Thousands of movies come out every year. Hundreds of directors exist from all over the world. So, sometimes, we film critics miss something. Such is the case with “Mafioso,” the newly rediscovered Alberto Lattuada dark comedy and Mafia masterpiece from 1962.
At the 2006 New York Film festival, “Mafioso” was screened and brought Lattuada, the man who gave Fellini his first directing assignment, into the lime light. Now the film is getting a nation-wide release and much of the attention it deserves for setting the foundation of the Mafia film a full 10 years before “The Godfather” premiered.
The movie follows Antonio Badalamenti (Alberto Sordi), a working class Sicilian who has made good in Milan as the foreman of a large FIAT plant. He returns to his home for a two-week vacation — and the introduction of his blonde wife and children to the rest of his dark-haired family, including the head of the Mafia, Don Vincenzo.
It turns out Antonio owes the Don a favor: “A long and short trip.”
The film on its own is hard to peg down with a strong lean towards Italian neo-realist filmmaking. Many scenes involving comedy point towards a more traditional vein of Italian comedy, while scenes with the Don are heavy with shadows and dramatic lighting, lending an almost impressionistic tone to many of the scenes. Plus Lattuada’s ability to seamlessly switch from comedy to drama allows for a film that is surprisingly fun and suspenseful.
In the grand pantheon of film history, the movie stands alone as a forerunner of what Mafia movies would be: an innocent sucked into the underworld, murder, and the “family” of Mafia. “Mafioso” is truly one of the first films to portray the mob in such an uncompromising way, and there is little doubt that future film directors, from Francis Ford Coppola to Brian De Palma, were influenced by this work.
But, more importantly, the film is incredibly entertaining. Funny, touching and surprisingly dramatic all at the same time, “Mafioso” is not one of those artistic films that only a film student can appreciate, it’s actually fun. And unlike many older comedies, its comedy still stands up since it’s mostly based around family relations that are timeless.
<1b>— Matthew Razak