Directed with a rigorous attention to detail and imbued with a stately yet unsettling visual atmosphere, OPEN DOORS is such a one-sided condemnation of capital punishment, at the expense of character delineation, that its impact is blunted despite its many virtues.
Based on Leonardo Sciascia's 1937 novel, this didactic period piece gets off to a stunning start. A bureaucrat, Tommaso Scalia (Ennio Fantastichini) slays the superior who fired him, then kills the official who replaced him, before raping and slaughtering his wife Rosa (Vitalba Andrea). Exhausted
by the triple homicide, Scalia fixes his young son a meal and then calmly lies down on the bed and awaits...
Released:
1990
Rated:
R
Length:
108 mins