Very well executed

Not even bad in a good way

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is a Mafia film with a difference, one with spiritual/metaphysical dimensions (an unusual take on the subject matter as said by others). 'The Godfather' also shows how Michael Corleone is corrupted. I preferred 'Black Souls' to another 'art-house' exploration of the Mafia, 'Gomorrah': which was also about the Mafia as a business, the business of death & its noxious influence on society. 'Black Souls' is more intimate, as it revolves around one family, three very different brothers in personality, & how it self-destructs.I did find the settings initially confusing, it moves from metropolitan Milan (modern Italy) to the countryside, to an older peasant Italy with codes rooted in the hills & countryside, actually the South (I thought it was the north still at first). A place almost medieval in tone & customs, like clans brokering marriages to cement alliances or heal feuds.The film is about families & business, how sentiment & business should operate separately but are fatally bound; about Christian (Catholic) faith & despair (One of the brothers is called Luciano -light, the one not involved with the Mafia). The opening scene, a drugs deal involving the two brothers still involved in criminality (The charming, masculine Luigi, the bespectacled taciturn Rocco) sets the tone for the film. In flashy Milan, they negotiate a drugs deal with a new business partner, who has clearly eliminated their previous supplier. The brothers are unsentimental & accept the new arrangement as businessmen. Ironically, as the film progresses, the brothers become marginalised themselves by fellow village families who act out of the very same self-interest after they fail to apologise to the local Godfather. 'Black Souls' is about a family on the brink of self-destruction due to a family grudge being resumed. Emotions take precedence over reason. Luciano has borne the murder of his father by continuing to live & work in the community ruled by the Godfather who had him murdered. An act of vandalism & disrespect re-opens old wounds which escalate into forces beyond the family's & Luciano's control.The title of the film, for me, refers to a Mass which happens towards the end of this gripping film. It appears to suggest that 'you are born a sinner', but one is damned if you are born into a Mafia family because you will belong to its inescapable vendettas & blood feuds.Luciano, perhaps the most sympathetic character in the film, is drawn against his will & by his son's recklessness into his own personal hell. 'Black Souls', meaning men who are damned, condemned from birth by a diabolic bargain. There are some great scenes in this film which probably illuminate the themes of the book. Such as when the charismatic brother lies with his lap-dancer girlfriend in bed. She is naked, her lithe body covered in ink (tattooed characters). It is as if Luigi has made a literal contract with the Devil/bargain with criminality in exchange for his soul/life.It's a rich film, memorable. It's also about the clash of the modern with the traditional, the city & the countryside, as portrayed by Rocco & his wife, Valeria, an outsider, who struggles to understand the men's local dialect &, by suggestion, the situation in which she finds herself. It is about men & women: as with any film about violence & its shocking aftermath, it is the women - mothers, sisters, wives, who must mourn.The ending shocks & resonates, of a man driven by grief & rage, to commit the only act he thinks can stop the never ending cycle of violence. His is a soul in torment.

But not the mafia movie I expected.Seems to take the concept of the Sopranos one step further (or rather a step down) It's a very nonviolent (for a gangster movie), and far more blue collar than Goodfellas isMakes the whole organization feel more grounded.I wonder if that's just the difference between the Italians and the Italian-Americans.Well-acted. I really like the performance from the guy playing Luciano, the dad trying to keep his son away from the path his brother is on. A hard sell cause Luciano's brother's got all the cool stuff and treats his nephew like a man. Must admit the story seems hard to follow. It's in Italian and the subtitles did not help. Plus the movie moves slower than expected.Overall, it's one of those films that pays off with a small emotional climb up as you get to know that characters and how they live capped off with a roller coaster ride that's very fulfilling.Recommend

Every few years an authentic Italian mafia film comes along, the last one being 2008's Gomorrah. Now we have Anime Nere; A slick, well made, taut and perfectly paced film about an unsung rise to power. It takes place deep within the crime underworld in a village outside of Milan. Grounded in realism and contains no superfluous love stories or unneeded fluff. Classic Mafia film moments and themes are handled deftly and with fresh eyes. The enormity of the film emerges only its its last few frames. People that idolize Scarface or The Godfather will have a new classic on their hands. Thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking cinema.

Last Saturday I went to see "Anime nere" at the London Film Festival with great expectation. In fact in August I had read a very positive review on La Repubblica newspaper. I must say it met completely my expectations, the movie is very well done, convincing and the light, the light is absolutely sublime. I like all the actors performances. The director told us, after the projection, that they were a mix of professional and not professional ones (very difficult to distinguish for the high quality of their performances). The plot is very intense, but not in a bad way. The most disturbing scenes are not shown on screen, but left to the audience imagination. The movie is set in a rural village in Calabria, south of Italy, where the three brothers were born and where Luciano, the elder, is still living with his family. The two younger brothers, instead, had moved to Milan in the north of Italy few years back.Highly recommended, a potential candidate to next year foreign Grammy awards!!