Claudio Pizzigallo October 25, 2023
With the release of the first four episodes (full calendar), we were finally able to see The Lions of Sicily, the highly anticipated series by Paolo Genovese for Disney+, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Stefania Auci.
In our, as always highly questionable opinion, the wait was worth it. However, this magnificent Italian production is not without its weaknesses. Before I talk about the strengths and weaknesses (so far) of The Lions of Sicily, I’ll start this review with a spoiler-free summary of the show’s plot.
What “The Lions of Sicily” is about
The series begins in 1830 and shows us the wealthy citizen Vincenzo Florio (Michele Riondino), who is served by a baron (Maurizio Jiritano) who has to ask him for a loan. Vincenzo keeps the nobleman on his toes, alluding to an episode from the past.
And so we travel back in time: We are in 1802, in Bagnara Calabra: an earthquake that almost kills his family convinces Paolo Florio (Vinicio Marchioni) that it is time to be with his wife Giuseppina (Ester Pantano ), his little son Vincenzo and his brother Ignazio (Paolo Briguglia) in Palermo take over a grocery store that Barbaro, Paolo and Ignazio’s brother-in-law, has taken over in the Sicilian city.
Giuseppina is not happy with the transfer, but she has no other choice and the Florios go to Palermo. Here they find a “putia” (shop) in terrible condition, like the house they live in, but with everyone’s hard work everything settles down, and with a bit of luck the Florios also manage to get rich, even though the Contempt from nobles and other merchants won’t let them down.
We will therefore see how the story of this family develops, knowing that at some point in the future Vincenzo will take the reins of the small empire, but in order not to spoil things, we stop here and invite you to watch the official trailer of watch The Lions of Sicily.
What we liked and what we didn’t like
If there is something that is undoubtedly remarkable about The Lions of Sicily, it is the visual power of this series. Of course, thanks to a country as beautiful as few in the world (list of filming locations), but also thanks to the direction and photography, in which the inspiration – and ambition – of Visconti’s “The Leopard” becomes clear in some scenes.
The interiors and exteriors are always breathtaking, perhaps almost too overwhelming at times, both in flaunting their splendor and in failing to hide the poverty. We also found some dialogues to be exaggerated, in which every single sentence seems like a sentence to be memorized, due to a sometimes sweet solemnity in perhaps very short dialogues.
However, this does not affect the interpretation of the entire cast, which is convincing in both the main and supporting roles, apart from a few dialect errors for those who have a good command of Sicilian and Calabrian (e.g. “Guagliò”). Paolo seemed to be out of tune in his mouth). Some characters perhaps deserve more depth, but we can’t make an assessment until the end of the season.
We didn’t find the soundtrack entirely convincing, as it alternates between modern songs – the risk of which we appreciated, although certainly not new – and certain pieces of music that seem to weigh down rather than enhance the scene. In some passages we recognized sounds that almost seemed to respond to stereotypes about Sicily and Italy, and it is not an impression limited to this area.
Because despite the great qualities that we have to acknowledge, this series gives us the impression, at least so far, of being a product that doesn’t “dare” much. And we are not referring to the lack of scenes of great sensuality (which there is), but more generally to a narrative that is more reminiscent of traditional, almost television fiction, than of a modern Italian television series.
Perhaps this effect is due to the desire to make I Leoni di Sicilia an attractive product, an Italian “classic”, also on the foreign market. The risk is instead to produce a product that is “too Italian,” to put it in Boris’s Stanis style. But we certainly don’t dream of challenging in this sense a director like Genovese, who has the record for films with the most remakes in the world.
Will I be there for Lions of Sicily 2? What we know so far
Rating: 7