Film Forum

Benedict Cumberbatch gives life to the words of British soldier Norman Lewis, whose remarkable memoir of post-World War II Naples form the basis for this haunting evocation of a ravaged land, and later a city of infinite charm.  Lewis entered Naples as part of an invasion of Nazi-occupied Italy. His memories and his return many years later are recalled with magnificent  warmth and wit. Filmmaker Francesco Patierno combines riveting archival war footage with clips from movies set in Naples from the 1950s and 60s (featuring Marcello Mastroianni, Alan Arkin, Ernest Borgnine) to evoke a city that was as much a victim of the war as any individual – but that has come back to life with all the charisma of Vesuvius, its very own volcano.

ITALY • 2016 • 80 MINS. • IN ENGLISH • FIRST RUN FEATURES

Reviews

“A riveting film, a complex portrait of the mystery of Naples”
– Corriere della Sera

“A feat of editing and research. (Lewis was) a remarkable chronicler of life in the occupied city. Plainspoken yet poetic… a mix that includes archival footage and movies from Roberto Rossellini’s PAISAN, Mike Nichols’s CATCH-22 and Liliana Cavani’s THE SKIN.”
– Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times

“If it weren’t for the time-chiseled patina on the footage dug out from archives, the powerful images of Vesuvius erupting, or the Caravaggio-esque faces of the faithful praying, there really wouldn’t be much difference between the Naples of this time and the cities martyred by the conflicts of today, like Aleppo, like Mosul.”
– Il Mattino

“Magnificent. (An) elegant, moving, balanced war diary”
– Il Foglio

“An unusual, but powerful docufilm”
– Il Giornale

“Francesco Patierno’s filmmaking is truly complementary to and as worthy as Norman Lewis’s work of literature. Wounded, devastated, bombed and raped… a whole city seems to want to come out of the nightmare and shout out against war. Against all wars.”
– Il Manifesto