ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

ITALIAN DIRECTOR Michele Placido has made a film worthy of comparison with Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’ in ‘Romanzo Criminale’, a vivid tale of childhood friends immersed in organised crime.

Based on a bestselling novel, this sweeping epic runs from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, tracing the rise and fall of the gang and their many unexpected connections with the social and political elite of the country.

It is a violent tale of drug-dealing, corruption and death in which the seeds of the gang’s downfall lies in their own greed and vanity.

Divided into three chapters, the film charts the gang under the successive leadership of the hot-headed Lebanese (Pierfrancesco Favino), the more refined and handsome Ice (Kim Rossi Stuart) and the vain, cowardly Dandy (Claudio Santamaria).

Their exploits begin with the kidnap of a wealthy aristocrat. They use the ransom money to invest in the drug business and through bribery, intimidation and brass neck they slowly take control of the gangland forces that virtually control Rome.

This is not a profession in which people grow old and die in their sleep, so we suspect that all of the gang will end up in jail or dead.

Gradually the loathsome characters come into focus as complex human beings and we gain some sense of their part in the wider history of Italy in that period from the murder of Aldo Moro to the assassination attempt on the Pope.

Stefano Accorsi is the dogged detective trying to ensure that justice is served, but even the film’s ostensible hero is compromised by his attraction to prostitute and gangland associate Patrizia (Anna Mouglalis).

Well-acted, stylish and very accessible, this is one of the best Italian films we’ve seen in a long while.

Selected nationwide release
Director: Michele Placido
Stars: Kim Rossi Stuart, Anna Mouglalis, Pierfrancesco Favino, Claudio Santamaria, Stefano Accorsi
Screenwriters: Stefano Rulli, Sandro Petraglia, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Michele Placido, based on the novel by Giancarlo De Cataldo
Certificate: 15
Running time: 153 mins
Country: Italy
Year: 2005

© Allan Hunter, 2006