The current ideological system that governs our lives — call it late capitalism, the spectacle, or just Babylon — is most devious in its ability to take any and all resistance, any deviance from the hamster wheel of consumerism, and repackage it as just another product, whether that's Che Guevara T-shirts, "fair-trade" coffee at Starbucks, or The Beatles' "Revolution" as a soundtrack for Nike ads.
Cinema is no different, and we see the process at work this month with director Matteo Garrone's "Tale of Tales." Garrone, you may recall, is the Italian director who rose to prominence with "Gomorrah" (2008), a savage documentary-like gangster movie set in Naples, which showed how mafia corruption had infected every corner of daily life.
Shot on an actual Neapolitan housing estate and based on risky undercover journalism, "Gomorrah" was powerful confrontational art, exposing a shadow reality. It was a huge hit at home — where it influenced both attitudes and politics — and abroad, where it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and was nominated for an Oscar. (It also spun off a gritty TV series, now in its second season.)