They played mafia: Bellocchio released the TV series "Portobello" about Camorra and "cancellation"

The flagship project for the launch of HBO MAX in Italy, Marco Bellocchio's Portobello series, has been released online. This is a story about one of the most high-profile cases of the twentieth century in the country's history: the star TV presenter Enzo Tortora was imprisoned in 1985 on false charges of mafia ties. The classic of Italian cinema reveals this tragic case, examining the Tortora case as a symptom of the crisis of the whole society, without hiding the parallels with the present day. Izvestia explains how the Bellocchio series turned out and why it is worth watching far beyond the borders of Italy.

Who is Enzo Tortora?

The chilling case of Enzo Tortora is well known, and several films have been released about him over the past 40 years alone. The most famous is "The Good Man", where Michele Placido played Tortora.

In short, this story sounds like this. Once upon a time there was Enzo Tortora, and since 1977 he hosted the TV show "Portobello", which was watched by almost 30 million people, that is, the whole of Italy. It was a completely innocent entertainment show— with dancing, contests, studio calls. And suddenly, in 1983, Tortora was arrested for having an affair with the Camorra. He went from being everyone's favorite to becoming a mafia boss in the eyes of the public.

A shot from the TV series "Portobello"

Photo: Our Films

After a grueling trial, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. But they were released a year later because it suddenly turned out that the case was completely fabricated. Broken and crushed, Tortora returned to television screens in 1987 and died a year later, although he was still not an old man at all.

Why did the 86-year-old veteran of Italian cinema, Marco Bellocchio, start telling this story again? It's just that so many similar stories have happened in recent years that the case of Enzo has turned from a phenomenon into a parable, into a warning that was not heeded. In the 1980s, it was just an episode, a disgrace to Italian justice, but nowadays, before our eyes, one by one, people with impeccable reputations, with national and sometimes international recognition are publicly destroyed, they are shamed under dubious pretexts, and no one even considers the ruined destinies or the damage to culture. Bellocchio reminds us that it is precisely these things that turn people into a herd, into a crowd, they destroy the country. It takes a moment to crush an honest man, and sometimes decades are not enough for a nation to recover from this shame.

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Is it worth watching the TV series "Portobello"

Not much attention was paid to the Portobello program itself and personally to Enzo Tortore in the first episode of the series. And not only because the Italian audience is already aware of the events. Bellocchio is more interested in how such tragedies begin, he concentrates on the nuances.

A shot from the TV series "Portobello"

Photo: Our Films

And so we find ourselves in Poggioreale prison. An influential mobster named the Professor is imprisoned there, and among his "sixes" is secretary Giovanni. Giovanni knows that he is destined to be at the bottom of the criminal hierarchy forever, but he wants recognition, he wants someone to thank him at least once. And here's a chance! In the Portobello program, which he watches with other prisoners, many ordinary people often get their five minutes of fame. And Giovanni decides to try it too — he sends a set of knitted napkins to the program. And he writes letters there to be noticed.

It's a shame when I tried so hard and waited, but in the end nothing. And Giovanni decides to take revenge. He gives false testimony against Tortora, claiming that by napkins he meant cocaine in the letters and that almost the program's trademark parrot participated in the conspiracy, which unsuccessfully tried to make him shout "Portobello!" As we know, Giovanni was believed, and the photo of Tortora in handcuffs spread all over the world.

Bellocchio collides two images. A fucked-up nobody named Giovanni and the charismatic, talented, clever Enzo Tortora, who is destined to play the role of a martyr. The host is played by Fabrizio Gifuni, whom Bellocchio has been filming a lot in recent years, including making the wonderful series "Night on the Street" with him. And he plays in such a way that Tortora's real daughter Gaia was amazed to say later in an interview that she thought she could hear her father's voice from the next room. And she noted that he amazingly recreated the combination of "irony and deep sadness" that Enzo had.

A shot from the TV series "Portobello"

Photo: Our Films

It is clear that this is not a documentary, and Bellocchio thought of something, and invented something to make the story brighter. And that the bright image of Enzo, the deposed titan, is deliberately sublime. Precisely because this is not a story about him, but about us. Therefore, there is a third main character between Giovanni and Enzo, and this is society, the people.

There is everything here — from prisoners in prison to employees of the TV company, from police officers to bystanders and onlookers, from regulars of local bars to funny freaks who come to the Portobello show to show themselves in front of all the people. It's like we have at the "Field of Miracles". All these people are connected by a media space that demands sensationalism and is ready to sacrifice anyone for it. It replaces real social ties, forms values, and creates laws, heroes, and monsters by itself.

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For Italians, this is a hint of the Berlusconi empire, and they write about it in the reviews of the series. But HBO MAX is a global service, so in each country the viewer immediately counts their parallels, everyone has their own martyrology.

A shot from the TV series "Portobello"

Photo: Our Films

The first public screening of the series took place back in the fall, at the Venice International Film Festival. And this is one of the places that not only shapes the fashion for cinema, along with Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance and the Oscars. This is a place where the main problems of modern humanity are spoken out loud. There, next to "Portobello", "Bugonia", "House of Dynamite", "Method of Elimination", "Frankenstein", "Director's Notebook" and other ultra-relevant and at the same time artistic statements were shown.

And with this train of reflection lasting six months, the series is now entering the field of public discussion, it is already being watched all over the world, including Russia, where the first episode is already on the Internet with a translation. Such works, of course, do not change the world. But Bellocchio must touch something important in the viewer.