Film Review
The worldwide success of Francis Ford Coppola's
The Godfather (1972) led not
only to a revival of the American gangster film, it also brought fresh
blood to the Italian crime-thriller or
poliziotteschi, the genre that
supplanted the spaghetti western in popularity in the early
1970s.
I Guappi (a.k.a.
Blood Brothers) shows the
influence of
The Godfather
more clearly than perhaps any other Italian film of this period, a
lavish period piece packed with impressive action scenes and with a
score that is more than slightly reminiscent of Nino Rota's famous love
theme from Coppola's film. The film was directed, with
considerable flair and a mania for gritty realism, by Pasquale
Squitieri, an accomplished genre director who gravitated to more
serious films dealing with social and political issues in the 1980s.
The quirkiest feature of
I Guappi
is that it combines the production values of an extravagant period film
with a distinctly modern style of filmmaking, approximating to
cinéma vérité
in a few places. Action scenes are given greater impact and
immediacy because the camera is moved right in and seems to get caught
up in the frenzy of activity. Several shots are over-exposed,
with a full sun behind the characters in the foreground, creating an
almost dreamlike bleaching effect. Such inspired touches bring an
added realism and poetry to the film, helping to make
I Guappi one of the classiest of
Italian gangster films.
The performances are also of an impeccably high standard, with Franco
Nero and Fabio Testi the perfect casting choice for the two ill-matched
blood brothers of the film's anglicised title. In contrast to the
sensitivity and humanity of Nero's portrayal, Testi's Don Gaetano is
seemingly a man without a soul, coldly dispassionate as he goes about
his business as a Mafia foot soldier. The only person who can be
said to be Gaetano's equal is his fiery mistress, Lucia Esposito,
magnificently portrayed by Claudia Cardinale at her most
formidable (she would become Squitieri's life partner after this film). French actor
Raymond Pellegrin (best known for
providing the voice of arch-criminal Fantômas in a series of
French films in the 1960s) crops up as a supremely nasty law enforcer,
whilst the Neapolitan beauty Lina Polito brings a touch of glamour and
tenderness to the proceedings.
Feeding off the popularity of the
Godfather
films,
I Guappi proved to be
a massive commercial success and brought a welcome boost to Pasquale
Squitieri's career after the demise of the spaghetti western.
Squitieri would go on to make several important films after this -
Atto di dolore (1990),
Russicum - I giorni del diavolo
(1988),
Claretta (1984) -
but few of these later triumphs is as involving and stylish as this, a
fiercely feisty gangster film that deserves to be far more widely
appreciated than it currently is.
© James Travers 2013
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
In 1891, Nicola Bellizzi arrives in Naples with ambitions of becoming a
lawyer but his plans change when his path crosses that of the feared
racketeer Don Gaetano Frungillo. After a public brawl, the two
men become the closest of friends and Don Gaetano adopts Nicola as his
lieutenant, inducting him into a local branch of the Mafia, the
Camorra. Meanwhile, Nicola continues with his law studies, hoping
that one day he can put his criminal past behind him. When Don
Gaetano is thrown in jail by a vindictive police chief, Aiossa, the
newly qualified Nicola defends him in court. By exposing Aiossa's
previous criminal exploits, Nicola manages to get his friend
acquitted. After Nicola comes to the aid of a man sentenced to
death by the Camorra, Don Gaetano is commanded by his superiors to
execute his friend...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.