Obviously a “must see.”

The origins of the Camorra date back to the early 19th Century.  Over the years, what began as a loosely organized band of ex-convicts developed into a powerful force well beyond its stronghold in Naples. The Camorra’s influence stretches into virtually every continent including the United States. The FBI estimates that nearly 200 Camorra affiliates reside in this country, many of whom arrived in the past three decades.

Risi’s film revolves around the 1985 murder of journalist Giancarlo Siani (played by Libero de Rienzo), whose reporting about the ties between the Camorra and the local politicians led to his assassination.

It was shown as part of the New Italian Cinema series presented by the San Francisco Film Society.  The series continues until Sunday. (No, Italian film did not stop with Fellini, Bertolucci and Antonioni.)  The title Fortapàsc comes from a scene in which the mayor of Torre Annunziata – a violent Naples neighborhood — denounces a particularly bloody shootout between rival clans in broad daylight.

“This is not Fort Apache!” Mayor Cassano (Ennio Fantastichini) thunders from atop a makeshift stage at a small audience. It might as well be. 

One of the film’s most telling scenes comes when Siani arrives at a crumbling water park, an obvious boondoggle where a victim of the war between Camorra clans has been dumped. In another, Siani visits a dusty, decrepit camp where victims of the 1980 earthquake lived for years while the reconstruction money from the government was siphoned off by Camorra families and local politicians. The camp looks like the ancient ruins of a destroyed society instead of part of an industrialized, Democratic state.

The reality in Naples really is that bad, announced Risi Sunday evening at a sold-out showing of the film in San Francisco. Risi said organized crime has continued unabated since Siani was gunned down – despite a wave of crackdowns in the early 1990s and a spate of recent high profile arrests including women from the clan responsible for Siani’s murder.

The fear people live under is paralyzing, Risi said.  (We discussed some of this later so I am paraphrasing his English and my Italian.) Recently a Camorra capo was gunned down in front of a crowded bar. No one said a word and no one has stepped forward to identify the shooter although his face was captured on a security camera.

Risi didn’t mince words when he told the audience that the United States had a hand in spawning the modern-day mafia after a man asked how the organized crime syndicate originated. This isn’t the place for a long description, but essentially during World War II the Allies defeated (in the south) the Fascist/Nazi forces controlling Italy, occupied the southern end of the peninsula with devastating results in many cases and used mafia as go-betweens. I am not making this up: American mafia boss Lucky Luciano, for example, returned to Italy under the protection of the Allies during that time. Decisions made during the occupation set the stage for the mafia to thrive under Italian governance.

“This is the story of the struggle of people in Italy,” said an Italian emigrant Stefano Natoli at the Sunday night screening at the Embarcadero Center Cinema.

 “We’re talking about a lot of money and a big structure which will take a long time to fix,” said Natoli, who lives in San Francisco.

The lawlessness that Risi portrays and the dismal crumbling infrastructure evident throughout the film recalls Fort Apache the Bronx — another film that riffs on John Ford’s western (which comes out sounding like “Fort Apash” in the local accent).

An important subplot of the film is Siani’s drive to make it as a full-fledged journalist, giving the film the feel of an Italian version of All the Presidents Men. Except that Siani was killed on Sept. 25, 1985. He was 26. Risi said he too was at the receiving end of subtle Camorra intimidation after the film was released. Saviano has been under 24-hour police protection since its publication. Numerous reporters are likewise under guard. They are the journalists who bypass the voyeuristic reporting about mafia, which is responsible for the murder of nine journalists since 1960, according to Information Safety and Freedom. 

Fortapàsc and Gomorrah compliment each other because they take place 15 years apart and explore different stages and sides of the same problem. Gomorrah is a stark, unsentimental look at the crime syndicate from the inside. Fortapàsc uses Siani’s story to create an emotion connection. When Siani is killed outside of his family home the murder feels like a crime instead of a “hit” depicted in stylized Hollywood versions of the mafia.

The two films mostly avoid the stylized violence of The Godfather and Goodfellas (for starters) to show an ugly banality that is closer to the truth. However, some the characters in Fortapàsc seem like they were pulled straight out of central mafia casting for a Scorsese or Coppola film, which are in fact more popular in Italy than Italian movies, according to Risi.  Likewise, Risi has to make Siani likeable to provoke a reaction for the audience. He doesn’t make the character an angel (impossible when a reporter is the subject). But Siani still becomes a bit too saintly in the process.

Nonetheless, Fortapàsc provides a valuable multi-dimensional view of Italy that few outsiders have access to. “It is really difficult living there,” Risi said. 

For tickets, at $12.50 general, $10 for San Francisco Film Society members, and a full schedule, visit www.sffs.org.

It’s hard to see but the garage on the north side was full of Bears fans with their indoor tailgate parties set up . It was close to kickoff which might be why this guy decided he had enough of his mimosa and turned his champagne glass upside down over the bushes. CheersThe guy dressed head to toe in blue and gold stripes passing by that morning was the tip off that I had unsuspectedly wandered into Cal game territory on the wrong day.  Not that game day would normally concern me but I happened to be looking for parking that morning and the garages were off limits to non-football fans. The video explains why.

Right now I am counting the days until the New Italian Cinema series starts in San Francisco. First in line is “Fortapasc,” a film about a district in Naples nicknamed “Fort Apache” by Marco Risi. The last in the week-long series is “Vincere,” a film about the tragic (and I am not being hyperbolic here) first wife of Dictator Benito Mussolini whom Fascists tried to erase from history.

I am a fan of his earlier film, Good Morning, Night.

Tonight is the screening of Aoki at 8 p.m. at the Grand Lake Theater. The documentary is about the life of Richard Aoki, a third-generation Japanese American who became – the press release says – a founding member of the Black Panthers. This I did not know.

But the flick getting the attention right now is Black Dynamite, a blaxploitation spoof  playing at the Grand Lake Theater midnight Nov. 21.

The film is actually more than a spoof or a tribute. The director spliced in shots from an original 1974 blaxploitation movie called Mean Mother, which itself contained footage from a Spanish-Italian crime thriller El Hombre Que Vino Del Odio. That movie’s director just worked in a “black action movie plot” to bring the two together.

The title of a short film coming up on Nov. 17 also caught my attention: “Half Life of a Network News Anchor.” Good title for getting journalists’ attention. Price is right: $5 at the EXIT Theatre on Taylor Street in San Francisco. The program includes other pithy titles such as Global Laundry, Felipe Does Dylan, The Shrine of Sheikh Nizam-ud-Din and, my second most favorite, Halloween with Condi Rice. I missed the company’s production of How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Lost My Virginity. But next year I will be sure to see The Most Notorious Woman and Lady of the ‘Loin.

Follow the money, as they say. For businesses participating in the city-wide open house visit http://shopoakland.com/events.html.
The theme is “We’re Here for You”.