Italian gangsters have been portrayed frequently over the many years of cinema, but thankfully this film explores the genre a little differently. In my opinion, it does not entirely work, but is interesting none the less.
The film is centred around a hit-man named Salvo. We see mainly the close up of his eyes as he drives a car. He seems attentive, observant, alert and focused on his job at hand. After a failed attempt on his bosses life, Salvo tracks down the man responsible and manages to extract the name of the man who organized the hit before he executes him. This name is Renato. When Salvo goes to Renato's house for what is supposed to be a routine assassination, he encounters Renato's sister Rita, a blind woman he takes pity on. In an extended thrilling scene, Salvo follows Rita around the house as she starts to sense his presence. We see a close up of Rita's face as she tries to disguise her fear by singing. Salvo performs the murder of Renato off screen while we see Rita's reaction. Salvo considers executing Rita too, but instead places his fingers over her eyes and due to some sort of unexplained phenomena, cures her sight. She starts to see forms and shapes, but as the film goes on, her sight improves.
As Salvo buries Renato, Salvo keeps Rita in a disused factory out of town to keep her safe. Meanwhile, the film takes a similar direction to the film 'Leon' and observes his changing behaviour from lone professional to a man who wants more human connection. He starts to change his habits, mainly when it comes to meal times as he tries to eat with his lodgers rather than eat alone in his room. The film does crawl at a very slow pace and is relatively dialogue free, but it does make it up with atmosphere. The relationship with him and Rita evolves as the film goes on and becomes rather compelling. The final confrontation is rather thrilling and play's out like a Spaghetti Western rather than the standard gangster genre with the dusty and windy setting.
There is a definitely a mythical religious allegory played out here with the unexplained divine intervention in relation to Rita's sight being restored. For she was blind now she can see. This is true in Salvo's case as he starts to question his existence. It is rather compelling viewing, with some tense scenes and good performances. Saleh Bakri is very subtle as the title character in an existential crisis and Sara Serraiocco is fantastic as Rita. She manages to steal the show here, and I was looking forward to whenever she was on screen again. Admittedly, it is rather long and boring in parts, but certainly an interesting take on what is becoming a rather repetitive and stagnant genre.
See My Film Blog - www.projectionistreview.wordpress.com
The film is centred around a hit-man named Salvo. We see mainly the close up of his eyes as he drives a car. He seems attentive, observant, alert and focused on his job at hand. After a failed attempt on his bosses life, Salvo tracks down the man responsible and manages to extract the name of the man who organized the hit before he executes him. This name is Renato. When Salvo goes to Renato's house for what is supposed to be a routine assassination, he encounters Renato's sister Rita, a blind woman he takes pity on. In an extended thrilling scene, Salvo follows Rita around the house as she starts to sense his presence. We see a close up of Rita's face as she tries to disguise her fear by singing. Salvo performs the murder of Renato off screen while we see Rita's reaction. Salvo considers executing Rita too, but instead places his fingers over her eyes and due to some sort of unexplained phenomena, cures her sight. She starts to see forms and shapes, but as the film goes on, her sight improves.
As Salvo buries Renato, Salvo keeps Rita in a disused factory out of town to keep her safe. Meanwhile, the film takes a similar direction to the film 'Leon' and observes his changing behaviour from lone professional to a man who wants more human connection. He starts to change his habits, mainly when it comes to meal times as he tries to eat with his lodgers rather than eat alone in his room. The film does crawl at a very slow pace and is relatively dialogue free, but it does make it up with atmosphere. The relationship with him and Rita evolves as the film goes on and becomes rather compelling. The final confrontation is rather thrilling and play's out like a Spaghetti Western rather than the standard gangster genre with the dusty and windy setting.
There is a definitely a mythical religious allegory played out here with the unexplained divine intervention in relation to Rita's sight being restored. For she was blind now she can see. This is true in Salvo's case as he starts to question his existence. It is rather compelling viewing, with some tense scenes and good performances. Saleh Bakri is very subtle as the title character in an existential crisis and Sara Serraiocco is fantastic as Rita. She manages to steal the show here, and I was looking forward to whenever she was on screen again. Admittedly, it is rather long and boring in parts, but certainly an interesting take on what is becoming a rather repetitive and stagnant genre.
See My Film Blog - www.projectionistreview.wordpress.com