Gomorrah: a story of such dangerous and gruesome reality that its writer now lives under police protection.
With such an intimidating canon of gangster films – The Godfather Trilogy (ok maybe not Part 3), Goodfellas and Scarface, to name the big guns – it’s most intriguing that the buzz suggests these pale in comparison to Gomorrah.
Matteo Garrone’s adaptation of Roberto Saviano’s groundbreaking expose of the Neapolitan Mafia – the Camorra – has become a cinematic revelation. It appears Naples, the beloved birthplace of pizza, has an altogether seamier – ahem – underbelly, certainly more so than Melbourne, but also the more infamous Sicily. Word is, the Camorra are responsible for more carnage than the La Cosa Nostra (the Sicilian mafia), the IRA and the Basque separatist group ETA; some 4000 deaths over a thirty year period.
Despite taking out the Grand Prix at Cannes and a host of other European awards in 2008, Gomorrah was scandalously overlooked for the Oscars this year. Perhaps due to this American snubbing, Martin Scorsese has leant his name to the US release, ‘presenting’ the film and a recut trailer, which looks decidedly Hollywood when compared with the original English version:
(ORIGINAL)
(MARTIN SCORECESE PRESENTS)
One has to have a little chuckle at the irony of Scorsese presenting a film that Roger Ebert suggests, “is a curative for the romanticism of ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Scarface.’”
Australian Release Date: 15 May 2009
Reading the book at the moment – can’t wait to see the film. It’s very depressing though – content challenging, writing style (or translation) pretty ordinary.