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Rating: 
Summary: A moody, experimental film
Review: SACRED SILENCE, an Italian film set in Naples, dares to share the thoughts and words behind the silences that have sequestered the subject of the role of the Catholic Church in cities under the strangle hold of gang viloence. The mood is set as soon as the film opens, showing the credits and title of the film superimposed on a fence/wall that is suggestive of a prison wall overlooking the city. Claustrophobia sets in and is rarely diminished throughout the story. Father Lorenzo is a young, handsome priest in a neighborhood that is beseiged by brutal gang violence at the hands of the Camorra. Almost incidental to the film is the priest's nurturing young men by giving sanctuary to drug addicts and to Nunzio who finds his only safe bond (in the presence of broken homes, miserable living conditions, fear) to be with Father Lorenzo. Yes, he is underaged and yes, it is suggested that the priest and the boy have an intamacy forbidden by the church and the macho community/mob. But the beauty of this relationship overshadows the horrors outside the church doors until the mob attempts to manipulate the priest by the threat of exposing his private life. The manner in which this is told includes momentary face-front-to-camera vignettes of each of the characters tellings us who they are, where they live, and a bit of their position in the story. This "police lineup" method of storytelling is effective and creates a tension that is only relieved by the music and moments between Father Lorenzo and Nunzio.While this film may not be for everyone, for those who seek more insight into the current Church scandals this story and the sensitivity of its telling will surely flesh out perspective.
Rating: 
Summary: Provoking, but ultimately confusing
Review: The film is a very slow, very skitzophrenic look at the relationship between at gay priest and a 13 year old parishioner. There are several lines of action and plot running through the film that erupt from no where and adruptly end with the final credits. 1) The Camorra/Mafia vs. the Priest.
The priest, as any man of the cloth should, begins to refuse to give mass for murderers and other misc. people who've died in the line of crime. He's had enough with them tearing apart the neighborhood. Unfortunately, this leads to the expose in the following: 2) The pedophiliac relationship.
The priest seems to be struggling emotionally with his very physical relationship with the 13 year old boy, Nunzio. He attempts to formulate spiritual-Biblical reasons for allowing the illicit relationship to continue - perhaps even basing it upon a homoeroticism of Christ. Things just aren't very clear in the film. 3) Expose.
The camorra/mafia seek revenge on the priest by sicking the police on him for the affair with Nunzio. Why not just kill him? It seems like a very thin plot-device to use to complicate the relationship between Nunzio and Father Lorenzo. Furthermore, the priest is seen in a compassionate, friendly light - despite the very serious, very wrong issue of the pedophiliac relationship. The film almost excuses the relationship as 'holy' or 'beautiful'. It glosses over the fact that Nunzio was pressed by internal struggling and the need for comfort into a sexual relationship when it should have remained platonic or familiar. All in all, the film leaves the viewer confused as to the point. Hopefully, others can see it and find some enjoyment. It is a subject that needs to be dealt with more seriously and with more depth. Sacred Silence is not a good portrayal or examination of the priest/altar boy sex scandals.
Rating:
Summary: Provoking, but ultimately confusing
Review: The film is a very slow, very skitzophrenic look at the relationship between at gay priest and a 13 year old parishioner. There are several lines of action and plot running through the film that erupt from no where and adruptly end with the final credits. 1) The Camorra/Mafia vs. the Priest.
The priest, as any man of the cloth should, begins to refuse to give mass for murderers and other misc. people who've died in the line of crime. He's had enough with them tearing apart the neighborhood. Unfortunately, this leads to the expose in the following: 2) The pedophiliac relationship.
The priest seems to be struggling emotionally with his very physical relationship with the 13 year old boy, Nunzio. He attempts to formulate spiritual-Biblical reasons for allowing the illicit relationship to continue - perhaps even basing it upon a homoeroticism of Christ. Things just aren't very clear in the film. 3) Expose.
The camorra/mafia seek revenge on the priest by sicking the police on him for the affair with Nunzio. Why not just kill him? It seems like a very thin plot-device to use to complicate the relationship between Nunzio and Father Lorenzo. Furthermore, the priest is seen in a compassionate, friendly light - despite the very serious, very wrong issue of the pedophiliac relationship. The film almost excuses the relationship as 'holy' or 'beautiful'. It glosses over the fact that Nunzio was pressed by internal struggling and the need for comfort into a sexual relationship when it should have remained platonic or familiar. All in all, the film leaves the viewer confused as to the point. Hopefully, others can see it and find some enjoyment. It is a subject that needs to be dealt with more seriously and with more depth. Sacred Silence is not a good portrayal or examination of the priest/altar boy sex scandals.
Rating:
Summary: A thought-provoking look at a highly topical problem
Review: This film presents to the viewer all the evidence of the fight of a priest in Naples against the Camorra and the way the Camorra fight back by exposing and attempting to destroy his love relationship with the 13 year old hero of the film, Nunzio Pianese. The viewer is left to form his or her own judgement as to whether or not the priest has done wrong in loving the boy. At a time when the Catholic Church continues to condemn homosexuality and has to come to terms with scandal after scandal over "pedophile priests", this film provides substance for a more nuanced appraisal of the attitude of modern society to ephebophilia.
Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: ora pro nobis (the viewers, that is)
Review: You'd think a film dealing with the Church, the Mafia and a Gay priest (bedding an underage altar boy, no less) would make for a crackerjack spellbinder. Well, not here. Forget it. Nothing but nothing happens. It takes almost a half-hour for what little gears there are to get in motion. People are being gunned down as if spliced from another movie, and no one explains why the local goverment and the bad guys suspect the priest and the boy of anything improper other than just pure malice. (No one has seen them do anything - ourselves included).Instead, time is wasted by having minor characters stop in mid non-action, turn to the camera and babble a short bio of themselves as if this were vital information for an inminent trial sequence to come, but no, it's all useless filler of no value to anyone, least of all the viewer. Again, for no reason, other characters - the priest included -sing pop tunes (yes napolitanos are musical) throughout. Characters constantly gaze out of windows - for the longest time! Then, when you think fireworks are going to finally go off, and you force your half-closed eyelids to open, on come the end titles! The filmaker was obviously more interested in showing us how hopeless and dreary life in this region is, why he chose these particular ingredients to do so is beyond me. The dvd box states that the guy playing the priest got the big one in Venice - for best sleepwalking, no doubt! Thank God I got 'Lola & Bill The Kid' that same day, otherwise, I might committed a sacrilege - on this dvd!
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