Romanzo criminale

Plot synopsis:
In 1970s Rome, four young delinquents, nicknamed Ice, Lebanese, Dandi and Grand steal a car. Crashing through a police road block, the driver, Grand is crushed by the steering column. Back at their hideout, a small disused caravan near a beach, they are discovered by the police. Cold, Lebanese and Dandi run away, but are captured. Grand, who is mortally wounded, dies in the caravan. Roll opening credits. Some years later, in the 1970s, Cold is released from prison and joins up with Lebanese, who tells him he has come up with a plan to kidnap and hold to ransom Baron Rossellini, a wealthy aristocrat for whom Lebanese's parents worked. He has formed a gang with Dandi - they are Black, Bright Eye, Ricotta, Bufalo, Rat and Ciro and Aldo Buffoni. After negotiating the ransom of 3 billion lire, the Baron is shot by one of the Cannizzari brothers who have been entrusted by Lebanese to guard him. Nonetheless, they fake the proof of life and get the 3 billion lire. However, the local Police Commissioner Nicola Scialoja manages to record the serial numbers of the ransom money before the gang receive it, setting out to capture the gang. As the gang divide up the money, Lebanese proposes to split 500 million lire between them, and use the remaining 2.5 billion to build a foothold in the criminal underworld of Rome, starting with drug dealing. However, the drugs racket is owned by the dealer Terrible, and so the gang wipe his gang out apart from Gemito, who Lebanese bribes to help them. After his home is raided and his body guards killed, Terrible wakes to find Cold, Lebanese and Dandi in his bedroom. Cornered, he reluctantly agrees to let give control of the racket to the gang.
The gang grows in influence and ambition. Rome falls under their rule, and the rule of Lebanese. Dandi meets and becomes enamoured with an upmarket prostitute, Patrizia, who, in order to be kept under the sway of the gang and in order to prevent Dandi becoming involved in brawls provoked by his jealousy, is bought over and given a brothel. Cold, meanwhile falls in love with his younger brother Gigio's tutor, Roberta. However, Lebanese begins to consider Cold's romance a weakness, a point reinforced when Cold asks to be dismissed from the gang. In response, Lebanese casts up the car theft from their childhood, where his leg was permanently damaged by the pursuing police. Cold and Roberta begin to learn English with the idea that they will elope. Then Cold receives a phone call informing him that Lebanese is dead, stabbed by Gemito after a bitter game of poker.
Then begins Cold's quest for vengeance, aided by Dandi.
Yet Scialoja is on their trail and succeeds in capturing Cold, then the other members of the gang except Dandi. Cold plans to escape from prison with the help of his friends, but a deadly spiral of score settling has already begun to coil around them all.

Tags: flashback

Review:
Well the movie is quite disappointing, and not because of the script, which in a way does work (except maybe for a foreign audience who will not catch all the political implications of the movie), but for Michele Placido's poor television style of directing and (mainly) for the choice of (most) the actors.
These guys should be the worst criminals Rome had ever seen, people you would not have the guts to see in the eyes, but the actors chosen are all the cool and beautiful teenager idols of Italian cinema, surely good actors, but not in the right place this time.
This movie could have been a great opportunity to finally export some good Italian cinema...i'm afraid we'll have to wait much more!.
There is long tradition in Italian cinema in which the hero is a thief or a pathetic loser or a criminal or, like in "Romanzo Criminale" all three.
I regret to inform, none of that is evident in "Romanzo Criminale" The great bunch of young Italian actors assembled in one film!
It's only a movie we've seen so many times (from the Godfather to Once Upon a Time in America) done so much better.Storywise, although it is of Italian origin, "Romanzo" is as bland as any new mafia movie, dealing with revenge, honor and family.
And as if it weren't enough that the film is mediocre, it also bears resemblance to an odyssey if we are to consider its playing time and the way I, as a viewer, interpreted it.The one interesting aspect is related to the political facet of the mafia, and especially to the situation before the fall of the communist regimes.
I can find a thousand faults to it : the limited storyline doesn't really develop the historical and political context, the actions is sometimes quite difficult to follow, the characters are totally cliché (the-bad-gangster-guyswho falls in love with the-beautiful-virgin-mary-reincarnation, the repented hooker, the good policeman, the really bad godfathers with all their money, the villa by the sea and the twenty-five year old wife.
I confess I'm not Italian and don't really have a grasp on the historical significance of the 70's in Italy though I read Moravia's A Time of Innocence (I believe that was the English translation title) and liked it.
Very good, though the story is very dramatized (and I'm Italian, so I know the story of my country).It takes a real gangster group, link it with neo-fascist and communist actions, real characters and fictional ones, creepy cospirative figures...It's very far from the criminal stories seen up to now in our country: the cop-movies was a genre abandoned since the '70s (they flourished in the period portrayed in Romanzo Criminale, mostly as a consequence of the feelings of the people against the political and criminal acts of these years).But it's a very good movie, with solid story and great musics, one of the best in Italian cinematography of the last years (with "Dopo Mezzanotte / After Midnight" and "Le conseguenze dell'amore").
Also it made me want to know more about that time and I don't think I fell for the movie simply because of a couple a cute bad guys (though I must admit that the cast is really cute).I don't buy what others said about being persuaded that these guys were nicer than they really were I'm talking about the movie as a work of fiction.The actors were really convincing and the violence shown in the movie was measured there were no unnecessary violent scenes..
It is the best Italian movies made for a very long time.
Romanzo Criminale, the Italian title of this run-of the-mill gangster film, literally translates as Crime Novel, a much more prosaic handle that in many ways indicates the film's failings.
Touted by some as an Italian 'Godfather' or 'Goodfellas' it actually looks like a TV mini-series that has been compressed (badly) into a theatrical movie running time.
Kim Rossi Stuart broods manfully as Ice, the tragic anti-hero, but never once convinces you that he can point a gun in your face and pull the trigger.The links between politics and crime are potentially fascinating, but they are only hesitantly - and confusingly - explored here, as if writer Cataldo is unsure of how to convey his message in the inadequate running time.All in all, a major disappointment..
This movie is full of suspense, and may easily call itself the 21century-italian-godfather: a must-see film with top acting, superb music and great to watch..
The most famous criminal within Italy is easily the Mafia, but here is a film that shows a crime organisation that was not link them.Set in the 70s and 80s Romanzo Criminale tells the story of three friends Ice (Kim Rossi Stuart), Lebanese (Riccardo Scamarcio) and Dandy (Claudio Santamaria) who in the 70s rise up the Rome underworld, forming a gang to kidnap wealthy people, drug dealing and murdering the heads of rival gangs.
The gang have to face a number of threats, from Communist Terrorists, the Italian government and the very demanded police commissioner Scialoja (Stefano Accorsi).Romanzo Criminale is a very well acted film, with excellent performances across the board.
I haven't read the book yet I think that this movie comprehends excellent characters with their human feelings, a great story and brilliant framing throughout.
And lurking even deeper in the background are State black ops figures who may or may not be manipulating both the criminals and the events themselves.I was expecting the sort of cheap crime exploitation movie that proliferated in Italian cinema back in the 70s, but this is a different, much more ambitious and better type of movie.
Crime Novel is structured very much like an Italian version of American Gangster.
It has the same intimate yet gritty feel, the same long slow story arc, playing out over years against a background of world events; the dedicated cop who seems like the only police official who sees his duty as catching criminals rather than taking bribes; and drug dealers who see themselves as businessmen providing a service rather than villains, and most of time they are.
The script is structured to provide each of the central characters with plenty of screen time, and its strong dialogue and intimate tone create very multi-dimensional and mostly sympathetic portraits.The resulting movie is very watchable and a worthy companion piece to movies like Carlito's Way, Scarface and American Gangster.
This knowledge would have enabled to understanding the plot better.On the other hand, my ignorance of the director, the actors, and the backdrop time period gives me total objectivity - I watched it strictly for a cinematic experience.
I'm always weary of films that try to tell stories of multiple characters or of ones that span years or decades.
It looks cinematic (even though it's shot on 16mm), the actors are better cast (Libano looks terrifying, the minor gang members look like criminals), there's more time to tell the story (politics, communism, Aldo Moro, fascism, the state, Camorra).Watching the show first, I could barely watch the film.
The movie is OK and it features an all-star cast and a famous director, but if you really want to see the same story brought to a much much higher level (not to mention going way deeper into the details), I strongly recommend you watch Romanzo Criminale The Series (two seasons of 12 episodes each), which is now available on Netflix, from other online sources and on DVD's.The "condensed" story line of the movie is at times confusing and fails to successfully put the story into its historical context.
So, I watched the movie years ago when it was released, and I was left with so many open questions that were only answered to my complete satisfaction once I watched the series (and yes, there are some continuity issues between the two productions, so don't think of the series as complimentary to the movie but rather as a complete retell.) I know that I'm actually ending up reviewing the series here more than the movie, but really if you watch the series, then you will find that the movie is just a brief summary of the story without much character development, despite the more famous cast and director (incidentally, Mr.Placido is credited as a creative consultant in the series.) The series, on the other hand, is one of the best small-screen productions I've ever seen, really quite up to the level of outstanding crime dramas like the Sopranos or Breaking Bad. I would rate the movie 6/10 and the series 10/10..
Too many of it's sub-stories (examples are in the other comments, love connection, lust for money, mafia connection, politics) have been done before and added little-to-nothing that made you think differently than the first time you saw the situation.
For those who have never seen a foreign film this maybe hard going with its over 2 hour running time but you will not be disappointed!.
It is like the character Ice - cold; a gangster film which is passable and doesn't have much heart..
However, this is more like an Italian version of Goodfellas with a bit of Once Upon a Time in America thrown in - we see the protagonists as kids then grown up etc.Im not going to go into details but if you want to see a gangster film with a difference, watch this!
The cars, too, are always appropriate for the time, helping to set the scene, along with the gritty real feel of the cinematography.Interestingly, though this is based on a true story, and perhaps not even consciously, the story is as soaked in religious metaphor as it is in blood and testosterone, where there is the constant talk of Judas, and as in the best stories, though it centres on the power struggle of men, behind the scenes it is actually all about the women..
This film, for me at least, is a novelty, an actual gangster movie by Italians based in Rome (Italy).
The acting was superb especially by "Ice" and Patrizia, but the rest follow suit very well, and it is hard to knock anyone in that respect, whilst the Italian setting adds its beautiful character as the background setting.On the other hand, the film does fall down on a couple of points.
More development of certain of the characters would have helped, although I don't want to criticise too much as the cast were excellent as it is.Overall, a film that is a great interesting and intelligent film, but misses out on being the great modern Italian gangster film that it maybe was aiming for.
michele placido, who has always been a very very mediocre actor himself, not to mention director, made this movie out of a book which is out of a very true story...
True, it does not deal with the traditional Sicilian mafia, but rather deals with a gang of street boys in Rome, who grow up to become the dominant crime gang in the city, and also get connected with some of the more important events in the history of Italy in the 70s and in the 80s.
Moreover, a team of good actors and good camera work (see many almost monochromatic scenes that seem to bring back the reality of the past time on screen) keep the interest up during this rather long film and make up for the story line which is sometimes a little bit too complex or has too many characters.
Overall it's a good film, on the line and falling at all below the many American movies of true crime stories..
All the actors played their characters based on the real story of Rome's most terrible criminals.It's not a Hollywood production , it's not a tale , it's real not based , real happened.The movie is very good , and maybe knowing a little bit of history (in this case Italian) helps to get all meaningsThis is my own point of view.....ciao.
A warning to all, as i review the Italian language version of the movie - which i also assume to be the long cut; Just bare with me, it will all make sense soon.Romanzo Criminal (RC) is a made-for-TV film, almost three hours long, a "serialized" film as we like to call them.
This is the faithful screen adaptation of a book by the same name, that much in the style of James Ellroy, purports to be a work of fiction, while actually telling a real story with a few mysterious holes filled in by fiction.In the 80's the Italian capitol, Roma, was ruled by the Banda Della Magliana, a group of ruthless criminals who wiped out the old "ruling class" by using modern methods and extreme ..well, ruthlessness; Broad daylight murders, holding corporations, organized dealings, and a desire for power that ignored all consequences.
The characters are well developed(and they certainly are nothing like you will get in any other film), the acting is good (not really a great effort, since the actors were basically asked to not act, but there still is a great commitment and good final product), and the story is just fantastic.While great in the first half, the film suffers near the end, perhaps because while the first half of the film is a smaller period of time, the second is a longer period and more compressed, and while the "setting up the organization" is where most of the action and daring is, the rest is slower and more complex sub-plots are weaved in, making the storyline a bit murky.Now, i expect italians to watch this, but for a foreigner to catch this film, translated, it is still worth a shot; I personally can't vouch for the translation (and many films do suffer when translated, especially one as based on characters as this one is), but if you have the chance, try it, if translators made any effort at all you will be very pleasantly surprised.7/10 (10/10 scaled with the usual Italian muck).
Had the characters been slightly less-believable and more akin to something from a Guy Ritchie attempt, the 'clash' I felt was there might not have been.Regardless, and despite this wavering sense in relation to content, the film feels good enough to warrant a pretty strong recommendation; and film that doesn't necessarily know its foundations but knows exactly where it wants to go when it's off and running.
These guys party hard by night in a carefree and obnoxious manner, they stab people by day; something the film wants us to understand very early on when that sense of juxtaposition is apparent as is a feeling of low-level crime, a sense that these people are not afraid of what they do and may well inhabit public spaces, continue with whatever it is they enjoy and might well be never more than a few yards away from you.The film lays its goals down in a pretty clear cut fashion when the leader of this rising group makes reference to the Roman empire, he wants something large; powerful and something to be feared as the result of all this.
The film even takes time to incorporate Italy's 1982 World Cup win.So you've got a lot going on.
The feeling of overwhelmed connection between crime and politics, the sense of no way out, the fact that the characters seem not to be particularly penitent, all of this is very accurate, it truly does evoke modern Rome.
He is one of the best young Italian actors around in my opinion, and he plays his insecure, irritating, and sometimes hateful character with such great tenderness and vulnerability..
The "no-way-out" atmosphere of the whole movie: you can perfectly feel that the characters act because they can't do in another way; call it fate, social/educational bounds, political pressure, they can't but do the things (and consequently the mistakes) you expect for them to do.
The true story of the movie is this: the so-called Banda della Magliana is a real criminal organization which dominated the Roman underworld in the late 70s and the 80s, busy gathering immense capitals out the heroin market and protected by a web of political connections.
The end of the Magliana Gang came partly because of a bloody internal war which opposed the two components of the organization, partly because of police investigations and arrests.The novel (Romanzo criminale, by Giancarlo De Cataldo) is based on the real story.
Kim Rossi Stuart was extremely good as il Freddo and Pierfrancesco Favino was a brutal and persuading Libanese (those are the two founders of the gang, whose real names are not used both in the film and in the novel).
And yes, its visual aspect was absolutely good, much better than many other shoddy things made in Italy today (it's a real pity that the country of Rossellini, Pasolini, and Fellini is today reduced to producing such dreck as Benigni's and Muccino's things).Obviously the novel is not a history book: it does not mirror perfectly the true story of the Magliana Gang.
by the talented and quite handsome Kim Rossi Stuart who stands out as the 'real man', i.e. the guy who not afraid to portray his true feelings, who wants out, wants to start afresh and so on.The whole beauty and uniqueness of this movie includes Michele Placido's ability to portray all the five gangsters as having their own distinctive and disturbing mannerism/character.
This gripping Italian crime drama kept me interested from start to finish as it tells the story of the three criminal friends over the course of three decades.
It's not worth your time, unless you want to see a film about a gangster drug lord called "The Terrible" crying and wimpering in front of a boy who says "Don't hate me because I'm pretty.".
Great gangster film, which I believe owns partly its success to the fact that it's adapted from a book inspired itself by a real 70s-80s gang (Banda della Magliana).