Just out in Italy, Mario Martone’s Noi credevamo, a historical epic set during the time of Italian unification which was hotly tipped at the Venice Festival. Martone’s got quite a reputation behind him: he doesn’t make many films, but when he does they tend to be pretty good (see 1995’s L’amore molesto and 2001’s Lulu). This also has a prestigious cast including the ubiquitous Toni Servillio, Luigi Lo Cascio (Baaria, Good Morning Night) and Luca Barbareschi (Cannibal Holocaust(!)).
Here’s the review from Cineuropa:
The much-anticipated Italian film in competition at the 67th Venice Film Festival, Mario Martone’s We Believed is a 170-minute-long journey into nineteenth-century Italian history through the destinies of three boys from the South.
Loosely based on real historical events and on Anna Banti ’s eponymous novel, the film has obvious links with the present. “We Believed is constructed from rigorously historical material”, explained Martone at the press conference. “We wanted viewers to be the ones to create the connection with the present. We didn’t want to give a nod to current events, but bring nineteenth-century language alive, delving into the fabric of our present”.
To make the connection with today’s world more obvious, the director does however use a few visual devices: a modern garage, a prison still used in the 1970s for the Red Brigade terrorists and one of the monstrous buildings that blight the southern coast.
Co-screenwriter Giancarlo De Cataldo described the adventure of a journey through the many documents and letters with which “we constructed this story, until we felt transported to that era. Free from prejudice”. Indeed, there are two opposing theories about the Risorgimento: one sees it as the endeavour of young and beautiful heroes fighting for Italian unity, while in reality the different factions remained hostile; and another represents it as a sort of “deception” perpetrated to the detriment of a population that didn’t want to be freed at all and adored the Bourbon kings and popes.
In the film, after the fierce Bourbon repression of the 1828 uprisings, involving their families in Cilento, Domenico, Angelo and Salvatore decide to join Giuseppe Mazzini’s Young Italy. Their future lives as conspirators and revolutionaries are told in four episodes, up to Italian Unification, through insurrections, anti-monarchist attacks, Garibaldi expeditions, long periods of imprisonment and shootings. This is all heightened by Hubert Westkemper’s original music compositions and pieces by Verdi, Bellini and Rossini conducted by Roberto Abbado.
To describe the tragic events, conflicts and incurable divisions that gave birth to Italy, Martone has cast some promising young talents (Andrea Bosca, Edoardo Natoli, Luigi Pisani); rising stars of Italian cinema (Michele Riondino, Stefano Cassetti, Guido Caprino, Peppino Mazzotta, Giovanni Calcagno); and established actors (Luigi Lo Cascio, Valerio Binasco, Luca Zingaretti, Andrea Renzi, Luca Barbareschi, Fiona Shaw, Renato Carpentieri, Ivan Franek, Franco Ravera and Roberto de Francesco). Toni Servillo is a gloomy Giuseppe Mazzini, while Francesca Inaudi and Anna Buonaiuto play Cristina di Belgiojoso, whose Parisian drawing room was a meeting place for exiles and intellectuals.
We Believed was produced for a budget of between €6-7m by Palomar, Rai Cinema and Rai Fiction in co-production with Les Films d’Ici and Arte France Cinéma.
“CRAZY JOE REVISITED” by Giuseppi Martino Buonaiuto
We WOPs respect criminality,
Particularly when it’s organized,
Which explains why any of us
Concerned with the purity of our bloodline
Have such a difficult time
Navigating the river of respectability.
To wit: JOEY GALLO.
WEB-BIO: (According to Bob Dylan)
“Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn in the year of who knows when,
Opened up his eyes to the tune of accordion.”
“Joey” Lyrics/Send “Joey” Ringtone to your Cell
Joseph Gallo was a celebrated New York City gangster,
A made member of the Profaci crime family,
Later known as the Colombo crime family,
Also known as “Joe the Blond.”
That’s right, CRAZY JOE!
One time toward the end of a 10-year stretch,
At three different state prisons,
Including Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York,
Joey was interviewed in his prison cell
By a famous NY Daily News reporter named Joe McGinnis.
The first thing the reporter sees?
One complete wall of the cell is lined with books, a
Green leather bound wall of Harvard Classics.
After a few hours mainly listening to Joey
Wax eloquently about his life,
A narrative spiced up with elegant summaries,
Of classic Greek theory, Roman history,
Nietzsche and other 19th Century German philosophers,
McGinnis is completely blown away by Inmate Gallo,
Both Joey’s erudition and the power of his intellect,
The reporter asks a question right outta
The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie:
“Mr. Gallo, I must say,
The power of your erudition and intellect
Is simply overwhelming.
You are a brilliant man.
You could have been anything,
Your heart or ambition desired:
A doctor, a lawyer, an architect . . .
Yet you became a criminal. Why?”
Joey Gallo: (turning his head sideways like Peter Falk or Vincent Donofrio, with a look on his face like Go Back to Nebraska, You Fucking Momo!)
“Understand something, Sonny:
Those kids who grew up to be,
Doctors and lawyers and architects . . .
They couldn’t make it on the street.”
Gallo later initiated one of the bloodiest mob conflicts,
Since the 1931 Castellammare War,
And was murdered as a result of it,
While quietly enjoying,
A plate of linguini with clam sauce,
At a table, normally a serene table
At Umberto’s Clam House.
Italian Restaurant Little Italy – Umbertos Clam House (www.umbertosclamhouse.com)
In Little Italy New York City 132 Mulberry Street, New York City | 212-431-7545.
Whose current manager –in response to all restaurant critics–
Has this to say:
“They keep coming back, don’t they?
The joint is a holy shrine, for chrissakes!
I never claimed it was the food or the service.
Gimme a fucking break, you momo!
I should ask my paisan, Joe Pesci
To put your fucking head in a vise.”