{"id":7381,"date":"2013-12-29T02:17:28","date_gmt":"2013-12-29T07:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7381"},"modified":"2013-12-29T02:18:48","modified_gmt":"2013-12-29T07:18:48","slug":"dvd-sack-of-rome-the-oro-zoloto-1992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7381","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Sack of Rome, The \/ Oro \/ Zoloto (1992)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>S<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Good\/ DVD Extras: Standard<\/p>\n

Label: One 7 Movies \/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: October 8, 2013<\/p>\n

Genre: Historical Drama \/ Erotica<\/p>\n

Synopsis: A renowned painter must cope with repeated humiliations after an invading Germanic force invades his town and takes over his home and lover in 1527 Italy.<\/p>\n

Special Features: Stills Gallery.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Franco Nero took a gamble in this historical drama, a rare Russian-Italian co-production, and he largely succeeded in playing Gabriele de Poppi, a highly regarded painter \/ sculptor whose foolish belief that artists will be respected and safe from the brutality of an invading German force results in the mass raping of his lover Gesuina (Vittoria Belvedere), the murder of her twin brother, and his own incarceration during the spring of 1527.<\/p>\n

Walking the same line between drama, physical and sexual brutality, and exploitive nudity in Paul Verhoeven\u2019s own Medieval sadofest Flesh + Blood <\/strong>(1985), Oro<\/strong> is perhaps a more satisfying variation in the despots-who-defile-nobility genre because writer \/ director Fabio Bonzi balances the politics of religious leaders and their enormous egos with the ground-level brutality of hired mercenaries who transform a civic environment into utter carnage.<\/p>\n

Bonzi offers up a little gore \u2013 a cannonball decapitation is perhaps unintentionally funny because of the sheer absurdity of such a clean shot \u2013 but the more intriguing aspects to this borderline exploitive production (which clearly took some inspiration from Caligula<\/strong>\u2019s rampant nudity and sex scenes) are the psychological battles and shifting levels of complacency among its central characters.<\/p>\n

De Poppi\u2019s naivete in believing he\u2019ll be unaffected by the occupying force moves him from a place of privilege to a virtual slave being led through town by a thuggish Captain (Aleksandr Abdulov), and forced to watch his love be repeatedly gang-raped before she settles on becoming the Captain\u2019s \u2018love\u2019 to survive the occupation long enough before she can exact a little bloody revenge. The Captain also changes from a greasy, unmannered thug to the villa\u2019s self-appointed master, attired in gilded dress and forcing de Poppi to craft a portrait in which the thug is transformed into a seated king, with his obedient queen seated by his feet.<\/p>\n

The leader of the invading German force \u2013 ironically, the Pope\u2019s cousin – attempts to maintain decorum in front of de Poppi, but his influence is more managerial than absolute, since he realizes the only way to keep his band of despots content is to let them ravage the city, exhaust their unspent energy, and decompress. Rome\u2019s Pope remains safely ensconced behind citadel walls, and when a resolution is finally brokered, the emphasis is on monetary compensation for destruction rather than human lives.<\/p>\n

De Poppi\u2019s situation improves somewhat by the film\u2019s midpoint, yet he too undergoes an emotional transformation, abandoning grant poetic statements of art in favour of dour imagery of corruption, and instead of a formal portrait of the Captain and his queen, de Poppi crafts an organic depiction of a fleshy flower from Hell. (The painting is always glimpsed in part but never fully revealed, which is a disappointment for viewers.)<\/p>\n

The problem with Oro<\/strong> is a rather uneven tone that results from a m\u00e9lange of operatic acting, cynical dialogue, grievous emotional and physical trauma, and the clearly exploitive material in which pretty Belvedere exposes herself and writhes in revolting rape scenes filmed from her POV, but later gyrates like a pleased concubine in the film\u2019s prolonged sex scenes. Perhaps Bonzi, a former art director, wanted a marriage of exploitation and political critique, but the grungy elements tend to overshadow the film\u2019s genuine virtues.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also a novice in arranging kinetic scenes, and although this is a beautifully detailed production, the camera angles in several action scenes are often a few degrees off, rendering combat footage a little phony. Bonzi\u2019s forte lies in slow camera movements, tracking in and around de Poppi\u2019s loft-styled villa, and in the contrast between its ornate d\u00e9cor and the chaos after the thugs have smashed much to bits.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a pair of strange nightmare sequences: de Poppi is tormented by badly backlit visions in his home; and guilt from a young girl murder literally transforms an older thug into a fetid man, physically scarring him before collapses in bed after her ghost appears in a hazy vision.<\/p>\n

One 7 Movies\u2019 well-worn fullscreen source features the longer Italian version (the Russian cut runs 85 mins.). The amber hues of Mikhail Agranovich\u2019s elegant cinematography still come through, but this isn\u2019t the most ideal print source. The film was either filmed in 1.33:1, or composed for home video and cable TV exhibition, as everything remains snugly within the TV safe realm. The mono mix is adequate, and Tommaso Vittorini\u2019s score is most successful when it stays away from heavy bombast (generally reserved for the Germanic rape-and-pillage theme).<\/p>\n

Besides a stills gallery, there are no liner notes detailing the curious history of this co-production, nor its charismatic cast, and the DVD\u2019s cover shot isn\u2019t illustrative of Nero\u2019s character (and may be a stock shot from a different period film).<\/p>\n

Fabio Bonzi\u2019s only other effort as writer-director is Eden<\/strong> \/ Casa Eden<\/strong> (2004). Vittoria Belvedere soon drifted to several TV productions, but she later co-starred with Nero in the 1996 TV series The Return of Sandokan<\/strong> \/ Il ritorno dei Sandokan<\/strong> (1996).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2013 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB<\/a><\/p>\n

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Vendor Search Links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" \"\"—New movie releases on iTunes<\/a>\"\"
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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0S<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ S . Film: Good\/ DVD Transfer: Good\/ DVD Extras: Standard Label: One 7 Movies \/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: October 8, 2013 Genre: Historical Drama \/ Erotica Synopsis: A renowned painter must cope with repeated humiliations after an invading Germanic force invades his town and takes over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[2402,2401,1389,2399,2400],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1V3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7408,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381\/revisions\/7408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}