Since my long-term girlfriend is from Cinisi (where the film is set) I regularly visit. I also learnt on my first trip out that she is actually a cousin of Giovanni Impastato. Thus I have an interest in the history and eat at the pizza restaurant each time I'm in the area.
Not knowing what to expect from this film, I was stunned at the powerful performances and overall impact of this moving drama.
Luigi Lo Cascio, baring the chiselled good looks of a young Tim Roth, delivers an outstanding performance far superior to anything any actor produces from Hollywood these days.
The locations are beautiful and it's easy to spot the Corso Umberto main street and other sites from Cinisi used in the film.
I Cento Passi is an outstanding movie, that presents an effective portrayal of the other side of living with the mafia, far, far away from the more accepted, almost romantic, wiseguy ideals seen in Goodfellas, The Godfather and the like.
SPOILER
I also found this after trawling the web for more info on the story
BBC, Saturday, 1 May, 2004 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3675535.stm)
Gaetano Badalamenti, once known as the "boss of bosses" of the Sicilian Mafia, has died at the age of 80 in the US where he was serving a prison sentence.
Badalamenti became notorious in the US for masterminding a crime ring that distributed heroin and cocaine through pizza parlours between 1975 and 1984. He was sentenced in 1987 to 47 years in federal prison.
Born in the village of Cinisi near Palermo in 1923, Gaetano Badalamenti became a key figure in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in the 1970s.
Italy also convicted Badalamenti in absentia of the 1978 murder of a radio DJ who poked fun at the Mafia.
The remains of Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato were found torn apart by a bomb on a Sicilian railway line. Badalamenti was finally convicted of the crime in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison.
Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed prison official as saying he died of a heart attack at a US federal medical centre in Devens, Massachusetts, on Thursday evening.
Not knowing what to expect from this film, I was stunned at the powerful performances and overall impact of this moving drama.
Luigi Lo Cascio, baring the chiselled good looks of a young Tim Roth, delivers an outstanding performance far superior to anything any actor produces from Hollywood these days.
The locations are beautiful and it's easy to spot the Corso Umberto main street and other sites from Cinisi used in the film.
I Cento Passi is an outstanding movie, that presents an effective portrayal of the other side of living with the mafia, far, far away from the more accepted, almost romantic, wiseguy ideals seen in Goodfellas, The Godfather and the like.
SPOILER
I also found this after trawling the web for more info on the story
BBC, Saturday, 1 May, 2004 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3675535.stm)
Gaetano Badalamenti, once known as the "boss of bosses" of the Sicilian Mafia, has died at the age of 80 in the US where he was serving a prison sentence.
Badalamenti became notorious in the US for masterminding a crime ring that distributed heroin and cocaine through pizza parlours between 1975 and 1984. He was sentenced in 1987 to 47 years in federal prison.
Born in the village of Cinisi near Palermo in 1923, Gaetano Badalamenti became a key figure in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in the 1970s.
Italy also convicted Badalamenti in absentia of the 1978 murder of a radio DJ who poked fun at the Mafia.
The remains of Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato were found torn apart by a bomb on a Sicilian railway line. Badalamenti was finally convicted of the crime in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison.
Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed prison official as saying he died of a heart attack at a US federal medical centre in Devens, Massachusetts, on Thursday evening.