Skip to main content

Edgardo Pistone's “Very Pasolinian Naples”



The Venice Film Critics’ Week is an independent section of the Venice International Film Festival, organized by the Union of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI). The program traditionally gets a second run in Rome during the Autumn months.

The annual series fosters independent and free-thinking filmmakers, often showcasing the work of new talent, and this year is no different. The 2020 program includes a selection of seven debut films in competition and two special events out of competition. Looking over the Italian films, I found some intriguing projects by filmmakers of all ages and backgrounds. Among them is Edgardo Pistone’s short film, “Le mosche” (The Flies). I was immediately drawn to the black and white images, which reflect both nostalgia and viridity. Critics are already comparing the film to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s work, and I can understand why. The poetry of Naples, where it was shot, and the aloofness of the boys brings to mind Pasolini’s “Accattone” as well as Federico Fellini’s “I vitelloni” and “Il bidone.”

The dialogue in the version that I watched is in Neapolitan dialect with some Italian subtitles. Watching the film reminded me of an old David Lynch quote: “Film is a picture and sound working together. Dialogue has its own way of working and it can be like music.” That is how I found this 15-minute film ­–like watching verses and choruses. You can feel something significant coming at the end, but there is not a definitive structure. That’s where it calls on the nostalgia of auteurs, like Pasolini and Fellini. I had a similar experience when watching Fellini’s “The Clowns.” There is this feeling of following the protagonists during a day in their lives. You are not with them. Instead, you are outside looking in. There is an air of abandon, yet you become invested in the characters. Like Moraldo, Alberto and Fausto in “I vitelloni,” they are aloof yet relatable. 

The film follows four mischievous teenage boys on the streets of Naples and their unlikely acquaintanceship with a local named Fiore as he endures their shenanigans. Often on the receiving end of the boys trickery, Fiore nevertheless grows fond of them and welcomes their attention. But boys being boys, they take his affection for granted and one of their pranks too far.


Born in Naples in 1990, Pistone developed an interest in cinema during his high school years. He studied his craft at the acclaimed Accademia di Belle Arti of Naples. Upon graduating, he began working as a director, photographer and screenwriter, and also started teaching filmmaking on the outskirts of Naples. That experience, teaching and talking about film with youngsters, is what ultimately led to the inspiration behind this film. “I received a call to take part in discussions about cinema for a couple of afternoons a week. For me, talking about cinema and making cinema is the same thing and I couldn’t resist. And from those discussions, this long and tiring journey was born. I say tiring because the boys in the film had my same distrust in adults. But once they were involved in the project, they did not stop and further validated this newfound trust with great affection and great professionalism,” Pistone recounted.

Fascinated by this story, I asked him a few questions about the project. He told me that while his experience growing up in Naples was the foundation for the film, he didn’t want the film to be a Neapolitan tale. “In this film, I tried to stage my adolescence. I was born and raised in Naples and I try to make films in my city while avoiding the commonplaces that are now increasingly present in the contents produced here,” he explained. Avoiding Italian stereotypes is also important to him. “In my movies, you will not see spaghetti, camorra or mandolins. The story of ‘Le mosche’ could have been set in North Africa, Eastern Europe or the United States. I also tried not to frame Vesuvius, but from the sea it is inevitable and therefore you can see it and I was happy.”

Regarding the iconic comparisons, he takes a humble stance. “For those who love cinema, talking about Pasolini or Fellini is like talking to a believer of God, and the faithful try to associate any event with this God. Having said that, I was certainly influenced by the authors of the past: especially Fellini. Fellini is paradoxically the director who most represented Italy while staging his interior landscapes, giving us a more complex and fascinating picture of reality during those years. Many other directors have tried, but have not left a mark like him. I am not a cinephile. I’ve missed some things, including some Pasolini films that I’ve yet to see,  but when I see “Accattone” I understand why people see something of Pasolini in my films.”

Certainly the black and white aspect prompts echoes of the past. When I asked him about the significance of making this creative decision, he said that he believes the black and white representation can be the most daring artistic reworking of reality. “It is one of many instruments used to make cinema and to restore other visions of reality. Shaping, translating and rewriting puts me in a position to offer a show, which is my first goal when I try to write a film.”

Naples-born character actor Salvatore Striano makes a brilliant cameo appearance as a street performer. Pistone said that their collaboration came natural as the two share the same struggles and desires to perfect their craft. 

It’s too early to say when "Le Mosche" will be available worldwide.  We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I recommend checking out Pistone’s 2014 short, “Per un’ora di amore” (For One Hour of Love). I found this film to be very dark, so it’s not for the faint of heart. The subject deals with severe loneliness and the measures one will take to feel wanted and loved. Pistone describes it as “a free and anarchist film.” He shot the film in the neighborhood of Rione Traiano. He describes it as "an ode to melancholy and the tenacity of loneliness."  Click here to watch it on Vimeo. 

Rione Traiano was also the location of Agostino Ferrente’s award-winning 2019 “Selfie.” Pistone was the assistant director on the film. Click here to stream it on Vimeo On Demand. 

Click here to watch the trailer.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Sweetness and Genius of Giulietta Masina

Fellini and Masina on the set of "La Strada" As open-hearted and sunny as Federico Fellini was dark and complex, they were perfect counterpoints during a half-century of marriage and professional collaboration.  Nicknamed a  “female Chaplin” and described by Chaplin himself as  the actress who moved him most,  Giulietta Masina confronted the tragedy of her characters with an eternal innocence and enthusiasm that gave Italians hope in the most challenging of times.  Born in 1921 in San Giorgio di Piano, a commune north of Bologna, Masina was the oldest of four children born to a father who was a music professor and violinist and a mother who was a grade-school teacher. Her parents sent her as a child to live in Rome with her widowed aunt while she attended school there. As Masina took an early interest in gymnastics, her aunt saw in her a passion for performing and encouraged her to pursue acting. So after high school, Masina attended Rome’s La...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ornella Muti: Five decades of Acting and Still Going Strong

Ornella Muti was born Francesca Romana Rivelli in Rome in 1955 to a Neapolitan father and an Estonian mother. She began her career as a model during her teenage years and made her film debut in 1970 with “La Moglie più bella” (The Most Beautiful Wife).  Her follow-up role was in the 1971 film, “Sole nella pelle” (Sun on the Skin), in which she played the daughter of wealthy parents who runs off with a hippie they don’t approve of. The film offers a telling journey through Italian society in the seventies, with its political climate, breathtaking seaside, and the styles and cars of that time.  Much of the film is set amid the sunny Italian seaside and captures the innocence and beauty of first love.   Muti made her American film debut in 1980 with "Flash Gordon." She played the role of Princess Aura. She’s appeared in two other American films, including “Oscar,” directed by John Landis and starring Don Ameche, Chazz Palminteri, and Sylvester Stallone. In 1992, she w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alessandro Gassmann: Born to Act

Alessandro Gassmannin his directorial debut "Razzabastarda" Alessandro Gassmann is the son of the iconic Italian actor/director Vittorio Gassman and French actress Juliette Mayniel. He was born in 1965 and grew up around cinema royalty.  He made his cinema debut in 1982 at the age of 17 in his father's autobiographical film, "Di padre in figlio." He went on to study his craft under his father's direction at the Theatre Workshop of Florence.  Vittorio Gassman was very active in theater and seemed just as comfortable on stage as he did in front of the camera. Known for his powerful interpretations of Dante's "Inferno" and "Paradiso," it is no surprise that he nurtured his son's acting aspirations on stage before he launched his career in television and film. One of Gassmann's strong qualities, which he undoubtedly inherited from his father is his incredible range and ease in going from genre to genre. He can play ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Conversation with Documentary Filmmaker Luigi Di Gianni

His documentary films have given voice to a people who would have otherwise been forgotten while preserving rituals and traditions no longer practiced. Visually stunning and emotionally moving, they reflect an Italy we’re not used to seeing in cinema.   Born in Naples in 1926, Luigi Di Gianni captured a dimension of Italy that people outside the South didn’t even know existed. He began his career working in the region of Basilicata, which back then was referred to as Lucania. He first visited the region with his parents when he was a boy. His father, being from the Lucanian village of Pescopagano, wanted to show his son his homeland.    That trip made an impression on the 9-year-old and created a deep affection that would one day inspire him to return. “I always remained very emotional about returning to this part of my homeland of Lucania,” he says. “It seemed like a different planet compared to Rome, where I lived. The tiring journey, the unpaved roads, the difficulti...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Timeless Vision of Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pondering his films and poetry, I wonder if the uniqueness of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films was rooted in his unconventional childhood. Born in Bologna in 1922, Pasolini's father was a lieutenant in the army, and his family was always moving. He grew up in various small towns in Northern Italy. After his parents separated, he spent most of his time in his mother's hometown of Casarsa, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. There, he grew to respect the area's peasant culture and began to write poetry in the region's dialect. He studied literature and art history at the University of Bologna and was drafted into the army during World War II. The war proved to be especially tragic for his family as his younger brother was executed by Communist partisans. Following the war, he returned to Casarsa where he worked as a teacher and ironically became a leading member of the Communist party there. Pasolini was later expelled from the party due to allegations of homo...
Post a Comment
Read more