AKA: The White Fiat
Country and Year: Italy (2001)
Director: Michele Soavi
Starring: Kim Rossi Stuart, Dino Abbrescia, Pietro Bontempo

Review By: David Austin
Rating: 3 out of 4 stars (good)

Fans of Michele Soavi may have been wondering where this talented filmmaker has been hiding the past decade or so. The answer is that, after a long hiatus, Soavi, like so many refugees from Italy’s crumbling film industry, moved into television. Soavi stepped out of his apprenticeship with Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava with a hard-hitting group of stylish, phantasmagorical horror films, the solid creep-outs Stagefright, The Church and The Sect, and the brilliant existential zombie film Dellamore Dellamorte (aka Cemetery Man). Fortunately, as Uno Bianca proves, he lost none of his talent or cinematic instinct in the transition to the small screen.

Uno Bianca has all the style we’ve come to expect from an Italian crime thriller. However, Uno Bianca should not be confused with its poliziotteschi predecessors like Violent Naples or Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man. Rather than following the Dirty Harry model of rebelliousness and violence, Uno Bianca is a textbook example of the police procedural, more Jules Dassin’s The Naked City or Law & Order than Almost Human. What it gives up in sheer, over-the-top violent spectacle it gains in cool intelligence.

Unlike its predecessors, which took the Marxist and criminal chaos that engulfed Italy in the 60s and 70s as a jumping-off point for violent, politically-inflected vigilante fables, Uno Bianca is based on a true story. The title, Uno Bianca, refers to the white Fiat Uno always driven by the so-called “Uno Bianca Gang,” a group of murderous thieves who terrorized north-eastern Italy from 1987 to 1994. The unidentified gang committed scores of robberies and murders, and was responsible for attacks on immigrants and police. Fully 24 people were killed before they were finally stopped. Their activities are part of the public record and NoShame has provided a great deal of background about the actual incidents – however, I suggest viewers forego checking the facts if they don’t wish to spoil the suspense of the film, as much of the enjoyment of the film is in solving the crimes along with the protagonists.

Speaking of, the film follows the travails of two cops from Rimini as they attempt to solve the mystery of the Uno Bianca Gang in the wake of a vicious gun battle that leaves their beloved colleague fighting for his life. The authorities are stymied – investigating magistrates can’t even decide whether the attacks are the actions of mafiosi, Albanian gangs, or terrorists.

With the assistance of a sympathetic junior magistrate from Rimini, officers Valerio Maldesi and Rocco Atria restart the investigation with a fresh perspective – re-interviewing witnesses, reviewing documents and previous attack sites, and inspecting evidence. Their patience, thoroughness and legwork soon pay off, as they begin to piece together the true motivations o the gang, and to predict future crimes. Of course, in a nod to the old Dirty Harry style, they are frequently obstructed by incompetent and jealous supervisors.

Soavi throws in many stylistic flourishes, from a long pan through the carnage of a bombing, to a Heat-inspired heavy weapons showdown, and an action-packed first half hour showing the depredations of the gang. The real pleasure of the film, however, lies in its procedural aspects. Valerio and Rocco don’t rely on luck, or that old deus ex machina, the informer. We follow them in depth as they interview witnesses and victims, visit crime scenes, stake out possible locations, and lay the groundwork for surveillance operations. Soavi does not skimp on this material – it is the heart of the film. Uno Bianca shares in the pleasure of the heist film, but from the other side – the joy of watching a plan come together, to para-phrase Hannibal.

Uno Bianca is ably anchored by Kim Rossi Stuart, son of Giacomo Rossi Stuart, burly star of such Italian genre classics as Mario Bava’s Kill, Baby … Kill and genre, well, not-so-classics like Antonio Margheriti’s War Between the Planets and The Snow Devils. Kim inherited his father’s good looks but leans toward Miami Vice pretty boy rather than rugged peplum star. Fortunately, his intense performance here shows that he’s not getting by on looks alone. His Valerio is a serious man – devoted to his pregnant wife, but obsessed with stopping the Uno Bianca Gang. He’s a man who is better than his position, and one can’t help but see the ambition as he pursues the big break in this high profile case.

Rossi Stuart is supported by a solid cast which includes Dino Abbrescia as the more fun-loving, jocular Rocco and Pietro Bontempo as Michele Ferramonti, the cool, calculating leader of the gang. Bontempo steals every scene he’s in, but with sly confidence rather than scenery-chewing antics. He seems like the sort of man that could keep a criminal enterprise of this level functioning for years, and his final confrontation with Rossi Stuart is a bravura demonstration of the slow burn. His gang is likewise smart, ruthless, well-equipped and sane.

Recommended? Yes, Uno Bianca is one of the better police procedurals of recent years, and Kim Rossi Stuart turns in a low-key but great performance. Soavi still has it.

If you like this, you might like: LA Confidential, Heat, Magnum Force, Donnie Brasco, Almost Human, Violent Naples

DVD DETAILS

DVD Production Company: NoShame (noshamefilms.com)
Release Date: March 28, 2001
Run Time: 200 Mins
Extras: Booklet, Documentaries, Behind the Scenes footage, Still Gallery, Introduction

NoShame presents Uno Bianca on a double-disc Region 1 DVD. Uno Bianca was originally a two-part series, and each disc contains an episode of the film. The movie is presented in its original 1.66:1 widescreen print, and picture quality is high.

As always, NoShame has been generous with the extras. The disc contains a still gallery and ten minutes of behind the scenes footage. An informative booklet is included, with background on the true facts behind the case by journalist Sergio Nazzaro, and bios of Soavi, Rossi Stuart, Abbrescia, and writer/actor Luigi Montefiori (aka George Eastman) by Richard Harland Smith of Video Watchdog.

The discs also include a video introduction of the film by producer Pietro Valsacchi, a four minute documentary called “We Did It Like Cinema” with Valsacchi, another nine minute documentary called “It Was Not Business as Usual” with cinematographer Gianni Mammolotti, and a seventeen minute featurette entitled “How to Get Action into Truth” by writer Montefiori in which he discusses the difficulty of adapting the true story behind Uno Bianca.

Finally, NoShame has included one additional nifty little extra – a cardboard cut-out that you can fold into your very own white Fiat.

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© David Austin

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