Gomorrah/Gomorra (2008) - Garrone's stark exposé of Italian mob culture is a knockout

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+ 2nd Best Movie of the Decade

+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year + Best Epic of the Year + Best Gangster Movie of the Year + Best Italian Movie of the Year + Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Toni Servillo

 

The strange image of a lanky adolescent in only underwear and shoes, carrying a gun, against a firetruck red background makes up this curiosity-sparking poster for Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah

Naples, Italy - We follow 5 stories: Two young renegades, who ventures into a life as solo-criminals. A young boy who dreams of joining the Camorra, the Italian mob syndicate. A dressmaker, who accepts a proposal from a new side. One of the bosses who arranges a renovation. And a member of the syndicate's payment corps, who wants out.

 

Gomorrah is written by Maurizio Braucci (Tatanka (2011)), Ugo Chiti (No Problem (2008)), Gianni Di Gregorio (Carefree Giovanni/Giovanni Senzapensieri (1986)), Massimo Gaudioso (The Reel/Il Caricatore (1996)) and Italian master filmmaker, co-writer/director Matteo Garrone (Land in Between/Terra di Mezzo (1996)), whose 6th feature it is. Also contributing to the script was Roberto Saviano (Zero Zero Zero (2013)), whose same-titled 2006 non-fiction book is the basis of the film.

This is a serious and demanding work of cinema, which makes a lasting impression with its anxiety-filled, deeply authentically resounding character studies, which each of them help to put a clear spotlight on the Italian tragedy that it its mob problem. Toni Servillo (We Believed/Noi Credevamo (2010)) is chilling as the renovation boss, and he fronts an enormously well-playing team of actors and amateur actors. The young Salvatore Abbruzzese as Totò the boy also deserves major credit.

The camera work (cinematography by Marco Onorato (The Voyage Home/De Reditu (Il Ritorno) (2004))) gives us the Southern Italian reality in a matter-of-fact manner; and music seems to be withheld from us except for moments in which the characters play mostly trash music themselves. Gomorrah is like a stone in one's shoe; highly bothersome, as it should rightly be. It is a deeply unsettling masterpiece.

 

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2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

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Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Reportedly 5.9 mil. €, approximately 7.07 mil. $

Box office: 34.8 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.92 times its cost)

[Gomorrah premiered 16 May (Italy) and runs 137 minutes. Saviano has lived under police protection since 2006. Shooting took place in Italy. The film loosely portrays events with strong similarities to real-life events involving the Casalesi clan of the Camorra and the Scampia feud. At least 4 cast members have since gotten criminal sentences for extortion, murder, drug dealing and drug trafficking. The film opened #64 to a 5k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #28 and in 50 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1.5 mil. $ (4.3 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Italy with 17.6 mil. $ (50.6 %), France with 4.3 mil. $ (12.4 %) and Spain with 3.2 mil. $ (9.2 %). In Italy, the film premiered #1 and spent 6 weekends in the top 5. The film's English Wikipedia page at present has a faulty account of the film's gross. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. It was Italy's Oscar choice of the year but went without a nomination. It was nominated, instead, for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA; it won an award in Cannes, where it competed in the main section; it was nominated for a César award and won 7/11 David di Donatello award nominations, won 5 European Film awards, was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, among many other honors. Saviano later created a TV-series with the same title based on his book, Gomorrah (2014-21). Garrone returned with Reality (2012). Servillo returned in Il Divo (2008). Gomorrah is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gomorrah?

Il Divo/Il Divo - La Spettacolare Vita di Giulio Andreotti (2008) - Sorrentino's complex, performance-like political biopic

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+ Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Toni Servillo

The red of the Italian flag runs out like blood on the poster for Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo

QUICK REVIEW:


Giulio Andreotti is a migraine-plagued top politician and seven-time prime minister of Italy, who in the 1990s gets accused of having ties to the mob.

Toni Servillo (The Consequences of Love/Le Conseguenze dell'Amore (2004)) is masked unrecognizably in Oscar-nominated makeup as the enigmatic and at times comical real-life figure Andreotti, the title 'Divo' [the divine], and is convincing in the part. Il Divo is the 4th theatrical feature of Neapolitan master filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza (2013)), who wrote and directed it.
Sorrentino stages Servillo in a film, which feels more like a performance or perhaps rather a series of performances than a unified story. Il Divo refuses to serve us a conventional biopic narrative, and as a non-Italian, one will inevitably lose track of a lot of the story, also because Sorrentino, especially in the beginning, flings names and other information at us at machine gun pace. The challenging material can make Il Divo seem long, but its very lively camera, by cinematographer Luca Bigazzi (Youth (2015)), eclectic music, by Teho Teardo (The Right Thing/La Cosa Giusta (2009)) and many interesting faces make this difficult film highly inviting and worthwhile regardless.

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Paolo Sorrentino: The day after ... The Oscars 2014
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The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza (2013) or, Jep Gambardelli's Rome
This Must Be the Place (2011) - Sorrentino's Nazi-hunting stoner cracker

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
The Caiman/Il Caimano (2006) - Moretti's unfunny political comedy - strictly for Italians (actor)   

Watch the US trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: 6.7 mil. $
Box office: 11.2 mil. $
= Big flop
[Il Divo was released May 23 (Cannes) and runs 110 minutes. The initial cut of the film was 145 minutes long. The real Andreotti walked out of a screening of the film, saying that it was "too much" and added that in the end he would be judged on his record. The film opened #61 in 2 theaters to a 13k $ opening weekend and peaked in 8 theaters in North America, where it grossed a paltry 0.2 mil. $ (1.8 % of the total gross). Its 3 biggest markets were its native Italy with 8.5 mil. $ (75.9 %), France with 0.9 mil. $ (8%) and the UK with 0.5 mil. $ (4.5 %). Il Divo won the Jury Prize in Cannes and was Oscar-nominated for Best Makeup, which it lost to Star Trek. It was also nominated for 4 European Film Awards and 16 David di Donatello Awards (Italy's Oscar), of which it won 7. Il Divo is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.5 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Il Divo?

The Great Beauty/La Grande Bellezza (2013) or, Jep Gambardelli's Rome

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+ Best Rome Movie of the Year
+ Best Italian Movie of the Year

Toni Servillo sits by the majestic statue in front of the National Museum in Rome at night on the poster for Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty

Jep Gambardelli is the king of Rome's night life, but he is also an aging bachelor, who has only written one book decades ago.

This soft-mannered, yet pointed vivant, his memories, philosophies and attitude to life is truly worth spending a couple of hours with. He is the character but the film is a sprawling ode to Rome and to life in general. The Great Beauty is an overwhelmingly beautiful, sensorial film with breathtaking photography by Luca Bigazzi (This Must Be the Place (2011)) and an eclectic music universe by Lele Marchitelli (Italian Gangsters (2015)).
Toni Servillo (Il Divo (2008)) as Gambardelli and every actor beneath him act flawlessly. The film alternately chastises contemporary society (mostly) affectionately and engulfs us in otherworldly beauty. It deliberately blends eternal qualities and the notion of the sacrosanct, a higher plane, and earthly beauty with human vanity, idiocy, the ridiculous. Of course it owes a lot to Italian master filmmaker Federico Fellini and especially his Rome-set masterpiece La Dolce Vita (1960), but that seems inevitable for any ambitious Rome-set production dealing with life, love and beauty in modern society. The Great Beauty is its own film.
It is co-written by Umberto Contarello (This Must Be the Place) and director Paolo Sorrentino (The Consequences of Love/Le Conseguenze dell'Amore (2004)). It is a succulent, flamboyant dance with life and among the year's best films. It is too much and just right at the same time. A tall and fatty temptation, not unlike many of the best dishes of the Italian kitchen, which one will want to return to many a time.

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2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

This Must Be the Place (2011) - Sorrentino's Nazi-hunting stoner cracker
The Caiman/Il Caimano (2006) - Moretti's unfunny political comedy - strictly for Italians (actor)  

Watch the trailer for the movie with English subtitles here

Cost: 9.2 mil. € or ca. 10.3 mil. $
Box office: 24.2 mil. $
= Flop
[Albeit a small flop. The film played in competition in Cannes, in Toronto International Film Festival and at other festivals, won the Best Foreign Film Oscar and Golden Globe and made its way onto many top 10 lists of the year. It grossed 2.8 mil. $ in North America (12 % of the total gross), and 9.5 mil. $ (39 %) in Italy. Its third biggest market was, curiously, the Netherlands, with 2.7 mil. $ (11 %). The Great Beauty is 91 % Certified Fresh with a critical average of 7.8 on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Great Beauty?