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Released by: One 7 Movies
Released on: October 8th, 2013.
Director: Fabio Bonzi
Cast: Franco Nero, Vittoria Belvedere, Aleksandr Abdulov
Year: 1993
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The Movie:
Fabio Bonzi's 1993 historical drama Zoloto, renamed Sack Of Rome by One 7 Movies for whatever reason, is set in the Rome of 1527 and stars the great Franco as a painter named Gabriele di Poppi. When hordes of German soldiers arrive in the city and start taking over, he assumes that his status as a well-regarded artist will earn him favor but this is proven to not be the case when soldiers arrive at his door. They enter his studio and ransack the place and brutally rape his girlfriend, Gesuina (Vittoria Belvedere).
The leader of the Germans soon takes over di Poppi's studio and uses it as his base of operations. While there he decides that di Poppi should paint his portrait, all while he continues to abuse Gesuina in any way he pleases.
An Italian-Russian co-production, Sack Of Rome is a nicely shot film featuring some excellent camerawork by Mikhail Agranovich but it never quite connects the way that a good historical drama should. Nero is solid in the lead and plays the conflicted painter very well and a young Vittoria Belvedere is not only absolutely gorgeous but completely sympathetic in her role but there's a distance to the characters as written in the film that makes them difficult to relate to. It is interesting to see how Nero's character initially assumes his status affords him protection only to find that he was very wrong indeed, this does allow for some character development but it's not enough to make us actually like the arrogant di Poppi all that much.
Belvedere makes the movie completely watchable, however. She's consistently shot and framed in such a way as to really bring out her beauty and she's quite good in her role here. The way in which she's portrayed as a catalyst for certain events in the film and certain conflicts that arise in the picture is interesting, and routinely very sexualized, resulting in a picture that's a bit sleazier than you might expect it to be and often times quite a bit darker as well. The production values here are pretty decent, the movie makes good use of some nice and authentic looking sets and features some impressive costumes as well. The score from Tommaso Vittorini is solid, it complements the drama and adds some tension to a few scenes.
Though this isn't the fastest paced film you're ever likely to see or one that is all that easy to relate to, it does feature Nero in a role somewhat cast against type. It's a flawed film, but one with enough merit to it that it's worth seeing for those with an interest in atypical historical dramas.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.33.1 fullframe transfer was taken from elements that look like a decent quality tape source. Understandably then, it should surprise no one to learn that the image quality is pretty soft, though it's certainly watchable. Dark scenes are muddy, detail is never particularly impressive and some fading mars the image.
The only audio option on the disc is an Italian language Dolby Digital Mono mix with subtitles in English only and it sounds fine, though there are a few sloppy typos in the subs. There is some mild hiss here and there but the levels are reasonably well balanced. This isn't a fancy track by any stretch, the limitations of the source material used are obvious, but it gets the job done.
There are no extras on the disc outside of a quick still gallery, just a static menu offering chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Sack Of Rome is not lost classic but it is a nice looking film that features an interesting role for Nero and a whole lot of Vittoria Belvedere. That alone will make it worth seeing for some. A bit more work on the pace and the character development would have gone a long way towards making this a more memorable picture but as it stands, it's worth checking out if you have an interest in historical dramas.
