Let Dad spend Father’s Day with bad guys from the Mafia, the Camorra, the ‘Ndrangheta.
Anime Nere (Black Souls) was the best film of 2014, a dark, brooding character study of a Calabrian family and Italy’s biggest crime organization the’Ndrangheta. Get it on NETFLIX Vudu iTunes Amazon
“This isn’t the story of a Mafia war, this is a war within one family”, said director Francesco Munzi, “with all the cultures and contradictions that are inside all families.”
“It’s a tragedy”, he continued, “and it speaks of emotions and not just crime. I like classic Dostoevsky dramas and I wanted to recreate the visual aspects of the great tragedies.
Salvo is the story of a lonely gunslinger, a hit man for organized crime who, in the course of a job, encounters a blind girl that he kidnaps and then isn’t sure what to do with.
Salvo is highly charged, emotionally and sensorially, and yet quiet in a way very unlike most gangster movies. With minimalist dialogue, the camera may follow what Salvo sees but we hear what Rita hears and the combination of the two immerses us in the story in a very unique way.
La Scorta (The Escort) is an oldie but goodie from director Ricky Tognazzi , the true stories of the men who bravely protected judges during the era of the famous Maxi Trial in the ’80s. 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”.
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Gomorra (Gomorrah) is was taken from the book with the same name by Roberto Saviano about Naples’ Camorra, the one that caused him to have to get police protection and sill require body guards.
Directed by Matteo Garrone, it’s an extremely complicated crime story about the day to day operations of Camorra and the hard life of the normal people living in its grip.
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La Mafia Uccide Solo D’Estate (The Mafia Only Kills In The Summer) is a bittersweet comedy about a boy who grows up in 1980s Palermo. “When I became a father I learned two thing: The first, I would want to defend my child from all the bad things in the world. and the second, to teach them what they are,” said director Pierfranceso Diliberto.
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Suburra’s bad guys include organized crime, the Roman government, and the church. There are no good guys in Stefano Sollima’s film and if you require a hero for your movie enjoyment, it’s really going to depend on your definition of the word.
Suburra was commissioned by Netflix, and a TV series based on the movie is coming next year.
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Vallanzasca Gli Angeli Di Male (Angels of Evil) is the true story of an actual folk hero who is currently serving four consecutive life sentences with an additional 290 years in a Milanese prison but for a decade wreaking havoc with Italy, outsmarting the police and the prison system, robbing banks, kidnapping, murdering, inciting riots in prison and periodically breaking out of it. The movie pretty accurately follows the real criminal’s real life, and portrays Vallanzasca’s (somewhat askew) code of honor and old-fashioned values and his success with the ladies, earning him the nickname “il bel René”. He believed that he wasn’t such a bad guy, and used the media to help him get public support.
Coming Soon: Gomorrah The TV Series, a whole new binge-watch all its own and wildly entertaining. Details TBA. Shot in Naples and “ugly in a good way”, the TV adaptation of Roberto Saviano’s book and Matteo Garrone’s award-winning film is Italy’s most popular TV show ever and has been sold to the US and is coming soon.
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