Cristina Donadio
A gravity-defying boy raised in seclusion matures into an extraordinary man -- and an international celebrity -- who longs for human connection.
To support her family, Maria works as a trafficker of surrogate mothers, transporting them from place to place along a river — but when one disappears, Maria is left with the task of finding her and must enter deeper into a world she wishes to escape.
Five Italian directors -- Pappi Corsicato, Antonietta DeLillo, Antonio Capuano, Stefano Incerti, Mario Martone -- contributed a quintet of short films depicting life in Naples under the shadow of the volcano for this anthology film of comedy, drama, surrealism, and political commentary on the Italian left. Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival.
The impossible love between one prostitute, managing a bunch of handicapped prostitutes, and the homosexual Adamo. In the horrible suburb of Napoli we can follow among fantasy, mythology and reality the absurd life of the protagonists.
This high-energy three part comedy has a strong undercurrent of melancholy, as it shows three different women coping with difficult situations which are usually sexual in origin, even if the moment of romance is long past. In the first tale, Aurora has gotten used to a cozy, wealthy life, but begins to see her world destroyed when her husband is caught in bed with his secretary. Later, he flees the country to avoid getting arrested for something else he has done. Carmela is just welcoming her wayward son back to their slum home after he has spent a stint in "reform" school. Not only has he just confessed to her that he's gay, but he has become a heroin addict.Finally, Libera works at a newsstand outside of Naples as the sole breadwinner for her family. She is tired of her husband lounging in their house when he is not out tomcatting around with prostitutes, and decides to do something about it. So she secretly has him filmed in bed, and is marketing the tapes at her newsstand.
A cruel dictator rules a Latin American state. Corruption, brutality and exploitation are present every day. A few people begin to organise resistance. Under the leader "El Leopardo" a small group of guerillas fights against the violent government.
Mario lives in Turin with his sister Michelina. He works in the factory. He meets a young Turin man running a night club frequented by unsavory people related to drug trafficking.
Cahiers du cinéma critic Serge Daney asks whether The Kingdom of Naples is "leftist fiction, kitschy melodrama, photo-roman, a decadent chronicle of a city, opera in a minor key, or simply the first realistic narrative film by Schroeter?" It is all of these and more: an epic chronicle of proletarian family life in Naples from 1943 to 1972 that brilliantly captures the wretched poverty, overwrought passions, and political, religious and economic upheavals of Sicily across two generations. Schroeter assimilates neorealist aesthetics and class sympathies with the tempestuous excesses of popular melodrama, borrowing freely from Rossellini, Pasolini, Visconti, Brecht, and Rossini. (Facets)
