Current release: GOMORRAH
After scooping a prize at Cannes and getting some recognition elsewhere, GOMORRAH bursts into UK cinemas from October 10th.
A cast of relatively unknown but entirely convincing youngsters populate the cast of this drama that peers into the daily life of Napoli's modern crime families, although support is on hand from more experienced cast members such as the always excellent Toni Servillo.
The film is exquisitely shot and as the camera prowls through the grim streets of poor Naples ghettos, it makes the city look simultaneously dirty and yet oppressively bright, much of the film taking place in glorious sunshine that seems to flood the screen.
The story follows numerous characters from ambitious kids looking to get in on the act to older hands who are seemingly on the way out. It's not quite one of those films where all the disparate ends suddenly tie up neatly in one calculated finale; the film takes more of a soap opera approach and tells the story of each of them, regardless of whether they have any interaction or not. Consequently, it may feel to some viewers as if it's wandering a bit but by the time the film ends I was too caught up in it to care.
Violence does not exactly abound in the film, certainly not to the extent you might think at least, but when it does arrive it tends to arrive in quick bursts that leave you reeling.
This is only emphasised by the relatively subdued nature of the rest of the film. In fact, it's the quiet little details that make the film special, whether it be children frolicking unknowingly in a pool while gangsters operate around them or a sublime overhead tracking shot as one character cautiously steps over the bloody corpses left behind in the aftermath of a mob hit.
I could take the lazy way out I suppose and just say it's like CITY OF GOD meets ROMANZO CRIMINALE.
Definitely worth seeing.
A cast of relatively unknown but entirely convincing youngsters populate the cast of this drama that peers into the daily life of Napoli's modern crime families, although support is on hand from more experienced cast members such as the always excellent Toni Servillo.
The film is exquisitely shot and as the camera prowls through the grim streets of poor Naples ghettos, it makes the city look simultaneously dirty and yet oppressively bright, much of the film taking place in glorious sunshine that seems to flood the screen.
The story follows numerous characters from ambitious kids looking to get in on the act to older hands who are seemingly on the way out. It's not quite one of those films where all the disparate ends suddenly tie up neatly in one calculated finale; the film takes more of a soap opera approach and tells the story of each of them, regardless of whether they have any interaction or not. Consequently, it may feel to some viewers as if it's wandering a bit but by the time the film ends I was too caught up in it to care.
Violence does not exactly abound in the film, certainly not to the extent you might think at least, but when it does arrive it tends to arrive in quick bursts that leave you reeling.
This is only emphasised by the relatively subdued nature of the rest of the film. In fact, it's the quiet little details that make the film special, whether it be children frolicking unknowingly in a pool while gangsters operate around them or a sublime overhead tracking shot as one character cautiously steps over the bloody corpses left behind in the aftermath of a mob hit.
I could take the lazy way out I suppose and just say it's like CITY OF GOD meets ROMANZO CRIMINALE.
Definitely worth seeing.
posted by Alan at 2:36 pm
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