Napoli milionaria! (1986)
Directed by Enzo Sirna
Cast
Gennaro Jovine……….Bruno Napolitano
Amalia (sua moglie)……….Carmela Bruguglio
Maria Rosaria (figlia)……….Claudia Vecchio
Amedeo (figlio)……….Enzo Sirna
Errico {Settebellizze}……….Luciano Pinto
Peppe {ai???o Cricco}……….Nick Cappa
Riccard Spasiano (ragioniere)……….Mario Ambrosino
Federico……….Bill Vocisano
Il Dottore……….Paul Conti
Pascalino {ai???o pittore}……….Guy Riolo
{ai???O Miezo Prevete}……….Peter Zollo
Il brigadiere Ciappa……….Giorgio Conte
Adelaide Schiano……….Lucia Conte
Assunta……….Franca Potalivo
Donna Peppenella……….Maria CalabrA?
Teresa……….Anne Conti
Margherita……….Tina Mocerino
Prima guardia……….Carlo Genovese
Un signore……….Jerzy Brodzki
Il muto……….Paul Alteri
In its finely balanced mixture of humour and pathos, Napoli milionaria is a poignant record of how the last war affected the poorer populations, especially in Naples and the other great cities of Italy; it was not simply a case of physical suffering, but of ai???sufferings of the spiritai??? (ai???le sofferenze moraliai???) as they are defined by Gennaro Jovine at the conclusion of the second act. The tragic events of those years were to be captured for posterity by the Neorealist film directors, as everyone knows, and at the same time Eduardo DeFilippo made his own original contribution with this play written in 1945, the same year of Rosselliniai??i??s Roma, cittA? aperta (Rome, Open City).
Gennaro Jovineai??i??s family in their ai???bassoai??? (ai???vascioai???, in Neapolitan dialect) or ground floor room, with its ingenious partitions, opening as it does onto a typical alley, is meant as a typical family struggling for survival at a moment in time when the normally difficult conditions were made almost unbearable by the war. It was very difficult to keep a family afloat and this play was meant to be a kind of sociological document of what can happen to such a family when a moral outlook and a collective sense of living in harmony with oneai??i??s neighbour are put aside for the sake of material well-being and selfish interests. This very bitter story of the black market in Naples in those years is deep down a brilliantly crafted piece of dramatic allegory in which the authorai??i??s morally committed aim was to give back to the outcasts and the unfortunates of life their justly deserved human dignity. Eduardo himself said of his plays that they were meant to reflect above all his compassionate understanding of the hardships as well as the innate humour of ordinary people, and he was thinking of Napoli milionaria as the starting point of his most committed works for the stage.
ai???Ho assorbito avidamente, e con pietAi?? la vita di tanta genteai???. (Eduardo)