How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Roberta Torre's "To Die For Tano" is a film about the life of small-time Italian mob boss Tano Guarrasi. But with cartoonish sound effects, musical numbers ranging from techno to rap, and Italian women dancing with swordfish on their heads, this is not your average gangster flick.
Running at only 80 minutes, this audacious story exchanges clichés for quirky, satirical fun. Writer-director Torre, a native Italian, opens the film with a documentary-style introduction from the narrator, a real-life relative of Guarrasi. From then on, we learn about Guarassi's life — and death — through a series of musical performances, interview-like confessions and grainy, black and white flashbacks.
What makes this film so different? For one thing, it's strange. Many scenes are similar to the animation sequences in Julie Taymor's "Frida," creating a surreal, eerie atmosphere. Throughout the movie, there's a recurring image of dangling skulls with bright yellow eyeballs swaying back and forth to ominous, ghostly music.
When one thinks of mafia and music coming together, one probably jumps to opera or tragic symphony, but "To Die for Tano" offers us a completely different perspective. An award-winning soundtrack written by the Neapolitan composer Nino D'Angelo consistently contributes to the film's outrageousness. Although D'Angelo is most recently known for songs from the Italian gangster movie "Gomorrah," his style with "Tano" is completely different. He experiments with Elvis-like rock 'n' roll, rap, and drum and bass electronica. You don't often see Italian men dancing under a disco ball in '70s attire, singing "We are the Mafia!" while blowing party favors.
One of the most perplexing things about this film is the question it poses: "Is it really okay for me to be laughing at the mafia right now?" It isn't exactly a humorous subject — it especially wasn't during the late 1980s, when gang wars consumed Italy — but Torre turns it around on us, ridiculing the topic while still addressing it with blunt realism.
No one in "To Die for Tano" is a professional actor. While walking through the streets of Palermo in search of a story, Torre fell upon Guarrasi's brother-in-law, who eventually helped her write the story and became the film's narrator. After finding close friends and relatives of the real Tano Guarrasi, Torre decided to build the movie around them and their experiences with him. With performances from real-life Italian housewives, bakers, peddlers, farmers and even pickpockets, the film is grounded in quirky authenticity. Guarrasi could not have been given a more naturalistic and genuine depiction.
Presenting us with astonishing visuals, alluring music, hysterical over-the-top dance numbers and an honest cast, Torre puts a sardonic yet enjoyable twist on this typically weighty genre. If nothing else, the film continually surprises.
"To Die For Tano" opens Friday, Feb. 12 at Cinema Village.
