In 1963 "Le mani sulla cittí" (Hands Over the City), directed by Francesco Rosi (Salvatore Giuliano, Christ Stopped at Eboli, The Truce) was, no doubt, a tough look at corruption in building public housing in the post-WWII boom. As elsewhere, especially the United States, "slum clearance" took no account of the bonds within neighborhoods as older buildings were condemned, torn down, and replaced by concrete blocks into which those displaced by government-backed bulldozers did not return. Rosi shows lower-class women in an uproar about eviction and about the collapse of an inhabited building, but primarily focuses on Naples city-councilmen.

There are no heroes. The silver-tongued leftist critic (Carlo Fermariello, a real-life leftist politician essentially playing himself) is too in love with the sound of his own voice and makes no attempt to do anything to change the corrupt process by which fellow councilman Edoardo Nottola buys public land cheaply, gets expedited permits, and builds modern housing.

An inquiry into the collapse of the building next to the one that one of Nottola's companies was demolishing is narrowed to an investigation into whether the government agencies did their jobs according to the rules. Authority was fragmented between many agencies and there was no requirement that anyone check whether there was a common wall between a building being demolished and the one next to it, so the inquiry finds that everything was done properly.

Meanwhile, the sweaty Nottola seeks more power over regulation of building. Rod Steiger (dubbed into Italian, though he allegedly spoke Italian during the filming) commands the screen, even though he is playing a gangster who is not a natural politician or even a charismatic gangster (a fine distinction in Italian politics, long dominated by the unholy alliance of the Roman Catholic Church, the Mafia, and the Christian Democratic Party). The leader of the rightist party whom Nottola betrays loathes him and the leader of the centrist party knows that he is becoming mayor after making a Faustian pact with a devil and is not so foolish as to trust Nottola, but does his part in getting Nottola elected commissioner.

"Slum clearance" yielded large profits for some dubious characters (and not just in Italy), but other than Steiger being frustrated at having to get votes, get elected, tolerate being criticized, etc., there's no real drama. There is certainly no catharsis for the viewer, though Nottola is in slightly better humor at the end, as the cornerstone for a new edifice is being blessed. Nottola knows what he wants and hot to go about getting it, and there is no Hollywood hero on hand to thwart him. I think that John Sayles's "City of Hope" (1991) is much more dramatically compelling a portrait of big-city construction projects and corruption in the contracting process. I guess that "The machine grinds on" has to be the ending.

Gianni Di Venanzo's indoor cinematography is fine, but the outdoor cinematography is beautifully composed and razor-sharp in definition (with the kind of great transfer to DVD we take for granted from Criterion though rarely get it from other DVD-makers). It seems to me as stylized as the compositions in Antonioni movies of the same era. Di Venanzo, in fact, shot Antonioni's (1958) "Il Grido" and (1963) "L'eclisse." He also lensed "8 1/2" and "Juliet of the Spirits" for Fellini. and "Salvatore Giuliano" for Rosi before dying of hepatitis at the age of 46.

Rosi returned to Naples to make a docudrama sequel in 1993, "Neapolitan Diary." This feature-length film is included on a second disc of the Criterion edition, along with other bonus features.

Steiger had already played Al Capone and other gangsters and would go on to play Mussolini and Napoleon... and "The Pawnbroker" (1964).


© 2008, Stephen O. Murray




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