Review: Bella Mafia
DVD: Bella Mafia (1997)
Sicilian Mafiosi Don Luciano (Dennis Farina) and his wife Graziella (Vanessa Redgrave) live in Sicily. Their son Michael (Michael Hayden) has an affair with Sophia (Nastassja Kinski), leaving her pregnant but unmarried. After Luciano refuses to traffic drugs, American mob boss Carolla (Tony Lo Bianco) has Michael killed.
Based on Lynda La Plante’s novel, Bella Mafia is a made-for-TV movie almost like a condensed Soap. However this really is quite a different bottle of olive oil when you look at the cast (Dennis Farina, Vanessa Redgrave, Nastassja Kinski, Jennifer Tilly, Illeana Douglas, & James Marsden). They (especially Franco Nero) elevate this from your normal ‘over the top’ television drama to a well acted, if ‘soapy’ mini series, but there’s nothing wrong with that! (says the diehard Dallas fan).
The very beginning of the film features the incandescent Nastassja Kinski frolicking in the sea, followed shortly by an Oscar winning weeping session from Ms Redgrave, while the story itself revolves mainly around the women of the family shagging and revenge-killing and spans 2 generations. This is one of those ‘blockbusting’ interweaving stories that takes us through angst, love, revenge, incest (yes incest) and . .. to tell you more would give the whole plot away and believe me, if you like these old-school, TV emotional fests as I do, then look no further, it’s 167 mins of Saturday afternoon bliss.
Review by Tina (co-host of 60 Minutes With) from a disc kindly supplied by Network On Air.