"L'uomo che Andava Appresso ai Funerali" concentrates on two deaths - a lonely hermit with a penchant for attending funerals not his own; and the wife of a bourgeois builder whose personal life turns out to be more complicated than might be first assumed. The plot develops in leisurely fashion with plenty of pauses for various scenic incidentals - shots of the Sicilian coast in the late afternoon, pans of the sylvan landscape, and establishing shots of the sleepy villages built in ancient limestone. Director Gianluca Tavarelli seems more preoccupied with situation rather than incident - even in a sleepy town there are dark deeds taking place behind the paneled front doors.
To be honest, the scenic incidentals are more entertaining than the story. The sight of Montalbano (Michele Riondino) finishing off his plate of spaghetti at the local restaurant, accompanied by a glass of sparkling wine, reminds us of the importance of food to any Mediterranean culture. Montalbano takes regular breaks in the local bar - not to drink alcohol, but to partake of black coffee and cogitate on the cases at the same time. Time is more relaxed here: cases get solved at the end, but the investigating officer seems to take a more leisurely approach compared to his northern European equivalent.
Tavarelli is fond of brief moments where the plot is suspended briefly and the focus centers instead on emotions. When Catarella (Fabrizio Pizzuto) sees a beautiful woman entering the police station, he is smitten by love; he stares at her, and the camera pans in slow motion towards her as a love-song plays on the soundtrack. Were he in a position to do so, he would try his best to make a pass at her. Likewise Montalbano, during one of the more rocky moments in his relationship with Livia (Sarah Felberbaum) is shown in a two-shot in bed to the sound of an Italian ballad. Perhaps the episode's most memorable shot occurs when Montalbano and Livia sit opposite one another at a table; through a clever use of lighting Tavarelli suggests that there is a partition between the two of them. This is not a physical but an emotional partition. Although their differences are resolved at the end, we still suspect that the course of their true love will never run smooth in the future.
Perhaps not the most memorable episode of the Sicilian detective series, but nonetheless it has its moments.
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