Love and Bullets

In Naples, a mob boss's wife stages her husband's death. The only witness who knows is a young nurse, and men are sent to remove her. The hitman given the job lowers his gun when he sees she is his childhood love, and both sides come after them. The Manetti brothers directed. Giampaolo Morelli and Serena Rossi lead, with Claudia Gerini as the boss's wife. The film is a musical. The characters sing in the neomelodic pop tradition of Naples, and since that genre is already entangled with the city's criminal culture, the choice is not incidental. Action, comedy and song sit side by side in the same scene; a duet can begin in the middle of a chase. It was selected for competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2017. The following year it won five of its fifteen David di Donatello nominations and was named best film. It never found wide distribution outside Italy; being so tied to a local musical tradition is both its strength and its limit. Who it is for: viewers who like genre blends and musicals. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a realistic mob story; this is play from start to finish.