Fists in the Pocket

A twisted gem laced with black humor, pathos, and horror. Castel is excellent as the deranged but also strangely sympathetic Alessandro, plus Ennio Morricone yet again delivers a fantastic score.

A bit airy, but still an interesting and all-around good film. Bellocchio could have made it slightly more realistic by studying what an epileptic episode actually looks like.

Marco Belloccio's directorial debut is a not terribly convincing indictment of bourgeoisie and Catholic morality that is dramatically inert. I never did find the family plausible --they felt like ideas and behaviors meant to combust. Lou Castel, for example, does not seem like he comes from the same cloth as the others, and his volcanic Brandoesque performance dominates the film.

Takes it's sweet time to get going and almost lost me along the way, but stick it out and what slowly unfurls here is a marvelously depraved and delightful little story of dealing with the hardships of family life italian-style. All those modern day fail-covered "quirky family"-flicks shoehurned under the dubious "indie"-umbrella can go eat a hardboiled fuck. This is where it's at.

Bold and unique, with camerawork that perfectly captures the sense of claustrophobia. It's a very dark film with some black humor, with a tone I haven't seen much in Italian cinema. And yet, I didn't really get into it for reasons I can't explain. It just kind of flew past me.

"Director Marco Bellocchio borrowed money from his family to make this film, which is actually a frontal assault on family values" lol

Worth seeing for the Ennio Morricone score and Paola Pitagora alone. I appreciate that it challenges a lot of what preceded it in Italian cinema, but I found it overall unaffecting.

Perverse, unenjoyable film with an unlikable lead character. Great soundtrack though.

De Punhos Cerrados estreava há 55 anos no Festival de Locarno. Bellochio chegou chegando chutando a porta com os dois pés, nem sei como a personagem de Castel não está nas listas de grandes psicopatas do cinema e eu que achava a minha família disfuncional. DVDRip no MakingOff.

Bellocchio crafts a grim narrative through episodic paranoia. Perhaps ahead of it's time on the realities painted metaphorically, about human conditions, the burden, and how desires exist among them. There is tension and murder without anything over the top, which sparks a curiosity more so than resentment of the antagonistic act. Twisted with little held back.

Portrays a world of decadents caught in the transition from suffocating bourgeois tradition to the freedom of urban modernity, leading youthful energy down the path of resentment, frustration and hatred. And it is quite effective in this regard, with an unusual psychological tone and an atmosphere drenched with sexual tension and repression, but, at the same time, it leaves a lingering feeling that the filmmaker himself might have been affected by a resentment less dissimilar than he thinks.

and you thought your family has problems.

Consistently compelling.

"Shot impeccably by Alberto Marrama and dipped in hushed Ennio Morricone lullabies, the film's visual intensity presents the iconography of a world in transition." - Ed Gonzalez

Strong black comedy with a side of creepiness. I love the way it was shot and performed lending it a surreal quality while still being grounded and helping to balance the dark tone with light moments.

When it comes to explaining "Fists in the Pocket" it is almost impossible to explain what makes the film so compelling. Is it the murderous impulses the film's main character inhabits? Or the breakdown of a family under the spell of religious control? Or the questions it arises on life and its reasons? Take your pick, but "Fists" is a stunning film that covers many grounds; some in which films had and still have not covered as successfully, even forty years after its controversial release.