[3.4]
Apparently there once was a time when Rod Steiger was an in-demand international star. I’m reminded of Donald Sutherland’s astounding range of 70s output (Fellini, Bertolucci, Roeg), and the curious marketplace that demanded European films be saddled with some Hollywood name. While Steiger is fine in the role of a ruthless real estate developer who also happens to be vying for the position of municipal building manager (thus, able to hire his own company for city projects), it’s not a showboating performance, and it feels as if any decent Italian actor could have done just as well if not better with it. Director Francesco Rosi seems enamored with Steiger’s method techniques, spending a good deal of time focusing his camera on Steiger just silently thinking. But Steiger lacks the charisma and allure of a Brando or DeNiro, so the long takes of Steiger’s “thinking face” grow boring rather quickly. The film opens briskly with an evocative shot of the political players standing in an open expanse on a hill outside the city, discussing how they will all get rich once they get the city to finance all the new construction out here. This is followed by an amazing scene where the entire wall of a tall tenement building comes crumbling down, masterfully edited with select closeups of the wall falling and people looking up, with wide shots of the collapse as people run scattered. This is neo-realism with big budget action scenarios! The rest of the film is less visually exciting, but kept interesting through the rapid dialogue and wild emotional gesturing of the Italian actors (which comes to a head in the thrilling city council meeting, as each side screams accusations at the other). And yet, just as suddenly, the film cuts away to show the construction in progress, signifying the defeat of the heroic liberal front (who wanted to put an end to the graft). It’s a bit of an anticlimax, and the low key resignation of hope (with not even an optimistic hint of anything changing) makes this almost-great film a bit of a drag.
burning retina 