O Ouro de Nápoles

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.

A masterwork about Naples directed by a Neapolitan that really has it all. As with all 'portmanteau' films there are segments that 'appeal' more than others although here all of them have merit. The 'wow' factor obviously belongs to 'Pizza on Credit' in which a lusty, unfaithful wife pretends to have mislaid her wedding ring in the pizza dough. No director brought out the raw, earthy sensuality of Sophia Loren as well as de Sica who apparently choreographed her every move, gesture and inflection. Bringing them together proved a masterstroke by Carlo Ponti and as we know the de Sica/Loren partnership reaped rich rewards. The segment called 'The Gambler' featuring de Sica himself as an impoverished nobleman is masterful. Just how many hopefuls he auditioned before casting Piero Bilancioni as the servant's son who keeps beating him at cards is anyone's guess but the boy is stupendous and one wonders what became of him. Personally the story that stays with me most features Silvana Mangano as Teresa, a former prostitute who is faced with a tough choice between being the mistress of a large house and denied a husband's love or going back to her old 'profession'. The scene where she wavers and goes from tearfulness to defiant resolution is La Mangano at her most magnificent and is certainly one of the finest moments in Italian cinema. Music is by Alessandro Cicognigni, a regular de Sica collaborator and Carlo Montuori, who went on to film 'Bicycle Thieves', is behind the camera. The story by Giuseppe Marotta is adapted by the ubiquitous Cesare Zavattini who also had a hand in the screenplay. De Sica himself once said that 'Neapolitans, like children, always look good on camera' but in this he was being unduly modest. A truly magical film of which one can never tire.

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!

I recently watched The Gold of Naples after a prolonged search. Like many others, I first learned of this film through Martin Scorsese's documentary on Italian cinema. While not as famous as some of Vittorio De Sica's other films, I assumed The Gold of Naples would eventually be released on DVD. Years have passed and the only American DVD release is a cheap, dubbed, public domain copy paired with The Bicycle Thief. I recently found a subtitled VHS tape from a 90's dealer (Facets or Sinister Cinema). Although the print is the 107 minute U.S. cut with two stories missing, the experience was well worth it. The Gold of Naples is an anthology film and, like most, the stories vary in quality. However, none of these stories are bad (something I cannot say about many anthology films). The first one has Toto as a man with the misfortune to be stuck living with a bully. This local thug moved in and will not leave. This story I found the weakest, but Toto is something of an acquired taste. The second story features the lovely Sophia Loren as the adulterous wife of a pizza maker. Much havoc ensues when the wife's prized jade ring goes missing. The third story is the funniest (and was prominently featured in the Scorsese documentary). In it, director Vittorio De Sica, himself, plays a compulsive gambler who meets his match in the hotel doorman's young son. Lastly, Silvano Mangano plays a prostitute who marries a wealthy man she has never met. This one is the most melancholy of the stories, a far cry from the good humor of the first three. That is all. I wish I could report on the other two stories, but they remain unseen in America. How about a restoration, Criterion?

Vittorio De Sica's tribute to Napoli where he spent several years as a youth. It's a six part anthology linked only by the location (in the U. S. two of the segments were cut, but have now been restored). The portmanteau film blends comedy and drama and has themes of jealousy, sexuality, greed and vanity throughout - all aspects of Italian life as it were.

The most serious chapter, "Teresa", stars Silvanna Mangano as a tainted title character trapped into a marriage of convenience. The most famous is the comedic "Pizza on Credit" featuring Sophia Loren in her breakout role as the duplicitous wife of a humble sidewalk restaurant owner. The best is the briefest, "Funeralino" which is an almost dialog-less journey of a woman (Theresa De Vita) who leads a funeral procession through the streets of the city for her deceased young child. Simple, poignant. De Sica himself stars as "The Gambler" as a henpecked Count who has to sneak away from the Countess in order to place penny-ante bets. The other shorts star Toto (who got top billing) and Eduardo de Filippo.

As with most omnibus films, the quality varies made all the more noticeable in that the opening and closing ones are the weakest. The movie did make Loren a huge star and De Sica does manage to do more than merely make a picturesque travelogue. There is some real poetry in depicting a wide variety of Naples' inhabitants and Mangano is superb.