Toto Who Lived Twice

Totò Who Lived Twice (Totò che visse due volte, 1998) is an Italian black-and-white film directed by Daniele Ciprì and Franco Maresco — watch it online on iFILM. Three stories, three men near the bottom of Sicilian provincial life, shot with the austerity of silent cinema.

The first follows Paletta, the village simpleton, who steals from the local mob because he cannot afford what men with money take for granted. The second looks at a dead man's betrayal through the woman who caused it. The third ties the strands: a lowlife named Lazzaro is killed by a gang boss named Totò, then raised from the dead by a messiah — also named Totò, played by the same actor. Ciprì and Maresco's debt to Pasolini runs deeper than style; the film thinks in images rather than in narrative.

Banned in Italy for several years after release. Slow, uncompromising, not here to please — it asks something of you. Stream Totò Who Lived Twice (1998) online on iFILM.