Caesar Must Die is Italy’s official entry for next year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar, and it is in some key ways its one of the most unique films I have seen in years. Italian directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani entered Rome’s Rebibbia Prison’s High Security Section in order to film a group of prisoners preparing for their performance of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Surprisingly, the film is a clever combination of documentary and narrative that makes it difficult to categorize as one or the other. While there was a script, the actors are all actual inmates and are thus playing themselves (with the exception of the man who plays Brutus — Salvatore Striano — who was an inmate in the prison until his 2006 pardon and returned to those conditions to star in this film). But the directors encouraged them to improvise and to riff off their personal feelings as they played their parts in their own dialects, so we are seeing an actual performance by inmates. It’s an intriguing dichotomy that hasn’t been explored in film yet, and it blurs the line between fantasy and reality in ways that I am sure were difficult for the prisoners, who besides Striano are all amateur actors, to grasp.
Nevertheless, this isn’t The Shawshank Redemption, so don’t expect any moments of vindication. These are all men actually convicted of violent crimes, with sentences ranging from a dozen years to life that are perhaps only participating in the acting program because it gives them something else to do than stare at their cell walls. Still, they are all passionate about performing it well, with some very moving scenes from the auditions (the prisoners auditioning are told to perform a sequence in which they are being questioned first upset then again angry) and scenes in which the prisoners are practicing their lines though they’re separated by the prison walls. There are also uncomfortable scenes in which I wondered if they allowed the characters to go to their heads, thinking that one of the actors would end up shanked liked Caesar himself was. There’s a wonderful scene in which one of the actors says, “I understand what Shakespeare meant, but how do I get it across to an audience?” Considering that many of these men are in prison for mafia-related crimes, they have a deep understanding of violence, betrayal, and the hope for redemption. The black and white cinematography — only the scenes set in the present (the performance and its aftermath) are in color — helps heighten this idea, along with making it similar to prison dramas of earlier eras.
As intriguing as the concept and the film is, I’m not sure how many people will be interested in a film like Caesar Must Die. While I appreciate the Tavianis’ unique approach to the material, I would’ve liked to see some more framing material about the prison theater program and Fabio Cavalli, its director. While the film makes an impact, this only scratches the surface of what must be a compelling story of some prisoners’ only source of escapism. It just doesn’t dig deep enough to either entertain or make a statement, so it doesn’t fulfill the objectives of either a narrative film or a documentary.
RATING: A unique film experience that doesn’t delve far enough in its subject material (6/10).
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