Cinema Wednesdays - Special edition: Gangsters in film - Antoine Bernhard
In 1993, after almost thirty years as an actor, De Niro took on the role of director for the first time in his career. In Once upon a time in the Bronx, He pushes this feat to the limit, taking on one of the three main roles in his own film. The performance is remarkable, and so is the film. Let's take a look at one of only two films directed by a Hollywood giant.
We're in New York, in the Bronx, in the early 1960s. The Fordham neighborhood, inhabited mainly by the descendants of Italian immigrants, lives to the rhythm of the Sicilian mafia. One day, while playing in the street, young Calogero, son of the honest Lorenzo Anello (Robert De Niro), witnesses a murder. When questioned by the police, he refuses to denounce the murderer. The murderer, local mafia boss Sonny (Chazz Palminteri), is impressed by the boy, and decides to take him under his protection. We then follow the story of a young child, then a teenager in search of role models, in an uncertain world where racism is expressed with ever-increasing violence.
The structure of the scenario seems simple. On one side, the hero: Lorenzo. As a man of virtue, he rejects dirty money as well as compromises with the mafia, and suffers from seeing his son get closer to the mafia. «You want to see a real hero? Look at the one who gets up every morning, goes to work and looks after his family. That's heroism,» he tells his son. Opposite him, the anti-hero: Sonny. In the man who may look like a soulless kingpin, there's actually a deeply endearing character. A true Machiavellian, he makes himself feared, because «fear,» he says, "is more enduring than love."
Yet her relationship with Calogero is one of father-son love. In this way, the richness of the characters belies any form of Manichaeism. Lorenzo and Sonny both have the boy's best interests at heart. And because the boy grows up between these two models, two antagonistic yet necessary forces, the film reaches tragic depths. Its strength lies in the fact that it prevents us from deciding in favor of just one camp. Because neither side is clearly condemned or adored, we are better able to enter into a complex story.
A social fresco
It is interesting to look at the genesis of Once upon a time in the Bronx (A Bronx Tale). The screenplay is based on a film adaptation of the eponymous play written by Chazz Palminteri himself. The son of Italian immigrants - like De Niro - he recounts his childhood in the New York of the sixties. Between mafia and honest people, «niggers» and whites, joie de vivre and extreme violence, the film is a veritable social fresco - in the tradition of Scorsese's great feature films, often starring De Niro.
The soundtrack is a major element. All the music is generally drawn from the musical culture of the time, and each community represented in the film listens to its own particular kind of music. Music also contributes to the film's sometimes ironic and comic tone. Such is the case in the bar scene where Sonny and his friends severely beat up a group of bikers. While the scene is relatively violent, the musical background is much less so, as the viewer hears the band The Moongloows the famous title: Ten commandments of love.
Finally, it's fair to say that the strength and relevance of this film today is its non-ideological nature. While it tackles such sensitive subjects as racism and the notions of good and evil, its refusal to be Manichean leaves the viewer free to explore his or her own conscience, while offering an incomparable social fresco of a time and place we probably know nothing about.
Write to the author: antoine.bernhard@leregardlibre.com
Cover image: © Tribeca Productions
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