Disc Reviews

Le Mani Sulla Città (Hands Over The City) Blu-ray Review

• 4th Apr 2014

During the Second World War and most certainly after the war a movement or style emerged in Italy that became known as neo-realism. Perhaps the most important or arguably the best of these was Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thieves (1948), a simple tale of a postman looking for his stolen bike, for without it he is unable to work. Naturally, as with all styles it would eventually have its day. Le Mani Sulla Città (Hands Over the City) takes this style to a different level with its own brand of social realism. Although the film stars a Hollywood actor in Rod Steiger, there is no one single main actor, but rather a clash of political ideas, one represented by Steiger’s ambitious, egotistical architect and developer, Nottola and the other by the far left councillor, De Vita (Carlo Fermariello), a real life communist councillor who had a lot of political sway in post war Naples. Steiger had only really starred in one film to date, his interpretation of Al Capone (1959), a very underrated film with a powerhouse performance from Steiger, but would go through the 1960s playing a heavy lead in a number of very important films.

The film opens with an aerial shot over the city as the helicopter films the new developments taking place. Needless to say WWII had only ended less than 20 years previously and developers soon moved into create new cities and a new form of brutal social housing appeared through Italian and French cities. This is also to be seen in such films as Pasolini’s Mama Roma (1962), set in a Rome suburb in a place already beginning to look like a bleak and alien urban landscape. But this is Naples, a Neapolitan city already gaining a reputation for its urban sprawl and crime ridden areas populated by an underclass (Pasolini had also portrayed the ghettoes of his home city in his first film, Accatone, 1961). Over these shots of the city and the credits the music score by Piero Piccioni is also modern with its leading bass line and piano underscore, an edgy score that permeates throughout the film. This is also something different from anything gone before; as Pasquale Iannone makes clear in his essay booklet to accompany the disc, normally shots of Naples would be accompanied by a mandolin score.

The next shots are of developers gathered around a table with a large model of a new estate being built. Amongst this group is Nottola, blending into the group. He comes to the fore following a devastating event. Whilst workmen are drilling deep into the ground, their heavy works shake an older Neapolitan building in a squalid part of town leading to the buildings collapse. There are two fatalities and one seriously injured boy. However, Nottola defends himself and runs for mayor of the city, pitting himself against a left wing opposition and supported by the old guard of the right. But the film presents more than black and white, good guys and bad guys. Although Nottola is clearly a greedy man, he also believes in what he is doing. In a keynote speech he defends that he is providing people with modern, clean housing where each apartment has its own bathroom and improved sanitation. But he is missing the fact that he is putting profit before people in his egotistical ambitions which the left wing De Vita tries to expose and beat in elections.

Not since The Fountainhead (1949) had megalomania of the architect and developer been portrayed so strongly and this film does it in spades making for one of the truly great political films. There is a documentary style to Rosi’s film, a clearly very politically engaged director with some starkly shot cinematography by Gianni di Venanzo, beautifully brought out by Eureka’s print of the disc. The black and photography is stunning in most shots in the film – the collapse of the apartment block is shocking in its almost documentary style. While there are not many contextualizing extras on the disc, the accompanying in booklet puts some great context into the film in this, until now little seen Italian classic. Hurray for Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series with this film.

Chris Hick