K. Il bandito (2008) Online

What a stunning surprise! In the midst of a lackluster Los Angeles/Italia Film Fest, a genuine gem of a film. The story of Karlo the Venetian bandit is told in broad chronological strokes but with a passionate eye for the intimate, human details. The film is dominated by a strong visual landscape, a powerful score and extraordinary faces. Pierluigi Coppola a new name in the film world that I'm sure is here to stay plays the "K" of the title with an overwhelming sense of self. Coppola was present at the showing and I could never have guesses he was the same person I saw on the screen. He was dressed in punkish fashion with heavy dark eyeshadow. On the screen he is mesmerizing as is the rest of the cast. Lina Sastri, as the tragic mother is, quite simply, superb. She captures every moment she's in with an unsentimental earth shattering emotion and Martina Stella as the long suffering wife is a tragic waifish portrait of a woman in love with a man who's bound to drag her down with him. The film, announced for a 9:45 pm showing started at 11 pm but the theater was packed. The film received a richly deserved long heartfelt applause. Bravo!

I was privileged to assist at the first public screening of "K. Il Bandito" This fictional life of a Venetian bandit is told through an artist's eye with a remarkable disregard for all of the present trends. That is to say I've never seen a film quite like it. An emotional ride through an inedited, unknown and fascinating Venice. Martin Donovan, the director, makes his first Italian language film, without following any pre- existing guidelines. Before the screening, Donovan, introduced it to his cast saying:"The film is strange and imperfect like me but fortunately it has inherited your beauty" He wasn't kidding. The beauty of the film is sometimes breathtaking. The cast of mostly unknown actors is one of its most startling aspects. Pierluigi Coppola stars as the "K" of the title. He carries the film with the aplomb of a seasoned player. Physical, sensual, a sort of Mediterranean Errol Flynn with heartbreaking depth. His transformation throughout the film is not just convincing but deeply moving. Martina Stella, his wife, a ravishing presence that dives deep into the psyche of a character trapped in her love for a man destined to be defeated. Every character in the film is treated like a protagonist without ever detracting from the main story. Lina Sastri, as the mother, is another standout. She goes for her tragic prostitute with her humanity coming to the fore only when nobody can see her. The narrative is at times a bit jumpy, or at least that's what I thought then. Now what remains in my mind is a vivid recollection of the emotion in the faces that dominate the film, a powerful hunting score and a visceral need to see it again.

I've been hearing about this movie for months now, that's one of the reasons why I waited until 11 pm to see it - The film was announced for a 9:45 showing at the Hollywood Chinese Theater - It was worth the wait. The film is a cinematic poem from beginning to end. A passionate tale of almost everything. Almost should be the operative word because only death is achievable. Love stays at the door, betrayal is never consummated, Brazil is only an excuse. Karlo, our antihero, is a star in his community. He inspires loyalty although he is basically a weak and vain man. Pierluigi Coppola, the actor who plays him, is a star in his own right. Inhabiting the poetry with all its contradictions. Beautiful, ambiguous, sensual, cold. Just like in "Apartment Zero" and "Seeds Of Tragedy" Martin Donovan treats each one of his characters as "the character" when the camera is on them. Stunning close ups of a ravishing cast. My favorite moment the generational transition when the young bandits pass on the ball to their older selves. The images and the music have stayed with me and I suspect this is a movie I'll see again and again.

As a huge fan of "Apartment Zero" I went to "K.Il Bandito" with a certain amount of trepidation. Martin Donovan, the director, hasn't directed a film in a decade. It took the opening image to drag me into this passionate tale of "K" a fictional venetian bandit that, in a way, represents them all. The strange romantic view of an outlaw told in strong emotional terms. The hypnotic nature of this film remains vividly in my mind. I saw it 48 hours ago and I'm still in it with those fabulous faces that populate the film travelling around my brain. Pierluigi Coppola, plays Karlo with a "K" and he's not just impossibly beautiful but soulful and as far away from the bandits we're used to see that in a way his creation is kind of unique. His wife is played by Martina Stella with shattering honesty. She is truly exceptional. Her slow collapse into depression and drug addiction is told in riveting passages, so beautiful! The great Neapolitan singer, Lina Sastri, is a powerful standout as "K"'s mother. She doesn't shy away from her guilt. She's so aware and her pain is visceral and cinematic. The time transitions have a poetic flair very present in Martin Donovan's "Mad At The Moon" although Donovan visits here a very different universe. The score by Savio Riccardi and the photography by the great Ennio Guarnieri ("The Garden Of The Finzi Contini") are the icing on the cake of this emotional work of art.

Martin Donovan directs his first Italian language film with mix but mostly positive results. He creates a world, geographically is Venice, filled with a powerful energy, a contagious compassion for his characters and a ravishing dark beauty. The title character played with zest and conviction by newcomer Pier Luigi Coppola, drifts along the 70's without ever going anywhere. In an out of jail, wanting, dreaming, hoping but incapable to grasp his own destiny. Marked by the apparent detachment of his mother, a Neapolitan prostitute, played by the exquisite Lina Sastri, he creates around himself a circle of loyalty. His childhood friends will always be that and it is perhaps that element that makes the film so different from others of its ilk. His friends exist as a reflection of him, that's their life. The conflict comes when Clara, played by Martina Stella, appears in his life. Love and marriage. But Clara brings a light of her own and she fights to save her love. Her disintegration is told in beautiful snippets with a Martina Stella that reminded me of some of the great actresses of yesteryear. Other major pluses: characters with extraordinarily beautiful, expressive faces, a haunting score, and a sight of Venice I had never seen before. "K. The Bandit" is one of the most refreshing and rewarding films I've seen in a long time. 9/10

Totally unexpected. A film I never heard of by a director I love. Saw it in HD in a large plasma screen and I was immediately taken away by the melancholic and fairy taleish atmosphere of the film. A group of Italian actors, all of them new to me, underline in the most exuberant lyrical tones a life of tragedy seen so many times in Italian movies. This time we seem to be peeping into something private and in the process we miss the links that keep the characters together but I wasn't looking for links, in fact, I didn't know what I was looking for, but whatever it was, I got it. Tears streaming down my face were the unrequested proof of the effect this loving portrait had on me. Martin Donovan is known for getting into his actors/characters faces and get to some shattering truth. Pierluigi Coppola, the "K" of the title, is an actor to watch. Beautiful. Strong and delicate at the same time. I can't wait to see "K. Il Bandito" again but, where can I find it?

I saw K IL BANDITO at the Hollywod Italian Festival and, I must say, Martin Donovan has outdone himself. His views of Venice are stunning, his actors, especially Pierluigi Coppola, are terrific, and his eye on life in Italian prisons is on the money.

He starts his life of K (Kappa) when he's just a kid, robbing and stealing with his three buddies. One hopes Kappa will change as he matures because he's bright, smart and charming. But as he and his pals grow from kids into men, Donovan shows that they don't change, their lives are wasted. But look from where Kappa comes: his father abandons him when he is a child, and Kappa's mother is a whore.

She is played superbly by Lina Sastri. Donovan gets an Academy Award performance out of her -- when she's on screen there is no one else -- she puts the entire tragic life of Kappa's mother in her eyes and I, for one, could't take my own eyes from hers. WOW, what an actress!

Kappa's girl, waiting for him as he passes in and out of prison with his pals descends into a life of destitution, drugs and prostitution.

Kappa's life is a tragedy; watching a smart guy like him fall deeper and deeper into a life of crime, one sees that Kappa, in the words of Brando, could have been a contender, he could have been someone, instead of a bum, which he is, let's face it. Pierluigi Coppola, Donovan's Kappa; turns in a fantastic performance. I think he's going to be a huge star.

I would see this film again and have given it a #10.

The word "fictional" in some of the reviews above regarding the film seems erroneous given that the film is based on the life of Silvano Maistrello, known as "Kociss" (after Cochise, the tribal chieftain).

He was born in Castello, Venice, a stone's throw from the Arsenal. His mother was a long-term prostitute with many children, and was often seen in the alleyways along the rio della Tana plying her trade, near to where they lived.

Many in Castello, in particular, and Venice, generally, still remember the family, but without nostalgia. His criminal activity, sadly, began as a child but was at its height in the 1970s and 1980s. he died in a shoot-out, possibly preferring to die thus rather than go back to prison.