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Gomorrah (DVD)
Year: 2009
Rating: MA
Director: Matteo Garrone
Cast: Salvatore Abruzzese, Vincenzo Fabricino, Salvatore Ruocco, Simone Sacchettino
Release Date: September 23, 2009
Distributor: Madman
The Film: 4.0
The Disc: 4.0
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5
Gun shots ring out through a tanning salon. Walls of electric-blue UV bulbs are splashed with gore. Bodies sink to the ground. It's a scene that has everything and nothing to do with the film that follows - a spiralling, often exhausting modern day panorama inspired by the politics of the Camorra, a Mafioso group ruling Naples with a bloody fist. Like the hyperkinetic City Of God, Gomorrah shows that police count for naught when a clandestine mob group takes over a community, thriving on the smell of blood and using brutal power plays to peddle drugs, sex and other forms of human currency.
Gomorrah remains tight and hard hitting because it is based thematically on the non-fiction 2006 book by Italian journo Roberto Saviano - a man who must still be accompanied by security escorts in his home country, so incendiary is his written account of this lawless world. While the book ordered its stories around Saviano himself, filmmaker Matteo Garrone excises the notion of a central character, weaving an interconnected plot where half a dozen character strands entangle around each other, creating a claustrophobic but relentlessly taut plot. It's a challenging, sometimes punishing decision, but one that expunges any chance of spurious storytelling devices or a neat-and-tidy hero protagonist.
Trench warfare plays out in the overlapping strands, all set in a giant tombstone-coloured housing complex known as Vele di Sampi, which is lightly art designed to resemble a minimalist Dante's Inferno. Amongst the characters is thirteen-year-old Toto (Salvatore Abruzzese), who unwisely acts older than his years; an ageing man handing out money to incarcerated mob-heads; and two adolescents who think that they're living inside the Al Pacino classic Scarface. Deals are done and fall apart, and violence rises and swells. The only thing unifying the disparate cast of hangers-on, optimists and scumbags is their false belief that they can carve their own path through this world, turning the chaos to their advantage. When everyone is baying for blood and starved for power, this is easier said than done. Toni Servillo, as an elder statesman of the anarchic Vele di Sampi, is one of the few recognisable cast members: this is an intentionally no-name ensemble. The vividly real and textured performances that are cajoled out by Garrone contribute to a pungent veracity that never lets you off the hook.
Director Garrone wields the Super 35mm film rig himself much of the time, though apparently there were short days on set, as the fumes of crack in the Vele di Sampi would become too much for the crew. Garrone's decision to be a camera operator proves masterful, because we are able to plunge right into the world, angling in for a close-up, or pulling back to take in a wider perspective when the feeling is just right. This is fluent, intuitive camerawork that contributes greatly to the impressiveness of the overall film. However virtuoso the lensing though, nothing is redeemable in this world - but redemption can be the stuff of fiction, and we're reminded that real life organisations such as the Camorra are alive and well today.
Gomorrah is at times intentionally, and cruelly, bewildering, and could hardly be classified as entertaining - "grimly mesmerising" might be a better description. Gomorrah is admirable but not likeable for its acknowledgement of the screenwriting principle that says you should enter a scene with the action already underway; viewers will be struggling through the opening spell to make sense of the world that they've been dropped into. Such an intimidating opening act will unfortunately mean that many will drop off before the film really gets momentum up. Viewers who persevere, however, will be thankful that they did.
Of almost equal interest to many movie buffs will be the DVD extras, which include a rich behind-the-scenes documentary detailing Garrone's working methods. We see the helmer swinging through dusty streets on a techno-crane, instructing his young actors on the most cinematic way to wield their pistols, and orchestrating a far-reaching chaos that would have most directors pulling their hair out by the roots. Telling insights into the electric immediacy of the film come from watching the director at work. In the process of shooting a scene that has become stagnant from repetition, the director implores his performers: "I don't want to hear the same lines as in the take before. I don't give a crap what you say... you could even say nothing... it's up to you to find the words for it..." Indeed, Garrone begs for "some life in it..." and his persistence pays off - despite the constant spectre of death, fear and spiritual decay, Gomorrah sparks with life. Other features include a raft of deleted scenes and extensive interviews with Garrone and Saviano.