El traidor

Una buena reconstrucción de un gran acontecimiento de la historia de Italia. Su maraña de mafias es un tema de visionado gratificante y ver las diversas creaciones actorales de los mafiosos es una delicia para los amantes del drama y el thriller. Así que es una pena que el primer tercio, en una película de tres horas, parezca faltar aquí, porque no sabemos mucho sobre los personajes que se exploran en el segundo plan. La mayoría de los mafiosos a los que el protagonista delata y luego vemos en el juzgado (o en cualquier otro lugar) son más bien muñecos a los que hay que disparar, y su relación personal con Buscetto, lo que vivieron juntos, nos es desconocido. Aparte de este inconveniente, que puede no molestar a algunos espectadores, la realización es de un alto nivel artesanal y con el excelente Pierfrancesco Favin. Pero prefiero claramente la más cinematográfica, atmosférica y dramática Suburra. [Cannes] (24.05.2019)

Very good work. The fast pace and the quick presentation of about a billion characters with unmemorable names was a little scary at first, but as soon as the attention focuses exclusively on Buscetta and the trial, it was a winner. Surprisingly nimble given the length and topic. #KVIFF2019 (29.06.2019)

Slight disappointment. The Italian mafia and courtrooms are among my favourite subjects, but neither line appealed to me here. The film is too long for my taste, with too many characters to form any kind of relationship with, the verbal shootouts in court have no charge and it doesn't really build up, it stagnates rather. It's watchable, a few sequences weren't bad, but considering the subject I expected something much more vigorous and powerful. (06.02.2020)

The Traitor convincingly shows why certain substances disappear from cinema and are subsequently used by television companies. Marco Bellocchio tries, but capturing the competition of mafia clans and the war of Cosa Nostra against the state apparatus over a period of almost two decades in a single film is not satisfactorily possible. Most highly interesting characters only briefly appear in the film and important events are abbreviated. The main character is observed by the screenwriter with evident empathy, regardless of the fact that his cooperation with justice was purposeful. His opponents are depicted as exemplary monsters (which undoubtedly they were), but the film only marginally deals with Buscetta's colorful register and blood under the nails, and actually only at the very end. Watching it once is fine, but it doesn't make sense to return to the film. Overall impression: 60%. (17.12.2020)

Al principio hay una ligera confusión sobre quién es cada personaje y a qué lado de la barricada se sitúa. El espectador consigue resolverlo de alguna manera después de la primera media hora, para luego disfrutar de la reconstrucción del juicio histórico de los jefes de la mafia siciliana, cuya sangre caliente completamente auténtica entretiene al espectador. La crueldad de los jefes que ordenan sangrientos asesinatos en las calles y su posterior regateo francamente infantil y absurdo en los tribunales es un contraste maravilloso. Es un poco una pena que no se haya aprovechado un poco más la línea de cooperación entre Buscetta y Falcone (un personaje que merece más espacio en la película, aunque hay otros trabajos particulares), pero en el contexto de retratar el proceso de varios años lo más fielmente posible, en su totalidad y con contexto, probablemente no se podría haber hecho mejor. Satisfacción con pequeñas reservas. [KVIFF 2019] (29.06.2019)

Marco Bellocchio, for your utterly reckless, irresponsible, and god-awful use of a high-frame-rate digital camera in a film about the Cosa Nostra that takes place from the 1960s to the 1990s, I sentence you to nine years of community service, during which I expect you to reshoot the nighttime and interior scenes so that they don't look like they were shot on a phone. I have chosen a reduced sentence not only because of your previous clean record, but also because of my personal admiration for your ability to create a portrait of a strong, distinctive man through your everyday dialogue and lack of pathos without making him into an artificial idol. Your sentence begins today. Thank you. (18.02.2020)

Can the space of a movie theater for watching cinema be replaced with something else? Not at all - otherwise the viewer would be deprived of the trailer for another film before the start of the actual film: in this case, an advertisement for the film La belle époque, in which pensioners create an experiential agency in a film studio set in the 1970s, so they can relive their first love there... It has also been proven that Alzheimer's disease is best stopped in older people by placing them in period settings, with original furniture from their youth, exposing them to their memories, etc... Although Bellocchio, in his age as an author, logically lost many of his artistic iconoclasm and formal inventions, he is not only still above the level of ordinary conventional cinema, to which this film belongs in terms of its category but also functions as Bellocchio's historical tribute to the Italian film belle époque: a blend of poliziotteschi and Italian politically-engaged police thrillers, within which Bellocchio created one of his famous films, Slap the Monster on Page One from 1972. Italians to this day prove that they are the best in Europe at making American films. (09.12.2019)