Capital Celluloid 2014 - Day 88: Sat Mar 29

It Was the Son (Cipri, 2012): Barbican Cinema, 4.30pm


Here is the Barbican introduction: To complement the production of Eduardo De Filippo’s insightful black comedy, Inner Voices (Le voci di dentro), in the theatre, the play's director and star of hit Italian films The Great Beauty, Il Divo and Gomorrah, Toni Servillo, joins us for a screening of It Was the Son (È stato il figlio) and a ScreenTalk on the Cinema 1 stage hosted by Adrian Wootton.

Directed by Daniele Ciprì, It Was the Son is an operatic study of family life set against the dark and dangerous world of Italian organised crime. Filled with black humour and poignant satire, the film was nominated for Best Film at the 2012 London Film Festival.


LFF review:
In one of the poorest suburbs of Palermo, Sicily – blighted by the Camorra gangs of the kind rendered in Gomorrah – a young girl is fatally wounded when caught in the crossfire of a gangster shooting. Promised extensive government compensation, the girl’s family, headed by its scrap merchant-scavenger father (amazingly embodied by the ubiquitous Toni Servillo), the family starts advance spending of its supposed riches and even more catastrophe ensues. An operatic, grotesque, grand guignol drama, dripping with venomous black humour and featuring a shocking denouement, It Was the Son is an astonishingly original, first solo directorial feature from cinematographer Daniele Ciprì (who also photographed Bellocchio’s Dormant Beauty) since he parted company with his long term creative partner, Maresco.
Adrian Wootton

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