Nostalgia

This is the kind of movie that is very strange to me. Don't tell that to anyone, but coming from a Sicilian family, anything that happens in a city where the Napolitan mafia scares everyone, looks very familiar. Felice left Napoli 40 years before, and comes back to a city that looks like what he remembers, but feels completely different. He first comes back to see his dying mom, and spend some times with her before going back to his wife in Egypt. After 40 years, Felice has become Muslim, and has troubles speaking Italian (he usually speaks Arabic). He comes back to a Catholic Napoli, where the Catholic priest is leading the war against the Camorra, and its boss 'O malommo' (the bad man). Felice reminisces about his past, about an 'Oreste' that was his best friend, who defended him and helped him in every way, and you wonder what happened to him. As you go through his childhood in Napoli, the parallel is made with current Napoli, with the Catholic priest showing Felice that not everything is great, but that he is trying and giving everything he can to the kids of the neighbourhood, so that they get out of the Camorra's influence. The actors are great, and the story all too familiar to me, and I really liked that movie. Yes, the ending is expected, but it couldn't have been any other way.

This is a plot which has already been used before: the lead character who comes back home after many years away and who suddenly finds out all the changes that occured during his - or her - absence. Italian movies have already given us such topics: FORGET PALERMO. Or French LE FILS from Pierre Granier Deferra, starring Yves Montand. More or less same scheme. This movie which I review now is full of nostaligia, as its title says, It is not a crime film, but a drama with some social elements about Italy today. With of course the Mafia and church influence on the Italian society. It is rather dark, a bit gloomy but beautiful, really worth the view. Flawless acting and directing too; excellent camera work.

Beautiful film, intense characters. I was in la Sanita recently and actually spent time at the church of Don Luigi in the film and heard all about the Catholic local church movement rehabilitating the catacombs and the area, and the youth reclaming their neighbourhood. Naples has a soul and Nostalgia portrays that well. Loved that the film did not sugarcoat the city, and kept grit and all... the filming conveys a true to life filter. The real Naples still reeks of its history of violence and behind the Italian cliche romance, a lot of people have lived in fear. Beautiful movie and flowing acting. Loved the Oreste character portrayal. Nice fusion of Arabic culture as well.

In Nostalgia (2022), Felice, played by Pierfrancesco Favino, returns to Naples after spending 40 years living in Lebanon and Egypt. Upon his return, he finds his elderly mother and discovers that his once-familiar home now feels strange and distant. Felice struggles with the guttural, volcanic tones of the Neapolitan dialect, having forgotten words and finding it difficult to express himself.

As the film progresses, the sense of displacement and the lurking danger from Felice's past are beautifully conveyed through Favino's expressive performance and Paolo Carnera's evocative cinematography. The camera ominously lingers in unsettling angles, capturing the yellow-tinged light on stairwells, the peeling walls, and the faulty electrical wiring, all adding to the film's haunting atmosphere.

Flashbacks, tinged with sepia, become more frequent as the story unfolds, and it becomes clear that Oreste, Felice's childhood friend, is now a powerful figure in the Camorra (the Neapolitan mafia). The feeling of nostalgia might be somewhat overstated, and the pacing occasionally feels uneven, but the tension that builds as the naïve Felice falls into a trap of his own making is magnetic.

At its core, Nostalgia tells a familiar story, set in contemporary times: after decades abroad, a man returns to his old neighborhood in Naples to close a long chapter of his life. Memories of his past flood him as he reawakens his love for the place he once vowed to leave behind. Director Mario Martone sharpens the film's focus by limiting the setting to a single neighborhood-Rione Sanità, a poverty-stricken, crime-ridden area-rather than filming all over Naples. The streets haven't changed much since Felice's youth, preserving the neighborhood's suffocating grip on him.

The reason for Felice's long exile slowly emerges. One of the most striking scenes takes place in the catacombs, now one of Naples' most famous tourist attractions. However, Felice's true reunion is not with his mother or his old friend Oreste (played by Tommaso Ragno), but with himself. He seeks to confront his past and finally resolve his "unfinished business"-a task that, upon reaching a certain age, many of us seek to accomplish.

Nostalgia captures this deeply personal journey with clarity, grounding its narrative in both the physical and emotional landscape of a man reckoning with his history.

Home is where the heart is?

The protagonist of this beautiful Italian film is hunting for what once was. Pierfrancesco Favino plays Felice, who returns to his hometown of Naples after 40 years. He finds that the city has not changed since he hastily left there as a 15-year-old. Well, that's what he believes and his naive upbringing of his hometown is conveyed to us as viewers. We would like to believe him. But sense problems. Felice almost ran away after a serious incident involving both him and his best friend growing up. The filmmakers take a long time to tell us what happened, and I won't give away anything here.

The film shows with insight what different path choices do to people over time. It's just that the protagonist fails to take this perspective into account. He longs to return to something that no longer exists.

The film is slow and lingering. Beautifully photographed. Excellent acting performances from all the cast. I understand very well that this was Italy's Oscar candidate the year it came out.

Watch it because you want to see Naples through the eyes and feelings of the main character. Watch it because it's something different from 90 percent of what goes on in theaters and is streamed. Here are real emotions, hope, longing and sadness.