Film Study on Gomorra

Gomorra

Gomorra, an Italian film by Mateo Garrone, is an intense and astute depiction of modern day criminal enterprise in Naples. Based on Robert Saviano’s highly acclaimed non-fiction book, Gomorrah: A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System, Gomorra presents us with 5 non-interlaced stories about crime in the Neapolitan town of Scampia. The film was highly successful in Italy, where thousands of bootleg copies are sold on the street by same organizations that the film targets.  Although the film was made nearly 40 years after the heyday of Italian neo-realist cinema, it retains many of the qualities and trademarks made famous by Rossselini and other neo-realist film makers.

              Garrone, who was previously a painter, chose to operate the camera himself and continued the Italian neo-realist tradition of documentary style filmmaking. As one reviewer puts it, “the film’s photography uses the camera as an active entity… it effectively becomes one of the clan members …for most part, the cinematography feels like hand held work, but never becomes nauseating even in the most dramatic moments”[1] The film is shot on gritty and plain film stock and uses mostly natural lighting. For indoor scenes such as the old man bargaining with Don Ciro, no artificial lighting is used and the conversation between the men is lit only by a small window in the apartment, casting shadows upon the men.

The film also follows the neorealist tradition of shooting entirely on-location. Garrone made a serious commitment to shooting only on-location. The enormous and labyrinth-like housing complex which most of the stories revolve around, Vele di Sampi, is one of the most dangerous places in Italy. In an interview, the film’s cinematographer stated that, “we could only shoot for a couple of hours in the morning because the effects of crack made the people aggressive and our safety would have been compromised”[2]. This dedication to...