(Hands over the City)
Directed by Francesco Rosi
100 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles

Just look around you, and notice how our city of Amsterdam is being destroyed. Its old spirit of Independence, there for ages, is being whisked away by commerce, city planners and big business. People with less money are being pushed out into areas that were never even considered to be part of Amsterdam. Faceless mafia-like corporations, so-called 'asset managers', are buying all of the affordable spaces and keep them empty, waiting to cash in later. It's called speculation, and it's only about making maximum profit. Corporations, in fact, are non-human entities and therefore easily operate in inhumane ways. Every person becomes a number, a statistic, and if lives are ruined then it's written-off as collateral damage.

If you see any of the above happening in our fair city, then you will have a grasp of what this movie is about. Set in Naples, the story kicks off when a working-class apartment building suddenly collapses. The narrative unfolds as an investigation unravels a complex web of corruption, secret deals, bribes and blackmail connected to government officials and wealthy land developers. New 'zoning laws' are key to the process, because they take the power away from the people and put it in the hands of the wealthy. As you can see—at least in my eyes—this entire scenario remains as relevant as ever... and this flick could be easily set in any contemporary European capital today. The same exploitation, the same blackmail, the same bribes, the same lobbyists.

This savage film belonged to a socio-political genre referred to as the "cine-investigation'— movies that criticized the government and exposed their hidden deals and under-the-table tactics. Can you imagine? Boy, we could use a revival of that wave of filmmaking today. The acting is riveting, with American powerhouse Rod Steiger as the financial vampire at the center of the intrigue. The hard-hitting soundtrack was concocted by Piero Piccioni, one of my favorite composers. Many have pointed out this flick was a big influence on many subsequent crime dramas stylistically, including Coppola's The Godfather. 

This will be a high-definition screening.