The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be

The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFranco Maresco
Screenplay byFranco Maresco
Claudia Uzzo
Francesco Guttuso
Giuliano La Franca
Uliano Greca
Produced byRean Mazzone
Anna Vinci
CinematographyTommaso Lusena de Sarmiento
Edited byEdoardo Morabito
Francesco Guttuso
Music bySalvatore Bonafede
Production
companies
Ilapalma-Dreamfilm
Tramp Limited
Daring House
Distributed byIstituto Luce Cinecittà
Release date
Running time
105 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguagesItalian
Sicilian

The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be (Italian: La mafia non è più quella di una volta) is a 2019 Italian satirical documentary film directed by Franco Maresco. It is intended as a follow-up to Belluscone: A Sicilian Story (2014).[1] It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 76th Venice International Film Festival.[2] At the Venice Film Festival, the film won the Special Jury Prize.[3]

Synopsis

In 2017, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Capaci and via D'Amelio bombings, where the Sicilian Mafia murdered antimafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, director Franco Maresco wonders what's left of their ideals and struggles in contemporary Sicily, dwelling on its relationship with the Mafia through one of his usually darkly comic "anthropological" documentaries.

While discussing with renewed photographer Letizia Battaglia about the shallow institutionalization of antimafia by Italian politics, Maresco meets again Ciccio Mira, the shady Mafia-apologist concert organizer that four years earlier had been the subject of his documentary Belluscone: surprisingly, Mira seems a changed man, seeking some kind of redemption by organizing a Neomelodic concert in Palermo in tribute of Falcone and Borsellino. However, his words still betray some nostalgia for the "good old Mafia that used to be".[1]

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Rean Mazzone and Anna Vinci with Ilapalma-Dreamfilm, Tramp Limited, Stefano Casertano - Daring House, Il Saggiatore, Moretti & Petrassi Holding, Amateru.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c "La mafia non è più quella di una volta". labiennale.org. 24 July 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  2. ^ Vivarelli, Nick (25 July 2019). "Joker, Ad Astra, The Laundromat, Marriage Story to Compete in Venice". Variety. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  3. ^ Anderson, Ariston (7 September 2019). "Venice: Todd Phillips' 'Joker' Wins Golden Lion, Roman Polanski Wins Silver Lion". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  4. ^ ""La mafia non è più quella di una volta", il nuovo grottesco sguardo di Franco Maresco sulla Sicilia di oggi" [“The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be”, Franco Maresco's grotesque new look at contemporary Sicily]. Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). 23 May 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  5. ^ "'Mafia Is Not What It Used to Be' ('La Mafia non e piu quella di una volta'): Film Review | Venice 2019". The Hollywood Reporter. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2020.