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Films set in
Naples
(also
indexed under "Neo-Realism")
 What
follows is certainly not an exhaustive list. I have
simply listed 19 films that I have seen and consider
worthwhile
for one reason or another. That is, if I were to start a collection of
films
set in Naples, I would include these. (In cases where a film has been
mentioned elsewhere within this encyclopedia, highlighted
titles or names link to those sections. Also, I have not included any
film in the vast repertoire of the Neapolitan Sceneggiata. Click here for a separate item on
that.)
(The first four films are marked "NR" to
indicate "Neo-Realism and are also listed separately in the index.)
In
chronological order:
--Paisà
(Paisan, 1946, dir.
Roberto Rossellini)
(NR)
One of the great films of postwar Italian Neorealism. It
is an "episode" film with six
vignettes, all focusing on the relationship between the recently
liberated
Italians and their American liberators. The most popular vignette seems
to be
one that takes place in Naples.
--Sciuscià (Shoe Shine, 1947, dir. Vittorio de
Sica) (NR)
Another classic of Neorealist cinema. It deals with the
lives of the scugnizzi, Neapolitan street children at the end
of WW II.
The title, itself, is the local pronunciation of the word "shoe
shine"—which is how many such children tried to grind out a living.
--Napoli
Milionaria (Naples
Millionaire, 1950, dir. Eduardo de
Filippo) (NR)
Anything by the great playwright De Filippo is about Naples
and worth seeing. This is his own screenplay from his own stage play.
He stars
in it, as well, as a Neapolitan streetcar conductor involved in other
people's
problems.
--L'Oro di
Napoli (The Gold of
Naples, 1954, dir. V. DeSica)
(NR)
Based on the book by Marotta, this is another episode film
and easily the most popular one among Neapolitans themselves. Various
sides of
Neapolitan culture are presented, all of them worth laughing and
thinking
about. Stars the great comic, Totò,
Sofia Loren, De Sica, himself, and Eduardo
De Filippo, who gives his infamous demonstration on the proper way
to render
the rude, hand-blown "pernacchio"
("raspberry"--shown on film poster, above.).
--Tarantella
Napoletana (1954, dir.
Camillo Mastrocinque)
This was only the second color film made in Italy. It was
billed as a "musical" on the level of the "great American
musical comedies." Small difference: this one has no story at all. It's
still worth seeing, though, since it is a very well-done selection of
choreographed songs about Naples.
--Miseria e nobiltà
(Misery
and Nobility, 1954, dir. Mario Mattoli ) A film version
of a well-known play from 1888 by Eduardo
Scarpetta, master of the slapstick farce. He created the character
of the likeable scatterbrain, Felice Sciosciammocca, played here by Totò. The film
also features the young Sophia Loren. The plot involves
poverty-stricken
Felice and his friend, don Pasquale, masquerading as aristocratic
relatives
of a young woman in order to get her parents approval for a marriage to
a young prince.
--La banda degli onesti (Honest crooks, 1956, dir.C. Mastrocinque)
Hilarious film about
three average Joes who decide to become counterfeiters. Stars Totò, Peppino
de
Filippo, and Giacomo Furia. The scene of the three of them using a
children's
"count-out rhyme" to see who has to try to cash their first
phony banknote is worth the price of admission.
--La sfida (The Challenge,
1958, Francesco Rosi)
Hard-hitting, it was the first of the films about the
Mafia and crooked
politicians. It won a prize at the 1958 Venice Film Festival in spite
of
pressure not to screen it.
--La
baia di
Napoli (It
started in Naples, 1960, dir. Melville
Shavelson)
Stars Sophia
Loren and Clark Gable. Romantic comedy about falling in love on Capri. Absolute fluff and absolutely delightful.
Contains one of the most popular Italian songs of the last 50 years,
"Tu
vuo' fa' l'Americano" (roughly: "You try so hard to be an
American").
--Matrimonio
all'italiana (Marriage,
Italian Style, 1964, dir. V. de Sica)
This is de Sica's
masterful rendition of Eduardo de Filippo's
stage-play, Filumena Maturano,
the the story of an ingenious ex-prostitute (Sophia Loren) who gets her
common-law
husband (Marcello Mastroiani) to marry her by revealing to him that he
is the father of one
of
her three sons. To ensure that he treats all three equally, she refuses
to tell him which one.
--Avanti (1972, dir. Bill Wilder) The
funniest film set in Naples (ok, technically, the island
of Ischia) ever made by a non-Italian. It is underrated, but as
perfect a comedy, in its own way, as Wilder's great Some
Like it
Hot. Stars Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. Secondary roles are
magnificent, including Edward Andrews as an obnoxious US diplomat. The
original title is the
Italian word "Avanti," meaning "come in"). That word (in the sense of
"Forward") is, however, also the title of the Italian
Communist
party
newspaper; thus, the Italian release of the film was hobbled by an
awful
title which translates as "What Happened Between My Father
and Your Mother". What can I say? It's still a great film.
--Lucky Luciano (1974, dir. F.
Rosi)
Another Rosi film about crime and power. Stars Gian Maria
Volentè as the infamous gangster in Naples after being deported
from the United
States.
--Signore e
signori, buonanotte (Ladies and
Gentlemen, Good Night, 1976, dir. Leo
Benvenuti and others)
Relatively unknown abroad, this is an episode film, each one
a satire on some aspect of life in Naples. Impressive
cast includes Marcello Mastroiani, Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio
Gassman, Nino Manfredi, and Paolo Villaggio. Most memorable
scene is of
Neapolitan politicians gorging themselves on a gigantic cake made to
resemble
the bay and city of Naples.
--Ricomincio da
tre (1980, Massimo
Troisi)
The late Massimo Troisi was the most popular Neapolitan
comic since Totò. This was his first hit film. He wrote it,
directed it and starred in it.
Essentially, it is about
his adventures as he moves from Naples to Florence. The title, "I'm
starting at three" is a pun on "to start from
zero"—"to start over." This is a chance to hone your
language skills; Troisi delivers all of his lines in Neapolitan dialect.
--La pelle (The Skin, 1981, dir.
Liliana Cavani)
Based on the book by Curzio Malaparte, the film is a
collection of bitter memories about the Allied liberation of Naples.
With Burt
Lancaster and Marcello Mastroiani.
--Cosí parlò
Bellavista (Thus
Spake Bellavista, 1984, dir. Luciano
De Crescenzo)
De Crescenzo directs a film based on his own best-selling
book. Explores the differences in being from the south and the north in
Italy,
one of De Crenscenzo's favorite topics. He is, at the moment, the most
popular
living writer from Naples and has authored a number of quirky, humorous
"histories of philosophy" for Everyman.
--'O Re (The King, 1988, dir. Luigi
Magni) A good film for those interested in the history of the risorgimento--the movement to unify
Italy in the 19th century--and the ultimate defeat of the Bourbon
dynasty that had ruled the Kingdom of Naples. Giancarlo Gianini plays
the last king, Francis II (known as "Franceschiello"), the likeable
weakling never meant to rule; Ornella Muti plays his German-born queen,
Maria Sofia, the "heroine of
Gaeta." The film follows them briefly during their exile in Rome after
the fall of the kingdom. A remarkable film score by Nicola Piovani.
--Io speriamo
che me la cavo (Ciao,
Professore! 1993, dir. Lina Wertmuller)
A brilliant performance by Paolo Villaggio
as a northern
grade-school teacher who winds up in the Neapolitan outback. He learns
to
understand the dialect and, most importantly, to understand the lives
of his
impoverished school children. The film is based on a series of real
grade-school essays by local pupils--thus the grammatical error in the
title.
 --Ferdinando e
Carolina (1999, L.
Wertmuller)
The film is, in Wertmueller's words, a "libertine
comedy" about a very unfunny period in the history of the Kingdom of
Naples, the period before the French Revolution when the young, oafish,
and
virile Ferdinand IV was running around the woods hunting while his very
able
and ruthless wife, Caroline of Hapsburg, was making plans to run the
kingdom.
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