{"id":27706,"date":"2019-11-20T20:07:09","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T19:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=27706"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T21:30:07","slug":"the-traitor-the-tragic-comedy-of-the-mafia-and-italia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/cinema\/films\/the-traitor-the-tragic-comedy-of-the-mafia-and-italia\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00abThe Traitor\u00bb: the tragi-comedy of the Mafia and Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cinema Wednesdays - Loris S. Musumeci<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In tragi-comedy<\/em>, There are tragedies and comedies. In fact, if the mafia is a source of tragedy, there doesn't seem to be anything very comic about it. In cinema, and in the arts in general, we know how to arrange reality to suit a scenario. We know how to transform a banal life into a spectacle. In the case of Traitor<\/em>, director Marco Bellocchio doesn't fix reality and doesn't tackle a banal figure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

He simply romanticizes, as he should. He magnifies the features, playing on the permanent exaggeration of the Sicilians. Some scenes come close to being theatrical. The film has been criticized for this, but it also shows the lightness of the Mafia world, which suffocates its conscience under the cloak of folklore and tradition. The fictionalized biography of boss<\/em> repentant Tommaso Buscetta shows us that behind the laughter and grotesque cries, there is only tragedy. And one man's regrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tommaso Buscetta, a portrait<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Before talking about the film itself, it's best to know who we're dealing with. Tommaso Buscetta was born in the Palermo of 1928, which had neither recovered from its annexation by Italy in 1861 nor from the poverty of the First World War. Sicily, a land of misery. Sicily is also said to be the land of the Mafia. Contrary to the ideals of Italian unity, the State is present on this island only on paper. The organizations take care of order and their so-called justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you come from the poorest class in Sicily, there are three ways out. Leave, join the orders or take part in these local organizations<\/em>. Young Tommaso, a poor man among the poor, is one of those ambitious people who have decided not to lead the same hard life as their fathers. Tommaso loves Sicily too much to leave, just as he loves women too much to imagine celibacy. There's only one option left. He's not even twenty yet, and he's already sworn lifelong loyalty to the Mafia, signing his blood on a holy image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He becomes a \u00abman of honor\u00bb, believing himself invested with the mission of protecting the widow and the orphan. But he's not naive, and easily gives up on the ideal he may have once sincerely set for himself. Down with the widow, nothing to do with the orphan, all that matters is money, power and, above all, women. Tommaso Buscetta kills and extorts as do all Mafiosi, who are nothing other than criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A natural leader, he ranks within the Cosa Nostra organization. Then the family war broke out, and Cosa Nostra was born. They want Buscetta and his gang<\/em> who refuse to identify with the new Cosa Nostra. He's certainly learned to be a bastard, but his experience as a father imposes limits that can be broken. No, he won't be taking part in the business<\/em> of which the Mafia organization is bursting at the seams: drugs. Because he suffers from the inside, because his son is the victim of the business he himself set up, and this is unbearable for him, it destroys him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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