El desafío

An Italian 1950s crime film set in Naples with Italian subtitles. The film sets out to tell the true story of how a mafia man came to dominate the vegetable market in post war Naples. We have all the aspects we expect from a mobster film, the climb to the top and all the others he must battle along the way to get there. The film appears to have been shot in Naples and does a good job of conveying the dusty and cracked streets and the sense of danger lurking around the corner. The film is a kind of love story too of sorts, but not one with too much tenderness or romance as you'll see. The film is very well acted but I couldn't really take away from it that much from it.

Having worked as assistant to Luchino Visconti, this debut feature of Francesco Rosi signalled his emergence as a director of promise in which, not for the last time, he has cast a spotlight on the corruption and inequalities of economically depressed Southern Italy. He and his writers Suso Cecchi D'Amico and Enzo Provencale have loosely based the characters of Vito and Assunta on those of Neapolitan gangster Pasquale Simonetti who was gunned down by a Camorra rival and his widow Pupetta who served a prison sentence for shooting his killer. The film ends however with Vito's death and her act of revenge is not shown. Her attempt to block the screening was unsuccessful.

Rosi allows little simpatico for bully boy Vito as played by popular Spanish actor José Suárez and directs our sympathy to the Assunta of newcomer Rosanna Schiaffino whose character's somewhat humble, self-effacing demeanor is a far cry from ex-beauty queen Pupetta which is ironic as the ravishing Schiaffino had, like so many of her contemporaries, entered movies via beauty contests.

As would be the case with his future films, Rosi has a strong visual sense and the location is of far greater importance than the decor. This is directed very much in the neo-realist style and although his grasp of narrative here is a bit shaky there are individual scenes of great power whilst having the services of cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo constitutes a plus. His gift with actors is of course there for all to see. He would go from strength to strength as a film technician and never stinted in his depiction of the use and abuse of power. He was, in the words of one of his colleagues: 'one of those artists who lived his work like a mission.'

José Suárez has a good racket smuggling American cigarettes into Naples, but he's ambitious. He heads to the country, to become a broker for farm produce. That trade, however, is controlled by the Camorra. He comes to an understanding with them, but that puts him in their pocket. On his wedding day with Rosanna Schiaffino, they squeeze.

It's a dark and stormy movie by Francesco Rosi about the intersection between ambition, business, beautifully written and performed. Suárez offers a dynamite performance in a role that is simple in its motivation, but complex in its performance.

Rosi, later director of SALVATORE GIULIANO and the Gian Maria Volonte thrillers, is running up to speed here but the strong use of location - Naples tenements contrasted to the farming community - makes him an interesting link between the Neo Realists and the political thriller lot of the seventies, Damiano and the rest.

Suarez, the lead, switches from cigarette smuggling to vegetables, forming an uneasy alliance with the rural crime Don. We know he's going to get his but before that happens he's paired with Schiafino among the laundry drying on the roof, so that their mothers can argue whether she's an under age innocent or the local slut, and moved her into a bay view flat. Some suspense builds with in the final drive back to the city.

Compare this one with the similar themed American JUKE GIRL and THIEVES' HIGHWAY.

The technicians are excellent, with Di Venanzo's total focus look evident here before his Antonioni successes made him famous.