O Traidor

Uma bela reconstrução dum grande evento da história italiana. O seu emaranhado de máfias é um tema cativante para os espetadores, e ver as diversas criações de atores nos personagens dos chefes da máfia é um deleite para os amantes de drama e thriller. Por isso, é uma pena que o primeiro terço do filme de 3 horas pareça faltar aqui, pois não sabemos muito sobre as personagens que passam em segundo plano. A maioria dos mafiosos que o personagem principal denuncia e que vemos depois em tribunal (ou noutro lugar) são mais como bonecos a serem alvejados, e a sua relação pessoal com Buscett, aquilo por que eles concretamente passaram juntos, é-nos desconhecido. Para além desta desvantagem, que pode não incomodar alguns espetadores, a realização do filme é dum alto nível de artesanato, com excelente Pierfrancesco Favin. Mas prefiro claramente, por exemplo, Suburra que, embora ser fictícia, é mais cinematográfica, atmosférica e dramática. [Cannes] (24/05/2019)

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)

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)

At first, there was slight confusion about who the character is, what the character is all about, and what side he is on, which the audience could sort of figure out after the first half-hour. Then they could sit back and enjoy a reconstruction of the historic trial of Sicilian mafia bosses, whose hot-headedness seems completely authentic and is highly entertaining for the audience. Here, the ruthlessness of the mafia bosses ordering bloody hits in the streets contrasts wonderfully with their subsequently downright childish and absurd squabbling in court. It is a bit of a shame that they did not make more use of the relationship between Buscetta and Falcone (a character that deserves more screen-time in the movie, however, there are other more specific works exploring him), however, in the context of showing the many years of the process as much as possible, faithfully, in its entirety and in context, it probably could not have been done any better than this. I am satisfied, albeit with minor reservations. [KVIFF 2019] (29/06/2019)