Am I the Only One Who Did Not Like the Movie “Mafioso” by Alberto Lattuada?
Last January, a friend convinced me to watch Mafioso by Alberto Lattuada, a 1962 Italian movie that has been shown in some US theaters since the beginning of the year (it is still playing in select theaters throughout the country until July 14). I am always skeptical of movies that have the mafia as their subject, but my friend was extremely persuasive. So, I went to Angelika Film Center in New York City to watch this movie.
You cannot deny that Mafioso is a wonderful piece of cinematography: it has an excellent script with great acting and filming. Even though I never liked his histrionic ways, Alberto Sordi is brilliant in the role of the protagonist Nino Badalamenti, a Sicilian manager in a factory of Northern Italy. He is eager to take his 15-day vacation and go with his wife and daughters to his hometown in Sicily for the first time since he moved to the North. After their arrival in Sicily, there is an escalation of happenings where comedy and drama intermix continuously until the very end. I am not going to reveal any of the plot, in case you want to watch it.
Every major publication and movie critic has talked highly about the movie:
“Mafioso,” however, is of much more than historical interest. Broad and boisterous though it is, it demonstrates an exhilarating formal control, and manages to feel at once like a work of unfettered, even anarchic imagination, and a subtle observation of the world as it is. By A. O. Scott, The New York Times
Alberto Lattuada’s tricky-to-parse Mafioso dates from 1962 but, with its abrupt tonal shifts and disturbing existential premise, this nearly forgotten dark comedy could be the most modern (or at least modernist) movie in town. […] Lattuada satirizes Sicily as he acknowledges Northern prejudices. By J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
Alberto Lattuada’s “Mafioso,” newly restored, is a long-lost gem that deftly fuses comedy and drama. By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Mafioso may have been made in another era, but it stands as a classy, even radical rebuke to the film school posers who keep recycling the same tired gangster tropes. By Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
You can read more reviews at http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mafioso/.
This movie established the standards for mafia movies and is regarded as one of the most influential of its kind. It set the path for a series of successful productions that have the mafia as the main topic. To name a few: Salvatore Giuliano by Francesco Rosi; We Still Kill the Old Way by Elio Petri; The Day of the Owl by Damiano Damiani; The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola; Cento Giorni a Palermo by Giuseppe Ferrara; La Piovra by Damiano Damiani; The Sopranos by Timothy Van Patten. I am sure you recognize some of these titles, if not all!
Why did I not like the movie Mafioso? It is full of stereotypes and exploits all the things I do not like about Sicily. Since it inspired many other movies to portray a similar negativity about Sicily and its people, I could not stop from thinking about the deleterious effect it must have had upon those Sicilians who moved to Northern Italy to make a better living in the Sixties. Movies have a powerful influence on people’s thinking and the mafia in Sicily is still associated with this strong mafia imagery. Though still controlling, the Sicilian mafia is nowhere as strong as it used to be and it is losing its pull in the world today.
In the last few years, a new generation of directors has proven that Sicily is not only a setting for Mafioso style movies: Giuseppe Tornatore with Cinema Paradiso (Oscar as best foreign movie in 1988) and Malena; Gianni Amelio with Il Ladro di Bambini; Gabriele Salvatores with Sud; Marco Tullio Giordana with I cento Passi; Emanuele Crialese with Respiro; Franco Battiato with Perduto Amor. Hopefully, this trend will last and it will give Sicily the opportunity to show a different side of the beautiful island that it is.
See a complete list of the theaters featuring Mafioso
Technorati Tags [ mafioso | alberto lattuada | angelika film center | sicily | mafia | alberto sordi | salvatore giuliano | godfather | sopranos ]
