Pierfrancesco Favino in ‘The Traitor’.
Directed by: Marco Bellocchio
Screenplay by: Marco Bellocchio, Valia Santella, Ludovica Rampoldi, Francesco Piccolo, Francesco La Licata
Story by: Marco Bellocchio
Starring: Pierfrancesco Favino, Maria Fernanda Candido, Fabrizio Feracane, Fausto Russo Alesi, Luigi Lo Cascio
The trailer for Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor” preceded a film in early December and from its tight editing, it presented a very taut tale of intrigue and deadly adventure for one Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino) as an informant on La Cosa Nostra.
The movie that famed Italian director Marco Bellocchio delivers is a sprawling story based on the real-life figure of Tommaso Buscetta, a Sicilian Mafia boss who sought to repent for their misdeeds. In that very real regard, Favino delivers an exquisite performance, a solemn face with eyes emoting at every turn.
Bellocchio was also not afraid to bask in the locations afforded his production – you truly feel like you’re in Italy or Brasil as Buscetta’s life catches up with him. Vladan Radovic’s cinematography beautifully captures these locales, framing Buscetta’s emotional struggles against the wrongs he commits.
In relocating to Brasil, he makes the mistake of thinking that his former associates could not get to him or to his family. Bellocchio’s level of violence is not over the top – it is tastefully done in the way that shooting someone can be portrayed on screen. There is a level of dark humor imbued in these assassinations as a way of counting towards the inevitable.
Though as the story goes, and based on the real life of Tommaso Buscetta, he develops a conscience, though as the screen play frames it, he is set up. It leads to an interesting relationship between the prisoner and the jailer as Buscetta returns to Italy to offer the State testimony in exchange for protection.
A rather poignant relationship forms between Buscetta and Judge Giovanni Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi) as the two men bond over the emotional struggles to bring to the world stage the players of La Cosa Nostra. The film itself is set in the 1970’s and moves through time, but Bellocchio and Radovic never lose the rich visual style, which as time progresses so too do the locations from exterior to interior. The interior scenes in the courtrooms were bright and, dare I imply spacious.
A curiosity as the venues change in the film, they seem to get less spacious and more tight as if to convey that for every time Buscetta opens his mouth, the noose of La Cosa Nostra gets tighter; it is more than that. Buscetta is constantly fighting his own demons as his stature and his resolve to be honest and forthright becomes more apparent. As a double entendre, Bellocchio uses the visual to support the emotional change in the character.
If “The Traitor” is guilty of any crime, it is that the run time makes its presence known. Much like La Cosa Nostra, it lurks in the shadows of great performances and a struggle rarely seen. The longer run time does not take away from the performances, but there is a certain point where there is too much exposition.
Understanding that this is a key piece of history, and a beautifully shot movie, taking elements out of the film might have negatively impacted the experience: in the end, “The Traitor” is as much an experience of one man’s life, culture and fortitude, as any film of its ilk.
"The Traitor" does not betray the honor of its subject. Rather, it honors Buscetta as a man of integrity. The cost to that integrity justify the means to those ends.
2.75 out of 4
