Is it still possible to narrate the wonders, contradictions and colours of Naples after so much cinema, Italian and otherwise, has dissected its beauty and miseries? The answer is yes and it’s two filmmakers from Rome that are responsible.
The Manetti Bros. rediscover Naples through the gaze of the cinema they grew up with, that of detective stories and Neapolitan dramas, reinventing them in their own unmistakable way. The city and its characters transform into something that, although anchored in tradition, has a thoroughly contemporary flavour.
We make the acquaintance of a pianist with high hopes, forced by his circumstances to join the police force and infiltrate the world of organised crime in the guise of a local pop singer.
Working in the tradition of Fizzarotti, Nino D’Angelo, Mario Merola and Nanni Loy distilled into the logic of the Italian crime cinema, the result is, in the words of Giona A. Nazzaro in Nocturno Cinema: “a truly exceptional film”.