Customer Reviews

The Sicilian Clan (1969)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As one of the IMDB reviewers said, "The best feature of this film is the fantastic sound track by the genius composer Ennio Morricone". Morricone's catchy, wistful, longing, mourning and absolutely mesmerizing score elevates this typical (in a good sense) French crime noir to even higher level. I first heard it couple of years ago when I bought Morricone's "Once Upon A Time: The Essential Ennio Morricone Film Music Collection", a double disc superb collection. Even among legendary Morricone's scores, the music for "Le Clan des Siciliens" stands out. It created a mood that mixed suspense, melancholy, danger, and regrets, and it made me fell in love with the movie that I had not even seen. Since I heard the score for the first time, I tried to find the film and finally I purchased a Region Free, NTSC, widescreen DVD with French, English and Russian Audio tracks and English subtitles. The film looks gorgeous and I was pleased with the clean and clear DVD transfer. I have been a fan of French crime/heist/noir/mystery of 1960-1980 films for long time and to see three of my favorite actors (Alain Delon, Jean Gabin, and Lino Ventura) who had made many classics of the beloved genres acting in the same movie added to my excitement. All three are excellent, and one of the advantages of the new DVD was the chance to see the film in its original French and to hear the real voices of three screen legends. Nobody could be cooler than Delon as Roger Santet, a convicted murderer, ruthless, violent yet irresistibly and dangerously charming, a "beautiful destructive angel of the dark street". Lino Ventura is reliable and convincing as a chief of detective inspectors who had vowed to hunt Santet down. Aging Jean Gabin, one of the most beloved French actors with the wide acting range who could play successfully the characters as diverse as inspector Maigret and Pépé le Moko is wonderful as Vittorio Manalese, the father and "the Godfather" of the Sicilian Clan, the family which is tied by blood in more ways than one. Vittorio certainly lived by an old wisdom, "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

Not the best film made by any of its three stars, the Sicilian Clan is worth watching because of those three stars, Alan Delon, Jean Gabin and Lino Ventura.

Delon is a gangster facing the death penalty, who escapes from the Police with the aid of a Sicilian family living in Paris. (hence the title). The head of the family is played by an elderly Jean Gabin. The reason why Delon has been helped to escape is so that he give Gabin's family the plans of a jewel robbery. (Most French gangster films involve a jewel robbery).

Hunting Delon is policeman Lino Ventura.

Its three stars bring a certain French cool to the whole matter. Delon and Gabin are for different age groups the typical French film star, while Ventura has one of the most memorable faces to ever grace the screen. All three can act, although in this film not to much is required of them.

My version is also dubbed into English rather than have subtitles. This cuts down on the realism, Gabins voice is in particular to stilted to do the great actor credit.

Still the Sicilian Clan is worth a couple of hours of your time if you enjoy French heist cappers.

Despite the title, this 1969 flic et voyou flick is definitely NOT a mob movie: the clan are a family of Sicilian crooks in France headed by Jean Gabin who spring Alain Delon from jail for a massive jewel robbery, with Lino Ventura's dogged cop on the trail. Based on a novel by Rififi author Auguste le Breton, there's little that's original (although the heist itself is spectacularly ingenious), but it's put together with polish and style and makes for an entertaining couple of hours. Henry Verneuil's direction raises the standard, while Delon, Ventura and Irina Demick offer good value. The once-great Gabin fares less well - although it's nice to see him reunited with his Touchez Pas le Grisbi nemesis Ventura in a couple of scenes, for much of the film he's more of an immoveable monument than much of a presence, only really coming across in his final scene, which taps in nicely to the resigned fatalism of his pre-war classics.

It's not an all-time great, but it is an entertaining and atmospheric French thriller that nicely fills a couple of hours.

Somewhere, in amongst two agonizing hours, is a pretty interesting heist flick. But it's completely buried under a ton of ridiculous Euro-drama and slow-bleed plot.

Thankfully, as always, there's the fast-forward. You can honestly spin through the entire flick by stopping every 10 minutes, watching for one or two minutes, then shifting another ten without missing a beat. Wish I had done that from the beginning, having suffered through an initial twenty-five minutes hoping the damn thing would kick into gear - it never does.

The best comes in the last fifteen minutes or so. I won't spoil it for those brave enough to withstand early 1970's Euro-crap. The heist itself is somewhat engaging, but is a very tiny reward for enduring such complete mind-numbing boredom.

I suspect that a great deal of what "sold" the film back then (given that there were no home videos or the fast-forward button) were the brief scenes of female nudity. And if I had any idea who these French actresses were, I suppose I might understand it more. But to quote an old advertising slogan = We've come a long way baby. The aged flesh screened for audiences back then must've been titillating, risque and Oh-So-Continental. But today, it's not only tame, it almost seems quaint.

Not that I'm advocating blatant sex as a means of modern filmmaking, far from it. But given the worldwide consumption of so-called adult entertainment, and the stunning array of venues from which one can choose from, the early-70's seems like so very long ago. Another world almost.

I would wish for a reboot with modern sensibilities and timing, but the days of showcasing a hijacking in the air are also gone, lost to another more 'innocent' time.

A film for fans of master composer Ennio Morricone only.

EVERYBODY MUST BUY THET WANDERFULL MOVIE
YOU CAN SEE IT MANY TIMES OVER AND OVER AGAIN, AND THEN YOU WILL WANT TO WATCH AGAIN ONES MORE...

A MOVIE THAT I HAVE BEEN WANTING TO SEE SINCE I SAW IN WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT. DELON AND GABIN ARE EXCELLENT AND THE OTHER EUROPEAN ACTORS CONVINCING. GOOD STORY LINE AND CATCHY SUBPLOT BETWEEN DELON AND THE WIFE OF ONE FO HIS ACCOMPLICES.

Leno Ventura plays a detective in this excellent French thriller about a thief (Alain Delon) who plans to rob an exhibition in Rome with the help of a Sicilian family currently living in Paris and New York.

I won't even bother to write about what the movie is about, that has already been done on the other reviews. I will say this is pretty much one's average jail break-out, hiest movie!

What attracted me is all three stars that I like in one movie! The packaging is all in Russian, front and back cover, so not until it was in the player did I get to see the options. I choose the English dubbed one, and it is minimal dubbing at best! It will get you thru the movie, and you'll know what's happening, but there is so much of what is communicated missing that I watched it again in French with English subtitles! Dubbing at this level is a JOKE!

A note on the quailty of the DVD. Well, I didn't notice anything bad, but I guess it was transfered from an original film source. Overall I'm pleased I bought it and pleased that it looks just fine and plays just fine!