The Sopranos

Translated by David Buchanan

FRAME GAMES

Brilliantly researched, fantastically acted, shot with intelligence and audacity – The Sopranos is a televisual rarity. Each character is meticulously, fairly portrayed, and with such ambiguity, that just by watching we feel like one of the goodfellas. Each episode is a little nugget of creativity, where everything in frame plays a role, from the central character to the obese jogger going by in the background. Freudian, lacaniste and deleuzian, each season is a joy.

‘ORGANIC’ ACTORS

JAMES GANDOLFINI

A gripping, nuanced, incredible actor! James can act in every register. His organic performance in The Sopranos will leave a permanent mark on the archetypal screen ‘boss’. With a unique identity and a modern style, James is joining the ranks of the greatest: Cagney, Brando, Pacino… Capable of swinging from restraint to great, savage outbursts, Gandolfini plays his part with class and finesse. Have you heard of the Cohen brothers’ domineering barber, Big Dave Brewster (The Man Who Wasn’t There, 2001. Prix de la Mise en Scène at Cannes) ? Or perhaps you’d rather see him in Romance and Cigarettes (John Turturro, 2005), playing Nick Murder. Make no mistake, James Gandolfini is always evolving, and that’s a good sign…

EDIE FALCO

Your filmography is staggering, from Abel Ferrara (The Funeral, 1996) to Woody Allen (Bullets over Broadway, 1994), via Joe Roth (Freedomland, 2006). Edie Falco: It had to be someone with as great a range as yours to go head-to-head with James Gandolfini. A line needs to be huge if it’s to do a leading role justice. Madam, you play Carmela Soprano with density. Staggeringly, marvellously, you show us this woman’s life, and episode after episode you reveal to us the many layers of Mrs. S. You might say that you know how to breathe life into a part!

ROBERT ILER

Robert Iler, alias A.J. Soprano, is surprisingly authentic in his role as a young adolescent. He marvellously portrays a mixed-up, naive son; an heir, mid-panic attack. We see all Tony’s fragility pass through him - his mirror.

JAMIE-LYNN SIGLER

This shapely figure that we’ve seen growing up through the seasons is so talented, it’s crazy. The way she moves her behi… sorry, eyes… I can’t tell you! Meadow Soprano is the daddy’s girl, the kind that always gets her way with Tony and the others. So far it’s been a short career, but let’s allow it to grow. We can follow her film by film, series by series. As A.J. would say: “The meeting is over.”

MICHAEL IMPERIOLI

Actor, producer, writer: Nowadays, that’s no big deal… but all the same! When you’ve written the screenplay for the excellent Summer of Sam, you can be sure the talent’s there. A producer and a writer: Hmm, remind you of anyone? Oh yes! A certain Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos! Odd, isn’t it? Christopher, Tony’s nephew. A man in love, manipulated by the assistant of a Hollywood director - and him, a Soprano! He’s the programme’s junkie, part naïve, part idle, but watch out – when it’s time to handle a gun at Satriale’s he becomes quite the pragmatist. The cool, almost floating walk, the get-up, the subtle acting style, a calm listener, eyes that say it all – simply one of those faces – that’s Michael Imperioli.

DREA DE MATEO

Come on! Still haven’t had enough? Really? Man, woman or other? The beautiful Drea is a feline, delivering lines with her entire body. It’s said that at the casting for what was to become this cult series, she caressed the producer with her claws, leaving them no option but to give her a role bigger than the one they’d intended: the beautiful Adriana la Cerva, Moltisanti’s fiancée for several seasons. Sharing a screen with Drea de Mateo demands calm; you may need to be sitting down to take her bubblegum-scented delivery. She’s caught the eye of some of the greats, notably that of Abel Ferrara in ‘R Xmas, where she plays a businesswoman who’s far from banal. In that film we’re blown away, captivated by her performance. And apparently in Zoe Cassavetes’ Broken English, she leaves you lost for words. Gracie, Drea.

NOT JUST A SERIES – A MASTERPIECE

No, The Sopranos isn’t just a series or film about what some call ‘the mafia’. For a decade now, HBO has brought us a profoundly human series, the full impact of which we have yet to grasp. Of course many people just see it as one more film condoning sociopaths and American gangsters; but it immerses us, clinically, in all the twists, turns and mechanisms behind the violence. Seriously, this one really deserves the box-set treatment, if you catch my drift…

Thanks to David Chase and to HBO. (1)

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