Already released in Italy last October – where it was both a critical and a box office success – sleek crime noir Romanzo criminale (Crime Novel) is part of the Official Competiton here in Berlin. Romanzo... tells the story of a small gang of boys who become the toast of the Roman underworld by their own doing. Of course, in their line of business, success lasts only as long as competitors can be kept quiet or dead – which is never long enough. Full of ruthless killings, blood, violence and sex, the story may have a fiction-inspired title and attitude, it is nevertheless based on real events.

Based on a celebrated novel of the same name by co-screenwriter Giancarlo De Cataldo, director Michele Placido has assembled an all-star cast of mostly Roman actors, including the three main kingpins of the gang: Il Libanese (“The Lebanese”, played by Pierfrancesco Favino), Il Dandi (“The dandy”, Claudio Santamaria) and Il Freddo (“Ice”, Kim Rossi Stuart). Each character has its own dedicated chapter in the film, though of course their stories are interconnected and Romanzo criminale is one continuous narrative.

What elevates Michele Placido's above many other, more generic stories is its sense of history, which may in part be due to the work of Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli on the screenplay, the same team that was responsible for the entwining of personal and national history in the celebrated TV-series La meglio gioventù (The Best of Youth). Placido also uses archive footage in the film that, rather than breaking the fluidity of the narrative or creating jarring tonal differences, enhances and deepens the story as it hints at connections between terrorists, politicians, the secret service, the mafia and other criminal organisations such as the one headed by Il Libanese.

The film’s insistent use of close-ups and a slick technical package (including cinematography, score and editing) give the film an edge, and there is not a bad performance to be found, except for the weak turn of Italian Shooting Star Riccardo Scamarcio, whose ruthless teen killer Il nero (“Black”) lacks the necessary gravitas to compensate for his wiry frame and pimpled face.

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