Americans may not know the name, but Italian movie fans will remember him as the man who’d lost his will to live in Miele (Honey) and judge Michele de Francesco in La Scorta.
Miele is first time director Valeria Golino’s award-winning film also starring Jasmine Trinca. You can watch it instantly with Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube:
La Scorta is “the escort”, rather 4 escorts, police officers chosen to protect mafia judges in Sicily – maybe the most dangerous jobs on the planet. In La Scorta, a judge and his “scorta” are assassinated and a new one arrives to take his place. Judge de Francesco is honest and determined and the escorts that who have been assigned to him come to respect him and share his cause in a way that makes it seem like it’s them against the world as they begin to unravel the web of government corruption that they’re discovering. The judge tells his four escorts, “You’re the only ones that I trust”, and I really can’t blame him.
As the escorts nervously speed him from home to work and wherever else he’s going, not stopping for traffic lights or accidents, seeing danger in every abandoned car on the road, and panicking if the gates to the station don’t open, I found myself holding my breath and wondering what it must be like to live in such a world.
This is not a thriller, but it’s fascinating – and it’s true. The movie was based on a real story of just such a judge and his escorts, those who have accepted these suicide missions in the effort to make Italy and the world a better place.
If you don’t need subtitles, here it is on YouTube for free:
I Love Italian Everything 