Oscar-winner Giuseppe Tornatore’s first feature film leads us into the lair of organized crime, inspired by the life of Raffaele Cutolo, founder of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, which sadly raged in the 1980s. Based on a book by the journalist Giuseppe Marrazzo that infuriated Cutolo, conceptually the film is at a midpoint between The Godfather and Gomorrah, without overlooking the insight of political cinema and spectacular forays into action movies. With a fast pace and blunt aesthetic, the film explores the enigma of a terrible man who idolizes the brain and despises the heart, an entrepreneur of evil who offers a sinister yet authentic perspective on the history of Italy. Created in two versions (for the big screen and the small screen), its distribution was doomed: the film was quickly removed from movie theaters following a lawsuit, and it never even made it to television. Time has shown us how great it really is.
The rise and fall of the “Professor”, the Camorra boss whose criminal epic begins in prison, from which he escapes. While in hiding he runs a criminal empire that branches out to the United States, engages in ruthless wars with rival cartels, negotiates for the state with the Red Brigades and ends his days in a maximum-security prison, betrayed by his most loyal men.
Oscar-winner Giuseppe Tornatore’s first feature film leads us into the lair of organized crime, inspired by the life of Raffaele Cutolo, founder of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata, which sadly raged in the 1980s. Based on a book by the journalist Giuseppe Marrazzo that infuriated Cutolo, conceptually the film is at a midpoint between The Godfather and Gomorrah, without overlooking the insight of political cinema and spectacular forays into action movies. With a fast pace and blunt aesthetic, the film explores the enigma of a terrible man who idolizes the brain and despises the heart, an entrepreneur of evil who offers a sinister yet authentic perspective on the history of Italy. Created in two versions (for the big screen and the small screen), its distribution was doomed: the film was quickly removed from movie theaters following a lawsuit, and it never even made it to television. Time has shown us how great it really is.
The rise and fall of the “Professor”, the Camorra boss whose criminal epic begins in prison, from which he escapes. While in hiding he runs a criminal empire that branches out to the United States, engages in ruthless wars with rival cartels, negotiates for the state with the Red Brigades and ends his days in a maximum-security prison, betrayed by his most loyal men.
