Hands Over the City

Franesco Rosi is the different kind of political filmmaker here. Most focus on cultural stories with a political emphasis, but Hands Over the City peers into the beaucratic make shift of an Italian city. The film starts out with a building collapsing and people dying. It goes on to focus on the city planner's reaction to the collapse. He doesn't try to correct the situation. Instead he tries to swindle deals to keep other building projects around the city going. The collapsed building was an example of the city's future "housing projects." The story doesn't focus on the dramatics that would exemplify right and wrong, but instead focuses on the grasp of the city planner's beaurcratic powers with politicians and businessman. Rod Steiger plays the city planner, a notorious character to all in the film, but the greater evil in the film by the end is all the politicians and businessmen involved. The film doesn't make any detail fantastic. Every detail is level headed and focused on structures of city government. Many filmmakers were making excellent political films at this time, but none with such dedication and vision as Rosi. An underappreciated master.