The Sweet and the Bitter (second feature)

click on the images to download them in high res

The Sweet and the Bitter (Il dolce e l'amaro)

The Sweet and the Bitter (Il dolce e l'amaro)

The Sweet and the Bitter (Il dolce e l'amaro)

original title:

Il dolce e l'amaro

directed by:

screenplay:

cinematography:

editing:

costume design:

production:

distribution:

country:

Italy

year:

2007

film run:

98'

format:

35mm - colour

release date:

05/09/2007

The film begins in the early 80’s: Saro Scordia thinks that “Cosa Nostra” is a great thing, something that deserves his respect. Gaetano Butera, a Mafioso of rank, sets his eyes on that poor and bare-footed boy who is brilliant, smart and brave and induces him to think that if he shows his mettle he will join the high ranks of Mafia. Hence Saro starts out as a criminal with the first robberies and the first stints in the racket of protection money: for him it is a kind of intoxication that convinces him that he is different from ordinary men and drives him crazy: money, women, respect, all things that a poor guy like him has never had. But in his life there is a special place for Ada, a girl Saro has been in love with since he was a very young boy. Ada is as old as him but she seems already a woman who reciprocates his passion in cheap hotels but who does not want to marry him because she refuses to be the wife of a Mafioso. And this drives Saro nuts: how can she love him but at the same time refuse him? He tries to keep away from her, to ignore her, to forget her. In the end he will even marry another woman but nevertheless he will never manage to get her out of his head. Ada is his only love but she is not right for him, because he knows that Ada cannot close her eyes pretending not to see what he does for a living. According to his distorted morality, she is the “wrong” woman” but nevertheless she cannot forget her. She represents the feminine, relentless and subversive element in the man-dominated world of Cosa Nostra. In the meantime, Saro “works his way up”. He is ordered to commit a murder in Milan: the target is a drug trafficker who committed a slight: his prize will be the official affiliation to Cosa Nostra. But the murder is not the act of courage that Saro had always imagined. It is a simple act of blundering, dirty, brutal and inhumane violence. Looking in the eyes that poor guy who is dying, Saro looses all his resolve. That unseemly and undignified death that he has inflicted following somebody else’s order on a person that he did not know starts to shatter all his convictions and beliefs. 4