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Sometimes a single event can change your destiny forever.
For Dandy, Ice and Libanese it starts with a teenage car robbery
which costs them the life of one of their friends and their
liberty. On release from prison, the now fully grown, men
decide to kidnap and hold for ransom a member of the Italian
aristocracy. Even though the captive is killed the ransom
is still paid. This cursed nest egg they invest in drugs and
so starts their first steps to controlling the Rome underworld.
Their propensity for violence soon sees them at the top of
the criminal hierarchy, where power blurs the lines between
politics and crime, but the very success which they had pursued
soon starts to tear the friends apart with tragic consequences...
Romanzo
Criminale (2005) was directed by Michele Placodo and adapted
by Giacarlo De Cataldo from his original novel. Apart from
the sequences which bookend the film, it is broken into three
sequences which follow the original friends as they, one by
one, take up the reigns of power in the organisation. The
film was well received on it's theatrical release and became
a multi-award winner.
The
narrative is not so loosely based on the rise and fall of
the Magliana gang who were active in Rome from the seventies
to the nineties. They were thought to have been involved in
not only drugs and prostitution but also political assassinations
- most notably that of Roberto Calvi, dubbed Gods Banker,
found hanging off a bridge in London (a sequence which found
its was into The Godfather: Part III (1990)) and Aldo
Moro, the Italian Prime Minister. They were also thought to
have been connected to the Bologna Station bombing.
These events find themselves into the film by interspersing
the fictional narrative with actual newsreel footage of the
events. This works exceedingly well, as the newsreel sequences
are short and punchy and do not interrupt the flow of the
personal stories. That said, much of the punch of this will
be lost on non-Italians. Italy was going through a particularly
turbulent time with many organisations, including the state,
reverting to violence to further their agendas.
At the heart of this film is the very personal story of three
friends who are torn apart by greed and success. The story
is set against great period detail and intertwined with real
events, and is very reminiscent of Sergio Leone's superior
Once Upon a Time in America (1984), and anyone who
has watched Leone's film will pretty much know how Romanzo
is going to turn out.
Of course, any good gangster film needs a good guy, though
in this case Commissioner Scailjo (Stefano Accorsi) is having
an ongoing affair with Patrizia (Anna Mouglalis) the prostitute
girlfriend of one of the gang, so is not untouched by duplicity.
Often his motives have more to do with winning the girl, rather
than the search for truth and justice.
The three main characters of Ice (Kim Rossi Stuart), Dandy
(Claudio Santamaria) and Libanese (Pierfrancesco Favino) are
well portrayed by their respective actors, though the true
stars of the show are the brooding music of Paolo Buonvino
and cinematography of Luca Bigazzi.
The disc is well presented in either Italian stereo or a very
effective 5.1. Extras are limited to a single nineteen minute
short about the making of the film as well as a bunch of adverts
for forthcoming films.
If you like gangster films, and I do, and are not put off
by the length of the feature, over two hours, then this is
a film that is well worth checking out.
Charles
Packer
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