This is a Mafia film with a difference, one with spiritual/metaphysical dimensions (an unusual take on the subject matter as said by others). 'The Godfather' also shows how Michael Corleone is corrupted. I preferred 'Black Souls' to another 'art-house' exploration of the Mafia, 'Gomorrah': which was also about the Mafia as a business, the business of death & its noxious influence on society. 'Black Souls' is more intimate, as it revolves around one family, three very different brothers in personality, & how it self-destructs.
I did find the settings initially confusing, it moves from metropolitan Milan (modern Italy) to the countryside, to an older peasant Italy with codes rooted in the hills & countryside, actually the South (I thought it was the north still at first). A place almost medieval in tone & customs, like clans brokering marriages to cement alliances or heal feuds.
The film is about families & business, how sentiment & business should operate separately but are fatally bound; about Christian (Catholic) faith & despair (One of the brothers is called Luciano -light, the one not involved with the Mafia). The opening scene, a drugs deal involving the two brothers still involved in criminality (The charming, masculine Luigi, the bespectacled taciturn Rocco) sets the tone for the film. In flashy Milan, they negotiate a drugs deal with a new business partner, who has clearly eliminated their previous supplier. The brothers are unsentimental & accept the new arrangement as businessmen. Ironically, as the film progresses, the brothers become marginalised themselves by fellow village families who act out of the very same self-interest after they fail to apologise to the local Godfather.
'Black Souls' is about a family on the brink of self-destruction due to a family grudge being resumed. Emotions take precedence over reason. Luciano has borne the murder of his father by continuing to live & work in the community ruled by the Godfather who had him murdered. An act of vandalism & disrespect re-opens old wounds which escalate into forces beyond the family's & Luciano's control.
The title of the film, for me, refers to a Mass which happens towards the end of this gripping film. It appears to suggest that 'you are born a sinner', but one is damned if you are born into a Mafia family because you will belong to its inescapable vendettas & blood feuds.
Luciano, perhaps the most sympathetic character in the film, is drawn against his will & by his son's recklessness into his own personal hell. 'Black Souls', meaning men who are damned, condemned from birth by a diabolic bargain. There are some great scenes in this film which probably illuminate the themes of the book. Such as when the charismatic brother lies with his lap-dancer girlfriend in bed. She is naked, her lithe body covered in ink (tattooed characters). It is as if Luigi has made a literal contract with the Devil/bargain with criminality in exchange for his soul/life.
It's a rich film, memorable. It's also about the clash of the modern with the traditional, the city & the countryside, as portrayed by Rocco & his wife, Valeria, an outsider, who struggles to understand the men's local dialect &, by suggestion, the situation in which she finds herself. It is about men & women: as with any film about violence & its shocking aftermath, it is the women - mothers, sisters, wives, who must mourn.
The ending shocks & resonates, of a man driven by grief & rage, to commit the only act he thinks can stop the never ending cycle of violence. His is a soul in torment.
I did find the settings initially confusing, it moves from metropolitan Milan (modern Italy) to the countryside, to an older peasant Italy with codes rooted in the hills & countryside, actually the South (I thought it was the north still at first). A place almost medieval in tone & customs, like clans brokering marriages to cement alliances or heal feuds.
The film is about families & business, how sentiment & business should operate separately but are fatally bound; about Christian (Catholic) faith & despair (One of the brothers is called Luciano -light, the one not involved with the Mafia). The opening scene, a drugs deal involving the two brothers still involved in criminality (The charming, masculine Luigi, the bespectacled taciturn Rocco) sets the tone for the film. In flashy Milan, they negotiate a drugs deal with a new business partner, who has clearly eliminated their previous supplier. The brothers are unsentimental & accept the new arrangement as businessmen. Ironically, as the film progresses, the brothers become marginalised themselves by fellow village families who act out of the very same self-interest after they fail to apologise to the local Godfather.
'Black Souls' is about a family on the brink of self-destruction due to a family grudge being resumed. Emotions take precedence over reason. Luciano has borne the murder of his father by continuing to live & work in the community ruled by the Godfather who had him murdered. An act of vandalism & disrespect re-opens old wounds which escalate into forces beyond the family's & Luciano's control.
The title of the film, for me, refers to a Mass which happens towards the end of this gripping film. It appears to suggest that 'you are born a sinner', but one is damned if you are born into a Mafia family because you will belong to its inescapable vendettas & blood feuds.
Luciano, perhaps the most sympathetic character in the film, is drawn against his will & by his son's recklessness into his own personal hell. 'Black Souls', meaning men who are damned, condemned from birth by a diabolic bargain. There are some great scenes in this film which probably illuminate the themes of the book. Such as when the charismatic brother lies with his lap-dancer girlfriend in bed. She is naked, her lithe body covered in ink (tattooed characters). It is as if Luigi has made a literal contract with the Devil/bargain with criminality in exchange for his soul/life.
It's a rich film, memorable. It's also about the clash of the modern with the traditional, the city & the countryside, as portrayed by Rocco & his wife, Valeria, an outsider, who struggles to understand the men's local dialect &, by suggestion, the situation in which she finds herself. It is about men & women: as with any film about violence & its shocking aftermath, it is the women - mothers, sisters, wives, who must mourn.
The ending shocks & resonates, of a man driven by grief & rage, to commit the only act he thinks can stop the never ending cycle of violence. His is a soul in torment.