Salvo (2013) Reviews

• European art at its best

  Tuco-232013-10-04

  Salvo synopsis may seem like a tear jerker melodrama, but it isn't. This is the European art film at its best. Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai may come to your minds, but even that is like blockbuster in comparison with Salvo. Long shots, minimum of words, no music - that is Salvo. Salvo Mancuso. He is defined by his acts, not his words. The plot is revealed slowly and if you are right kind of spectator, you will enjoy calm atmosphere of this movie. There are some great sequences I won't spoil. This is definitely that kind of film where directors precisely thanked about each shot. This is sad film about lonely people who "live their lives like a rats" (a sentence one of the character says in the movie). If you want to be enjoyed, look somewhere else. if you like film noir, slow films and films where you see the creators know their work with images and sound, this might be for you.

• Very long, near wordless drama of existential self-discovery

  gradyharp2014-12-20

  SALVO as written and directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza has won many awards. It is a lengthy (2 long hours) story (or view) of the life of a hit man and the reason it succeeds is the magnetic performance of Saleh Bakri ('The Band's Visit') who magnetizes the story with his penetrating gaze. Salvo (Saleh Bakri) is a bodyguard and hit man for a Mafioso. After foiling an attack on his employer, Salvo hunts down the man who organized it – Renato - and encounters the man's blind sister, Rita (Sara Serraiocco). She causes Salvo to question himself and his existence. The camera focuses on close ups of Rita's face as she tries to disguise her fear by singing. Salvo performs the murder of Renato off screen while we see Rita's reaction. Salvo places his fingers over Rita's eyes and due to some sort of unexplained phenomena, cures her sight. She starts to see forms and shapes, but as the film goes on, her sight improves. Salvo buries Renato and keeps Rita in an empty factory for her security and the remainder of the film shows the transition of a solitary professional hit-man to a man who becomes vulnerable to human connection, offering an allegory with the inexplicable restoration of Rita's sight. The film is in Italian, is long, dark and very atmospheric. Dialogue is scarce but well chosen. This is a mood piece with a message and well worth waiting it out to understand that message. Grady Harp, December 14

• Art House Cinema Meets Action/Gangster Genre (slight spoilers)

  PoppyTransfusion2013-10-21

  Salvo is an enforcer and hit-man for a local mafioso known simply as 'Boss'. Following an attempt to ambush and murder Boss, Salvo hunts down the perpetrator, a local criminal rival, and kills him. Unfortunately the perpetrator, Renato, has a sight-impaired sister, Rita, who witnesses her brother's death. Rather than kill Rita Salvo takes her hostage and hides her in a disused quarry, which is the burial site for Boss's multiple victims. What follows is a slow and intense process by which we see Salvo, an inscrutable individual of few words, redeem himself. His redemption is accompanied by Rita regaining her sight, in a way that is not made clear and felt unsatisfactory to me. Nonetheless there was sufficient integrity in the film that I accepted this change, which feeds the theme of redemption. The film is without incidental music/soundtrack and has lots of long shots with abstract visuals, especially where the intent is to recreate the world as Rita perceives it. This was very well done. The colour palette is mostly blue/grey/black with bursts of white. All these choices create a brooding and reflective mood. They evoke well how Salvo and Rita might feel in their situations and predicaments. There are moments of quiet humour too though these serve to underline the intense concentration of the film rather than disrupt it. Led by Saleh Bakri the minimal cast were superb. The actress who plays Rita was most effective as a blind/sight-impaired character. The scene where Bakri as Salvo does a reconnoitre of Renato's house while simultaneously avoiding and stalking Rita was superb. Rita's slow realisation that she is not alone in the house and in danger was so well conveyed by the actress, Sara Serraiocco. This was my favourite scene closely followed by the final one, about which I will say no more. The plot suggests one type of film but in actuality it is an independent art house product. Insular and focused on character development where mood and lighting are more prevalent than words and as significant. It is slow, detailed and demands a type of attention from the viewer not required by most action films.

• For an excellent movie, dialogue is not a must

  rdoliva2014-07-19

  I knew i wanted to have it the moment it ended. I watched this movie almost a year ago and was patiently waiting for it to come out on DVD. An excellent movie that through great acting, photography and story it allows one to feel the streets, the fear, the adrenaline, the suspense and an unexpected love of life for someone that lives in epicenter of the mafia world. It certainly does not fit the classic Hollywood movie mold and happy / hopeful ending. If this is what you're looking for you better skip this movie. This is a more thoughtful and intuitive movie that requires you to have the same insight as when you're watching an old allegoric painting. In this sense, i feel appreciation for this movie demands quite a lot from the spectator, but richly rewards him. This is the kind of movie i love. Acting from Bakri and Serraiocco is excellent. I enjoyed very much the way Grassadonia and Piazza tell this story. Italian cinema has produced some excellent movies recently and i think they present a superb alternative to the mainstream Hollywood products. Directors like Sorrentino and Giordana, together with actors like Favino, Servillo, Stuart and Placido amongst others have created top quality movies.

• Killer bodyguard discovers his humanity

  maurice_yacowar2014-01-05

  Salvo, written and directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, is a harsh, sombre drama of existential self-discovery. In its long wordless scenes and its omission of any music not sourced in the scene it's bleak, gripping, a work of atmosphere rather than articulated point. This is the artsiest Noir I can remember. One key lies in the hero's name. Salvo (Saleh Bakri) is a round of ammunition, a tool or instrument, but he turns into a responsible human individual when he transcends his role as bodyguard and hit man. As in the Camusian ethic, the muscular enigma has no self other than what we infer from his action. The film's first two tours de force establish the hero's potential development. The first is his defence of his boss against another gangster's attack. That violent action is followed by the long suspenseful scene in the assailant boss's house, where Salvo haunts the enemy's blind sister Rita (Sara Serraiocco). Ironically, the blind girl can still count out money to allot as payouts. As Rita unwittingly softens Salvo he brings his howling dog in from the outside and declines his solitary formal meals to join his dry-cleaner/landlord over tins of tuna in the kitchen. He leaves his room to sleep on his paid hosts' sofa. He beats up a colleague for disdaining the radio music Salvo associates with Rita. Ultimately he dies to give her a new life. When Rita realizes Salvo's sacrifice for her, her lost sight apparently returns. Her eyes move together and her tics are gone. Here realism gives way to theme. His new insight and broader vision than his own survival seem to spread to her. It doesn't make sense neurologically but it does as presiding metaphor. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.