A Mafia Movie Musical

America has a long running tradition of movie musicals. With masterpieces such as “Singin’ in the Rain” to modern box office hits like “La La Land,” the genre has been cemented as an undeniable force in American film history. However, a new Italian take on the genre is causing quite a stir in the film community. "Ammore e Malavita" or “Love & Bullets” is described as a Mafia musical and made its debut as it opened the 12th annual San Diego Italian Film Festival.

Antonio Iannotta, the artistic director of the festival, has stated that the more accurate description for this crime film would be ‘a Camorra musical,’ since the film is set in Naples and the crime in that part of southern Italy goes by that name. "Ammore e Malavita" won the Donatello Award (the Italian equivalent of the Oscar) for Best Film earlier this year and is the festival choice.

Although Italy is the birthplace of opera, musicals are not really a part of its cinema. Iannotta said that Italian cinema doesn't have a tradition of musicals to draw on, but that the filmmakers, Antonio and Marco Manetti, come from outside the film industry and with a background making music videos.

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