Full Head Weave With Fringe

Since I have the use of reason I've always liked gangster films. I do not know where it comes from this fascination with such subjects undesirable, always illegal, ready to pull the trigger when someone goes out of its peculiar code. But the fact is that from the most sophisticated and impenetrable Godfather, through the street largemouth Goodfellas or The Sopranos, the strange and mystical Miller's Crossing , following the shot from Donnie Brasco and including Puerto Ricans of Carlito . Of the latter I want to write today because I have never seen but has lost none of its charm.

The magic continues from the day I saw with Susan in a meeting one night in the Coliseum of Java in Portugalete. Watch a movie of this caliber at that hour on a cinema screen has a special component. My memory is great and today I have it in the list of my favorites of all time and certainly for me the best film of Brian De Palma . In this director is often tagged as the most irregular and few people of the generation of 70 ( Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg Lucas or ) but to his credit has hit as resounding as he wavers past, Scarface or The Untouchables.

Carlito I think his best film for several reasons. The main one is that in this film De Palma is able to add to its undeniable scenes management action a brilliant treatment of characters and an unusual success for the more intimate sequences. To which I must add that we are facing one of the five best performances of Al Pacino in his career (and that's cloth), a huge Sean Penn and the emergence of two actors who have given much play over the years, John Leguizamo and Luis Guzman. Without forget the beautiful Ann Miller Pennelope also perfect in her role as Gail's girlfriend Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino).

The film has the stamp of black cinema and several common ingredients. The most attractive for me is where the film which is based in Castilian title explains it perfectly, because in fact, Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) is a guy haunted by his past that weighs heavily and we know from the beginning that will not be able to fight. Same thing happened to Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) to return to the past and so many other anti-heroes of black cinema. The past can not escape that haunts you until the end, rather that leads ultimately to a site from which you can not go. The way in which De Palma presents the film is not new but at the time was controversial because in the first sequence of the film we see Carlito getting shot at close range and then be transferred on a stretcher into the emergency room of a hospital. It is clear that going to palmar. But then begins to remember and by flashback is going to show us how he got there.

This situation is not new in cinema. We remember Twilight of the gods of Billy Wilder. And it worked. Here too. It is not easy to sustain a film when the viewer knows the ending. We must be clear about what you want to tell and how. And then De Palma has it. And gives us a film full of memorable sequences and does not decline at any time. The action scenes like that where Carlito came out on an errand with her cousin and is in an ambush in a dark bar, the one where Carlito has to take his club to new gangster chop Benny Blanco and of course the spectacular final sequence, shot a furious pace in the Central Station in New York. Tremendous. A man who pursues his dream to touch it with the palm of your hand. But never catch a train so complicated.

As a counterpoint we have a few intimate scenes as well resolved as above. My favorite is one in which Gail Carlito follows the dance academy. It is raining and the character of Ann Miller Pennolope enters a building with large windows. Carlito choose to enter the front and placed in the azoeta covering his head with the lid of a garbage can while looking admiringly at Gail. We see that the guy has a crush on this woman and her determination to leave everything worth more if possible. Very well told and interpreted.

Al Pacino gives all keys to make his character believable. A man forged in the streets, character and an important verbiage. A suit to Pacino that unfolds with ease in every scene. The evolution of his character is credible and we find it impossible not to become attached to him and wish with all our strength to fulfill his dream. Also highlights the role of Sean Penn ( David Kenfield ) Carlito's attorney. A real bastard to what we see from the beginning. A man who has climbed defending a gangster and has gradually become one of them. Encocado into the bowels completely losing the prospect Sean Penn creates an unpleasant and nasty character. The bastard it overboard.