RUTHLESS/ LO SPIETATO
Italy, 2019, 111 minutes, Colour.
Riccardo Scamarcio, Sarah Seraaiocco, Alessio Pratico.
Directed by Renato De Maria.
There is a long and strong tradition of Italian films focusing on the Mafia and various associations for criminal activity. Most of them centred on the South, especially in Naples and in Sicily.
This is the story of a Calabrian family who moved from the south to Milan. The young son of the family becomes involved in criminal activity with his friends, is denounced by his father and spends some time in prison where he makes more associates.
While there is the family background and also the engagement of the central character to a young woman who is very pious, spending some of her life in atonement for her husband’s behaviour. However, during the wedding, her husband is arrested.
There are the expected activities of the Mafiosi type, abductions and extortions when the criminals are younger, changing as they grow older into more corporate corruption.
Riccardo Scamarcio has built up a career in Italy as well as internationally, often a dark and brooding screen presence – which suits his character in this film.
1. The title? Italian? Tone?
2. An Italian gangster film, the work of the director and his documentary on gangsters, the Mafia, variations on the stories of Mobs? The movie tradition, Italy, the US? The influence of Martin Scorsese and Goodfellas?
3. Costumes, decor, music of the period?
4. 20th century Italian criminals, from Calabria to Milan? Situations, settings?
5. Santo, his background, family, the move north, his life as a teenager, background, crime, his father putting him in prison, making him tough, his attributing success to his father? His friends and peers? The characters? Activities?
6. The gangs, the bonds between the men, their bravado, lack of conscience? The various jobs, the violence, extortion?
7. Santo, his fiancee, pregnant, the church, the wedding, the arrest? The devotion? Her piety and atonement for her husband’s sins?
8. The change in criminal activity, from abductions to infiltration of industry, corruption?
9. The portrait of a criminal and his activities? His arrest, the flashbacks? His assessment of his life?
