividly show the monstrous industrial machines that create metal objects and pass them along the assembly line. Could it be that this is a metaphor to Nino’s personality? Originally crafted in Sicily, passed along to Milan, yet still carries those base Sicilian attributes?

Think about it the next time you’re traveling back to your old hometown. How much of this place contributed to who you are today?

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Ricky Tognazzi’s classic anti-mafia thriller is deeply grounded in reality. The film was made a year after judge Giovanni Falcone was murdered as he was on his way to Palermo airport. The judge, his wife, and three police bodyguards were killed. Interestingly the film is not about the judge or the case, but focuses on the four bodyguards and the close bonding they develop with his replacement prosecutor, an outsider sent from Rome strange to the Sicilian ways.

You might expect a fast-paced movie with lots of action, but then again you’re in for another surprise. The film manages a restrained undercurrent tension that causes you to believe that any second something radical is about to happen as the bodyguards face threats on the road shuttling the investigator back and forth in his quest to seek justice. However, for the most part nothing major happens as the plot zigzaging leaves you with a constant “that was close” sensation. I would say it’s probably a much accurate capture of bodyguard reality than the typical 90-minutes of endless pyrotechnics.

If you are also a fan of Ennio Morricone, you’re in for a treat. Not yet? Well, you definitely should be. Morricone, this year’s winner of the Honorary Oscar award for lifetime achievement, provides a pounding score. The music perfectly supports this mounting tension that hits the bodyguards externally as they dodge various dangers on the job, and internally with the strain it brings on their families.

The message is simple. If you look around you, you too can see that often the real heroes are not necessarily those prime time figures busy rescuing the world. It’s in fact their support teams those faceless helpers behind the scenes that carry the heavy load. And as we know these so-called margins are far more interesting than the center as the neorelaist film movement has proven time and again. Real stories of real people that with recent waves of reality TV shows and YouTube’s user generated media - are now back in vogue.

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