The Francesco Rosi Files: La Sfida

Two of my favorite films from the 1970's- Robert Mulligan's "The Nickel Ride" and John G. Avildsen's "Save the Tiger"- contain a similar theme about the dogged determinism of a business entrepreneur to keep his business afloat. They're exhaustive, fluid films that feature stressful performances by Jason Miller and Jack Lemmon, respectively, and certainly accentuate the oncoming tide of later 70's films that wallow in the American recession and "New Brat" school of thought. And even though both men in these films straddle the line between moral and decent business practice, they signify upright men trying to maintain control of their visions, regardless of the legality of their trade.

A straight line can be drawn back to Francesco Rosi's 1958 "La Sfida" (aka "The Challenge"). Not only does it enable the simple Italian Neorealist themes of a lowly person desperately trying to overcome a singular hurdle, but it feels like a direct interloper to the films of Coppola, Scorsese and the above mentioned pair in its scope and intimate ambition. Sarring Jose Suarez as Vito, "La Sfida" observes his growth from the town hustler to fruit and vegetable mogul in short order. Setting up trucking routes, organizing his men to make deliveries and, eventually coming into conflict with the local crime boss, Vito seems to have it all figured out. Things get even better when he marries young Assunta (Rosanna Schiaffino). And, like all great Italian films, their wedding day becomes a lengthy affair that not only takes up a good portion of the film's final half, but morphs into a cerebral exercise of power and control as Vito's enemies decide to attack his interests.

"La Sfida" was Rosi's first solo directorial effort after co-directing an anthology film in 1952 and assisting actor Vittorio Gassman with his project entitled "Kean" (which isn't a bad film, but ultimately a comedic 'audience pleaser' that looks and feels like nothing else Rosi would do). Stunning in its assured measures and complex in the way it manages to highlight the almost bureaucratic steps ambitious Vito has to take to build his hard-pressed empire, "La Sfida" is really a film about the in-between moments of Italian Cosa Nostra culture and the uncontrollable fits and starts of creating something out of nothing. Like the long walks Jason Miller takes around the dilapidated warehouse district of Los Angeles or the sweaty, out-of-breath decisions Jack Lemmon has to make on the fly, "La Sfida" raises a strong case that the effort is hardly worth the pensive payoffs. But, Vito does it anyway. Partly out of neighborhood pride, but mostly because he enjoys the nice cars and pampering beautiful Assunta, "La Sfida" follows his trek through the good and bad. If it's ironic that he initially gave up peddling cigarettes for the more expensive and healthy produce shipping, "La Sfida" shows no favoritism. The end result is the same. And like the rest of Rosi's career, his anti-hero rarely walks away unscathed, beaten either by the system or his own ambitions. "The Challenge" could be the title of any later Rosi work, and I imagine he liked it that way.

The Francesco Rosi Files: The Palermo Connection

By the time "The Palermo Connection" was released in 1990, Italian director Francesco Rosi was in a precarious state. His run of international political thrillers ("The Mattei Affair" and "Illustrious Cadavers") and generous remembrances of family ("Three Brothers" and "Christ Stoped At Eboli") had dried up and his previous film, "Chronicle of a Death Foretold", failed to make a splash beyond its Spanish setting... and still nearly impossible to find today. With "The Palermo Connection", there were several things on his side: a big name American cast including Jim Belushi and Mimi Rogers, and the interest in Italian-American relationships stirred up by Francis Ford Coppola's divisive third part of his "Godfather" trilogy. Unfortunately, none of this aided Rosi's film as it came and went in theaters and is still relegated to only shoddy VHS prints today. Being the Francesco Rosi fanboy that I am, I had to weigh in on this (often) misunderstood effort. Jim Belushi is Carmine Bonavia, a city councilman running for New York mayor. Disgusted by the rampant proliferation of drug pushers in and around the city, he makes it his campaign promise to work towards the legalization of drugs. This gives him a rise in the polls, but alienates the mob in the city. When he and his new wife, Mimi Rogers, travel to Italy to visit his relatives, the mob presence creates a tense situation for Carmine and his new bride. 

Positioned somewhere between those late 80's direct-to-video actioners and a more serious-minded exploration of the politics behind the Old World mafia, Rosi's "The Palermo Connection" is still an interesting work. Judging by the vitriolic IMDB comments, people were obviously expecting a fast and furious action film when there are, ironically, only a few scattered gunshots during the entire film.... one of them leaving a lasting impression though. "The Palermo Connection", like most of Rosi's work, is first and foremost a travelogue film.... placing characters in a specific time and place and then spinning out a grand tale that takes into account local customs, dialects and superstitions. Once Belushi and Rogers hit Italy, the film slows down to a crawl where Rosi's gliding camera effortlessly tracks down wind-swept marble balconies and abandoned castle rooms. "The Palermo Connection" is clearly in love with the old country, and Belushi and Rogers are along for the ride. One of the more fascinating asides the film makes is its introduction of a character simply known as the Prince, played by Vittorio Gassman. He tells Rogers that he cannot leave his plush hotel room to take a picture with her. Later, a delegate from the American embassy tells them that the Prince once tried to take on the mob and was given a choice: live in this hotel room for the rest of his life or be killed. Exaggerated as it seems, this type of human banishment feels like an all too real punishment in the Old World.

There are flaws with "The Palermo Connection", though. A hurried denouement doesn't really coexist with  the leisurely pace Rosi developed up until that point. Frankly, Mimi Rogers and even Belushi, in certain scenes, feel miscast. And the central idea of a mayoral candidate leaving the US in the middle of a heated race for a jaunt around Europe seems highly irresponsible. Still, the seamless blend good hearted politics colliding against the criminal enterprise is an idea Rosi has toyed with since the beginning, and while "The Palermo Connection" isn't as sharp as say "Hands Over the City" in that regard, it does deserve a better fate than that-Jim-Belushi-film-no-one-talks-about-anymore.

The Francesco Rosi Files: Lucky Luciano and Many Wars Ago

In "Lucky Luciano" and "Many Wars Ago", Italian director Francesco Rosi continues his exploration of Italy's evolving landscape both past and present. Through the gangster genre and the war film, it's also safe to say he's no less angry in documenting the rise of unchecked power across a fifty year span.

Like he did with "Salvatore Guiliano" almost ten years previously, Rosi takes on another powerful criminal figure, using only his name and legend as a jumping off point for something more devious and conspiratorial. But unlike the character of Guiliano, longtime Rosi collaborator Gian Maria Volonte does get a majority of the screen time as the titular Luciano... albeit in very drab moments of political corruption. If one is looking for the pulp aesthetics that were generating waves out of Hollywood in the likes of "Capone", "The Godfather" and "The St. Valentines day Massacre", "Lucky Luciano" is a different beast. There are a few moments of gunfire and bloodshed (mostly aimed at Rod Steiger in his supporting role when he rocks the mafioso boat), but Rosi's aim is for something more intelligent. Picking up when Luciano (Volonte) is deported from New York back to his homeland in Italy, the film charts the American Army's involvement with corrupt businessmen and politicians in rebuilding that country's infrastructure. Though still a target for American intelligence forces, Rosi portrays Luciano as the puppet master of Italy's financial rebuilding through shady real estate dealings and the overall influence of his Mafia network. In typical mosaic Rosi style, "Lucky Luciano" bounces back and forth in time tracking several strands of the mobster's life and the confluence of police forces slowly observing his every move.


Stylistically, "Lucky Luciano" is a very energetic affair. Utilizing a roving camera that repeats several lateral pans, first across the faces of a group of Italian women enjoying themselves at an army dance then later across the gruff faces of mob bosses as they're introduced- in a sly echo of Scorsese's "Goodfellas" some 17 years later- the film feels kinetic. Even when the situation is static, such as the scene of two heads of state discussing the eventual untamed powers of Luciano if something isn't done, Rosi frames the ceiling overhead as an impending force of nature. Much more than any of his other films, mood and composition takes on a secondary feeling in "Lucky Luciano". And one understands this was all a success when, in the final scene as Luciano falls to his death of a heart attack, it's clear that his tight fist of control over Italy's complex future is sealed.... and suddenly the door slamming shut on Michael Corleone in "The Godfather" makes for a rapt comparison with Rosi's more muted effort.

Rosi’s inaugural film of the 70’s, “Many Wars Ago” is his answer to the war movie… albeit a very angry and, unsurprisingly, proletariat depiction of Italian troops during World War 1. Focusing on one unit during their numerous failed attempts to charge on the entrenched positions of the German army, “Many Wars Ago” details the minutia of war, such as the five minute sequence which portrays the inevitably deadly task of soldiers cutting apart barbed wire. It’s only after the first attempt, when both soldiers are killed by opposing fire, that the superior who ordered the push realizes the wire cutters are too dull to get the job done. At first glance, this seems like black comedy, but Rosi treats the impending mutiny of the soldiers against their commanding officers with dire seriousness.

And it’s that inequality between officer and soldier that lies at the heart of “Many Wars Ago”. For the first hour, the film tracks several men, both officers and soldiers along the wintry front line. Gian Maria Volonte, who would work with Rosi for many years to come, immediately appears as the protagonist before he’s killed in battle. The focus soon narrows on General Leone,(Alain Cuny), a beast of imposing will and unnerving invincibility. Even when his lieutenant, Sassu (Mark Frechette) tries to lure him into a spot with a perfect view from the enemy sniper, the general walks away unscathed. Slowly, the psychological conflict between Sassu and Leone boils over into full blown mutiny. The second half of “Many Wars Ago” examines the obstinate battle of wills between the men, ending in typical fatalistic Rosi fashion. It would make for a perfect double feature with Stanley Kubrick's "Paths Of Glory".

The Francesco Rosi Files: The Mattei Affair

My appreciation for Francesco Rosi just continues to grow. The Italian director who tackles themes of government corruption without resorting to oblique paranoia.... or highlights the mafia in the most unique manner ("Lucky Luciano", featured in a later post)... and creates moving dramas of brotherhood without the slightest sense of mawkishness ("Three Brothers")... he incisively avoids genre conventions while creating films that intelligently pick apart some of Italy's greatest scandals and bureaucratic failings.

In "The Mattei Affair", Rosi trains his lens on Enrico Mattei, Italy's answer to Daniel Day Lewis in "There Will Be Blood". Growing to power in the 50's as the premier researcher and developer of the country's deep deposits of methane, Mattei eventually became a powerful figure in Third World oil development. Played to dry perfection by Gian Maria Volonte, "The Mattei Affair" trades in words and long speeches instead of action. Rosi spirals together several strands of Mattei's life, before and after the mysterious plane crash that took his life in 1962. Not only do we see Mattei's early attempts to wrestle power from the oil magnates with his cheaply produced methane alternative, but the film tracks the day of the actual plane crash, complete with droning soundtrack music and confusing excerpts of dialogue and investigations as well as the attempts by reporters and writers in the years after his death to ascertain the truth. It all culminates in a clinical examination of good hearted intentions turning internationally dangerous when politics and human wealth clash.


Often criticized as being a visually boring director (although there are several stunning tracking shots in his 1962 film "Hands Over the City"), "The Mattei Affair" features a unique visual schematic, none more so exciting than the stationary shot of a 17 story building slowly turning on its office lights as news of Mattei's death burns across the wire. Or the dusk shots of methane being pumped from its deposits and Mattei confidently holding his arms up in a sign of victory which surely prompts the viewer to echo the manic determination presented in P.T. Anderson's "There Will Be Blood".... a film which surely cites Rosi's effort as its antecedent. But in the end, "The Mattei Affair" is a haunting documentary of sorts that merges cinematic life with real life when one of Rosi's researchers, a man named Mauro de Mauro disappeared and never resurfaced in 1970 after obtaining snippets of one of Mattei's last speeches. This sidenote, touched on obliquely in the film, resounds as one of the mysteriously deft touches Rosi often brings to his exceptional films of dynamic national struggle... one that seems to say no one gets out alive.