L'oro di Napoli

Superb collection of vignettes in the daily life of the people of Naples, lensed by a master director. Six separate stories, all with wonderful characters, including one starring De Sica himself as a frustrated Count, ready to wager the family silver and country estates in a desperate attempt to win an ongoing card game against an unbeatable street urchin. The movie begins with the tale of a downtrodden family man who rebels against his low-level, mob-boss bully of a lodger, setting his family free -- but at what cost? Funny, but also disturbing. One of the stories a touching, virtually wordless tale of a heartbroken mother accompanying her child's coffin to the cemetery, together with a crowd of children, unaware of the real tragedy, only interested in candy. The most dramatic piece starring Silvana Mangano as a prostitute tricked into a loveless marriage by a wealthy man atoning for the suicide of his true love. The stand-out story, a delightful tale of an adulterous pizza maker, Sophia Loren, desperately in search of an emerald ring, supposedly baked into a pizza, but in reality left on her lover's nightstand. This film is worth watching for one scene alone, watching Loren stride down the street in the rain, followed by her cuckolded husband. If ever one scene in a movie made a star then this is it. Obviously not wearing a bra, Loren's breasts fill the screen and De Sica, full of mischief, follows her every move, both from front and behind in a gorgeous, gorgeous display of Loren's twenty year old sensuality. One of those knockout scenes that belongs to film history. The last vignette, an arrogant landlord, bully to all his tenants, humiliated by them when they all in unison blow a Bronx cheer as he passes by. A trifle, but brilliantly set up and performed with cheeky perfection. What this movie also offers is the sense of reality, a total lack of artifice and lack of studio sets, all in the style of the Bicycle Thief, another of De Sica's masterpieces, filmed on the streets. One's heart aches for the passing of such a talented actor and director. This is a movie that demands to be released in a full version, not the shortened American one, in a decent and respectable DVD. Can't Criterion get hold of this somehow? MovIe lovers deserve to be able to enjoy every minute of this delight. Hats off to De Sica and all involved!

The whole soul of the city of Naples is told through 6 short stories featuring its inhabitants, streets and monuments. The incredible photography superbly highlights all aspects of this very special city. In this film, people eat and laugh a lot, talk loudly, play, lie, love, but also cry... Tragedy and death are an integral part of the landscape, like the Vesuvio, both beautiful and threatening. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, the film is always very fine and accurate in its description of the human soul and all the feelings it can harbor. There are some pictures and faces you will not forget so soon...

I am Italian and I saw this movie on TV a few days ago. I had not seen it in the past. Totò is absolutely fantastic in his role. But the most astonishing episode is that of the 'funeralino', the funeral of a child: that is very 'neapolitan' to me. Sorrow and attention to manners are co-existent and you never know whether it is true sorrow or pure acting. Paolo Stoppa is also excellent in his role as a new widower. Of course, the movie is quoted because of Sofia Loren, who was helping her husband in his job of making pizzas. This is the movie where her nickname 'la pizzaiola' came from. While watching it, I did not realize that it had been made so many years ago. It well deserves to be seen.

this is not a comedy.

rather documentary movie. shows what i am usually most interested in - local people. their habits, day-to-day life, way they enjoy life and face problems people of Neapol, and city itself, from 50ties as pictured in this movie is worth to see.

all of them are 'typical' Italians - eating pasta, drinking wine, celebrating family, friends, expressing feelings. Moreover you will see local communities, habits - what is most probably no more existing in Neapol nowadays.

the film is not an action killer. it has some subtle humor, good actors, and tells five stories. so if you want to have relaxed, easy afternoon, and fancy traveling in time and space - 'go to Neapol'!

I wish mildly to dissent from the love fest shown for this de Sica film by my nine IMDB colleagues below. I feel that, like most anthology movies, it is a mixed bag with some estimable sections, and some that are, frankly, on the dull side. Oddly enough, in a group of short films geared toward the comic end of the spectrum, I found that my two faves were the two most somber, namely the moving story of the prostitute Teresa who, remembering the cold world out there that she used to be in, chooses material comfort over love, and the very brief work that deals with a child's funeral procession along the Naples waterfront and that manages, in ten minutes of screen time, to get at the thin line that separates the joys of life from the bleakness of death. The three comedies, by contrast, I found way too broad and strained and excessively pushing the Italian stereotypical envelope, with too much yelling, weeping and general operatic histrionics in lieu of comedy. I will say, however, that Sophia Loren's breakthrough role as a pizza maker's unfaithful wife was striking, as well as a timely reminder that this greatest of Italian actresses could give Claudia and Gina stiff competition in the curvaceous dept. And De Sica's love for his home town comes through so vividly that you can almost smell the pasta puttanesca. B minus.