By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Matteo Garrone
Starring: Gianfelice Imparato | Italo Renda | Marco Macor | Salvatore Abruzzese | Salvatore Cantalupo | Salvatore Ruocco | Simone Sacchettino | Siro Petrone | Vincenzo Altamura | Vincenzo Fabricino
Original language title: Gomorra: La serie
Country: italy
Year: 2009
Running time: 137
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929425/reference
Bruce says: “With all the hype over GOMORRAH, I expected one extreme or another. To my surprise it was a decent, slice-of-life film that provides some insight into the Cammora, Naples’ equivalent of the Mafia. Naples has become a world without rules or law which forces residents to live more as animals than humans. Nothing is sacred: nothing is safe. Kill or be killed; steal or be robbed. The ugliness of such an existence is unfathomable until one realizes that GOMORRAH is completely based on fact.
“The film is structured around several unrelated stories. Don Ciro is the front man who collects bribes and makes payoffs to those who are deserving and loyal. ‘I can’t survive,’ one woman tells him. ‘I’ll pass it on,’ is Don Ciro’s stock answer. Toto delivers groceries and he wants to join the gang that has taken over his building. That will certainly not sit well with his father, a rival gang member, who currently is in prison. Toto’s customers treat him like a kid not realizing that he is about to make a transition that might threaten their very existence. Marco and Ciro, two somewhat older boys, discover a cache of hidden guns. After they have a field day shooting up everything in sight on a deserted beach, they decide that they don’t need to join a gang. They foolishly develop a flimsy plan to steal drugs belonging to one of the gangs. Roberto is an apprentice to Franco. They are finding landowners in the countryside who are willing to sell the rights to dump garbage on their property. Unfortunately much of it is toxic waste. Pasquale is a dress designer whose bosses bid low on jobs and then work the employees to the bone to meet the deadlines. Pasquale foolishly thinks no one will notice that he is moonlighting by giving Chinese workers lessons in patternmaking, fabric cutting and sewing.
“Each story is cross edited with the others. It is fairly easy to tell which is which although the core of each vignette is not evident until the middle of the film. Garrone does not editorialize in any way; his stories explain the situation. He keeps the viewer remarkably detached: experiencing the violence of GOMORRAH is like watching a lion kill a zebra in a nature documentary.
“The landscape is bleak; all the buildings seem to be abandoned or decaying. The main apartment complex is built from giant, disintegrating cement slabs. It should not ruin the viewing experience to mention that none of the stories have happy endings. 4 cats”
Diane says: “I avoided this Italian gangster movie in the theaters because the trailer looked just too horrifying with its random violence. But the killing is not really where this film focuses–it’s the total control the crime organization has over the inhabitants of Naples. The detached, almost documentary feel comes from its origin as a nonfiction expose book (adapted screenplay nom).
“Like Hamas, the Neapolitan gang Camorra is responsible for the feeding, clothing, and employment of everyone in its territory. Its reach is everywhere: cocaine, haute couture fabrication, toxic waste disposal. The shots of the concrete apartment building–especially its long narrow walkways open to the air but without exit, a perfect place to get picked off–depict the trap that everyone is in. Noms for supporting actor: tailor Pasquale, wannabe boss Ciro, and money carrier Don Ciro who descends from superiority into trembling fear over the course of his story. Oh dear, and a nom for little Toto, too.
“But Bruce: I think one of the five stories -did- have a happy ending…. 4 cats.”