After my long search of the series that I remembered from my childhood and I watched on Polish TV in March and April 1989, I finally managed to see it with my wife. And as captivating and convincing the whole depiction still appears to be, it seems that there is no other episode that keeps a viewer in a chair so intensely waiting to find out what else will be revealed than the first one. You have to options: either be captivated and involved in the series from the start or reject it. We did the former. Along with the protagonist, Comissario Corrado Cattani (Michele Placido), we discover the world of mafia thanks to skillful direction of Damiano Damiani (it is important to note the director's great insight into the world and mention his film IL GIORNO DELLA CIVETTA with Claudia Cardinale and Franco Nero) as well as the emphasis on the locations the story is set in: the beautiful island of Sicily still haunted by the grandeur of the past and experiencing quite brutal moments of its time (the action takes place the year it was filmed, here 1984 - it is essential to note that with the seasons to come, we see the changes everywhere).
Just the way it begins proves to be really authentic and foresees a wonderful drama. The opening credits after the red letters in the color of blood LA PIOVRA (Octopus), we have a rather dark scene, shot at night, from the perspective of the inside of a car (we too are, visually, passengers) and the police who come to the place of murder...they find the dead body of the Commissario Marineo who has fought against mafia for twelve years in the region of Trapani in the west coast of Sicily. His life seems to have been honest, his approach really short of any corruption and his end drastically tragic. Mr Cattani is called to Sicily with his family from Milan to dig in the case...
A funeral...or rather two funerals hit the tone for the atmosphere. One with a brave priest Don Manfredi (Flavio Bucci) and his sermon against those who kill life. Among the few people who take part, there are Corrado (Michele Placido) and Leo de Maria, the Vice-Commissario (Massimo Bonetti), the one who perhaps knows too much and is already in jeopardy. There are also some representatives of the local government. Where are the rest of the distinguished families? Leo nicely points out that they are taking part in another funeral, a more important one...
The funeral of a countess named Eleonora Pecci Scialoia who allegedly committed suicide and all the eminent people are there to pay condolences to her daughter, the last surviving member of the noble family, young Raffaella Pecci Scialoia called Titti (played memorably by young Barbara de Rossi). The comissario is one of the observers in the streets being informed about who is who by Leo. Mind you the Sicilian significance of the event emphasized here. Is there any better occasion to meet all these people if not a funeral? Although the facts prove clear, there seems to be a mystery, something in the air, is it all so beautiful as it looks outside? Two deaths of notable people, how did it happen that the body of the eminent Commissario was in a car? The mind of Mr Cattani is full of doubts, curiosity and willingness to investigate...and ours too. There is also something strange about the young woman, a descendant of such wealth who faints during the funeral of her mother. Who is a suspicious guy who comes late to the event and then takes her to a car?
Commissario Cattani is offered a job of Marineo's successor. And after the advice from his 'tutor' so to say in Rome, Professor Sebastiano Cannito (Jacques Dacqmine - a very important person later in the drama, particularly season 2), he accepts. He moves in Trapani with his wife Else (Nicole Jamet) with whom he has a rather dying relationship and his young daughter Paola (Cariddi McKinnon Nardulli). At first, it seems a nice place to live in, a different climate, a nice apartment after an elderly family who have recently passed away and whose children moved to Palermo. But soon things complicate as new acquaintances are made on both sides...
Apart from the family context and family drama that is about to become more and more intense, one of the very best scenes of the episode is Cattani's visit to Titty's palace. It is actually there when he starts to suspect, he sees those matches, the chairs dirty of dry blood and he attempts at getting the truth from a girl, glamorous due to the context she lives in but spoiled and locked within the cage of dirty world due to drug addiction. It is very well shot along with the camera focus on the place, on the suspicious facial manners of the servant Ruggero and Cattani's detailed look around. A scene worth paying attention to. But it all leads us to the group of people who really seem to have power in the territory...
Baroness Olga Camastra (played wonderfully by Florinda Bolkan) later named "Ms lack of evidence," avvocado Terrasini (Francois Perrier) and his suspicious family, the banker Alfredo Ravanusa (played by Geoffrey Copleston) with his tall daughter Spilungona and many others. The reception they are having and all the notable people who take part in it allow our protagonist to get inside the world of risk, great sums of money, bribery, corruption and murder...the world he will be bound to cope with. Will he be able to lead a peaceful life in such a place? His chair will surely be uncomfortable...
Not long is it to wait for the first answer from the mafia for whom Mr Cattani is surely an unwelcomed public figure and first tears of loss...
Not to spoil more, I will just say: a wonderful episode, a must-see more than once in order to understand the later events... for LA PIOVRA is no soap opera where you can say that no matter what episode I start with, I know most of the whatabouts and whereabouts. 9/10
Just the way it begins proves to be really authentic and foresees a wonderful drama. The opening credits after the red letters in the color of blood LA PIOVRA (Octopus), we have a rather dark scene, shot at night, from the perspective of the inside of a car (we too are, visually, passengers) and the police who come to the place of murder...they find the dead body of the Commissario Marineo who has fought against mafia for twelve years in the region of Trapani in the west coast of Sicily. His life seems to have been honest, his approach really short of any corruption and his end drastically tragic. Mr Cattani is called to Sicily with his family from Milan to dig in the case...
A funeral...or rather two funerals hit the tone for the atmosphere. One with a brave priest Don Manfredi (Flavio Bucci) and his sermon against those who kill life. Among the few people who take part, there are Corrado (Michele Placido) and Leo de Maria, the Vice-Commissario (Massimo Bonetti), the one who perhaps knows too much and is already in jeopardy. There are also some representatives of the local government. Where are the rest of the distinguished families? Leo nicely points out that they are taking part in another funeral, a more important one...
The funeral of a countess named Eleonora Pecci Scialoia who allegedly committed suicide and all the eminent people are there to pay condolences to her daughter, the last surviving member of the noble family, young Raffaella Pecci Scialoia called Titti (played memorably by young Barbara de Rossi). The comissario is one of the observers in the streets being informed about who is who by Leo. Mind you the Sicilian significance of the event emphasized here. Is there any better occasion to meet all these people if not a funeral? Although the facts prove clear, there seems to be a mystery, something in the air, is it all so beautiful as it looks outside? Two deaths of notable people, how did it happen that the body of the eminent Commissario was in a car? The mind of Mr Cattani is full of doubts, curiosity and willingness to investigate...and ours too. There is also something strange about the young woman, a descendant of such wealth who faints during the funeral of her mother. Who is a suspicious guy who comes late to the event and then takes her to a car?
Commissario Cattani is offered a job of Marineo's successor. And after the advice from his 'tutor' so to say in Rome, Professor Sebastiano Cannito (Jacques Dacqmine - a very important person later in the drama, particularly season 2), he accepts. He moves in Trapani with his wife Else (Nicole Jamet) with whom he has a rather dying relationship and his young daughter Paola (Cariddi McKinnon Nardulli). At first, it seems a nice place to live in, a different climate, a nice apartment after an elderly family who have recently passed away and whose children moved to Palermo. But soon things complicate as new acquaintances are made on both sides...
Apart from the family context and family drama that is about to become more and more intense, one of the very best scenes of the episode is Cattani's visit to Titty's palace. It is actually there when he starts to suspect, he sees those matches, the chairs dirty of dry blood and he attempts at getting the truth from a girl, glamorous due to the context she lives in but spoiled and locked within the cage of dirty world due to drug addiction. It is very well shot along with the camera focus on the place, on the suspicious facial manners of the servant Ruggero and Cattani's detailed look around. A scene worth paying attention to. But it all leads us to the group of people who really seem to have power in the territory...
Baroness Olga Camastra (played wonderfully by Florinda Bolkan) later named "Ms lack of evidence," avvocado Terrasini (Francois Perrier) and his suspicious family, the banker Alfredo Ravanusa (played by Geoffrey Copleston) with his tall daughter Spilungona and many others. The reception they are having and all the notable people who take part in it allow our protagonist to get inside the world of risk, great sums of money, bribery, corruption and murder...the world he will be bound to cope with. Will he be able to lead a peaceful life in such a place? His chair will surely be uncomfortable...
Not long is it to wait for the first answer from the mafia for whom Mr Cattani is surely an unwelcomed public figure and first tears of loss...
Not to spoil more, I will just say: a wonderful episode, a must-see more than once in order to understand the later events... for LA PIOVRA is no soap opera where you can say that no matter what episode I start with, I know most of the whatabouts and whereabouts. 9/10