Anime nere

ANIME NERE boasts some of the best acting that I have seen in any film from anywhere in the world over the last 10 years. Perhaps only SICARIO (US 2015) can bear comparison with this extremely high standard of acting.

Francesco Munzi's direction is also first rate, aided by excellent stark photography.

Dialogue is extremely credible, and the script builds up to an unbearable tension point without much physical action.

So why do I rate this film only 7/10? Because I expected more reaction from the target family, and I find the open ending frustrating.

PS - I decided to rewatch ANIME NERE and I have to admit that the ending makes more sense than I initially surmised. The point, trite but valid all the same, is that death is supposed to be a deterrent among crime-pursuing families, but once a crime is committed, even a minor one like stealing goats, revenge will follow, and death is no longer a deterrent but an objective.

Interesting aspect: as in THE GODFATHER, there are three brothers here, and you know instinctively that the brother who wants to stay out of crime is the one most likely to be the action man. The other two are Hamlet-like figures, who hate Barreca for killing their father but talk rather than do something about it. And any distraction carries the ultimate price, as Luigi and Leo find out.

In crime, as in life, there is always someone stronger and more lethal than you. What I initially saw as an open ending is in fact the only ending to criminal life. I change my rating to 9/10 and recommend this film.

This is another gangster film where there isn't all the action of the traditional entry in the genre. If Goodfellas is Saving Private Ryan, then Black Souls is more in the vein of The Thin Red Line, not the same caliber as that film but you get my drift.

This is much more of a character study of the players involved. The eldest of a trio of brothers has spent decades tending to his farm and staying out of the family business, which is for the most part unnamed shady stuff. But when his son goes to visit his goon of a brother with intentions of joining the dark side, a sequence of events fall in place resulting in a finish that I don't think anyone can see coming.

Not a lot happens in the first 2/3s of Black Souls in an action sense, and if I was in the wrong mood I might not have liked this as much as I did. But I thought the conflict between the four chief characters (the dad, his two gangster brothers, and his son) was established very convincingly. Come with patience to this one and you will be well rewarded. One of the scenes near the finish is simply magnificent.

Every few years an authentic Italian mafia film comes along, the last one being 2008's Gomorrah. Now we have Anime Nere; A slick, well made, taut and perfectly paced film about an unsung rise to power. It takes place deep within the crime underworld in a village outside of Milan. Grounded in realism and contains no superfluous love stories or unneeded fluff. Classic Mafia film moments and themes are handled deftly and with fresh eyes. The enormity of the film emerges only its its last few frames. People that idolize Scarface or The Godfather will have a new classic on their hands. Thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking cinema.

But not the mafia movie I expected.

Seems to take the concept of the Sopranos one step further (or rather a step down)

It's a very nonviolent (for a gangster movie), and far more blue collar than Goodfellas is

Makes the whole organization feel more grounded.

I wonder if that's just the difference between the Italians and the Italian-Americans.

Well-acted. I really like the performance from the guy playing Luciano, the dad trying to keep his son away from the path his brother is on. A hard sell cause Luciano's brother's got all the cool stuff and treats his nephew like a man.

Must admit the story seems hard to follow. It's in Italian and the subtitles did not help. Plus the movie moves slower than expected.

Overall, it's one of those films that pays off with a small emotional climb up as you get to know that characters and how they live capped off with a roller coaster ride that's very fulfilling.

Recommend

BLACK SOULS is an unusual Italian gangster film that portrays the subject matter in an art-house style. Thus, it's a slow and sedate movie with exemplary realism throughout that goes for a very low key approach. It feels like very little happens in this film, yet at the same time the production has the same kind of realism as a documentary.

It's certainly a well-shot piece with some fine cinematography. The acting is of a solid standard with the actors giving mannered and restrained performances rather than going over the top as in an American gangster movie. The plot, about innocent lives being drawn into the criminal underworld, is a familiar one, but the slow-burning approach works well and builds up some powerhouse moments.