Home Cinema: The Women Who Defeated the Mafia

A scene from the Disney+ series “The Good Mothers.”

Good moms
Thriller (2023)
Creator: Stephen Bouchard
Interpretations: Simona DiStefano, Alessandra Rocca

his platform Disney + It brings us a new mini-series, based on a true story, that premiered at the recent Berlin Film Festival. We are in the Italian south, where the Mafia leads and shapes the balances in people’s lives even today. Three women, daughters, and husbands raised in the arms of criminal organizations themselves, decide to work with a fearless prosecutor in order to put an end to the cycle of blood and enduring fear that defines their existence.

Successful in putting us in the air from the very beginning, the Italian series reminds us aesthetically – and not only – of successful films of this type such as “Gomorra” and “Dogman” by Mathieu Garon, but also because of the medium, giving more weight to the characters. They, the protagonists at least, are naturally mostly female, emerging from a male-dominated environment to destroy it.

Here there is still a lot of suspense but there is also pure action, which however does not monopolize the duration of the episodes. And while we’d like a little more depth on the narrative, the well-written script and (mostly) the performances of the female leads help the whole hit a pretty high level.

The Mysteries of Hieronymus Bosch ★★★
Documentary (2017)
Directed by: Jose L Linares
Appearances: Ludovico Einaudi, Orhan Pamuk

From the Cinobo platform, we select a documentary by José L. Linares, which explores in a unique way the famous “Garden of Earthly Delights” by Hieronymus Bosch. The Spanish director gets exclusive access to the canvas, in an attempt to take us a little deeper into the wonderful world of the creator.

With the help of such great personalities as writers Salman Rushdie and Orhan Pamuk, musician Ludovico Einaudi, philosopher Michel Honfret and others, as well as experts in the history of art, the “garden” was divided into pieces and details, presented separately and at the same time as a whole, in the form conceived by the artist’s imagination.

With the help of technology, the work is electronically scanned to reveal drafts and the stages of their creation. And if in another painting this division has only academic interest, here it adds real depth, as the viewer discovers little by little, like a treasure hunt, the “small paintings within the painting”.