brilliant actors, brilliant editing

A different way of telling a story

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Bellocchio's variation on "If…", is even more surreal and bleak than Lindsay Anderson's vision of a boy's school as a metaphor for larger society. Here it's a school of spoiled rich out of control kids stashed away by their families (fathers mostly) in a school run by dark hearted priests. It's hard to tell which group is worse, as both tussle for control of the school and each other. Beautifully shot (as are all Bellocchio's films). The film has the Church clearly starting to lose it's corrupted influence, but it's not like we have much to be cheery about in the thought of these rich young thugs running the world either. The surprising thing is how much of this is quite funny. The themes may be depressing, but the individual characters and their actions are often darkly comic (sometimes too much for me, one boy's voice has been dubbed with something that sounds like Mel Blanc created it for a cartoon. Amusing at first, then grating). Some will hate this – it is repetitive and grim and adolescent. But then, the young Bellocchio might argue, so is the world and those who run it.