Retrospektive 2019

‘O sole mio

Giacomo Gentilomo
I 1946
90 min
V'19

1943 erlebte Gentilomo persönlich die „Vier Tage von Neapel“, den glorreichen Aufstand der neapolitanischen Zivilbevölkerung gegen die deutschen Besatzer. Er schnappte sich eine 16mm-Kamera, ging die verbarrikadierten Straßen entlang und zeichnete das historische Ereignis auf. Nach der Befreiung der Stadt verwendete er einen Teil dieses unglaublichen Materials für ’O SOLE MIO. Noch vor Rossellinis ROMA CITTÀ APERTA drehte also Gentilomo mit Laiendarsteller*innen an realen Schauplätzen. Der einzige Star des Films ist der populäre Opernsänger Tito Gobbi, der, als Offizier in eine Radiostation eingeschleust, verschlüsselte Nachrichten in seine Sendungen packt.

 

Along with few other filmmakers of his generation (most notably Primo Zeglio, Giorgio Ferroni, and Vittorio Cottafavi), Giacomo Gentilomo still hasn’t received proper film historical credit for pioneering and perfecting several trends in post-war Italian cinema. Born in 1909, Gentilomo entered the Italian film industry in the early 1930s as an editor, assistant director, and script supervisor, before moving on to direct mainly comedies. The Second World War found him in Naples, where he witnessed the Four Days of Naples, the glorious 1943 uprising of the Neapolitan civil population against the German occupying forces. Gentilomo grabbed a 16mm camera, headed down the bustling, barricaded streets, and recorded the historical events. After the liberation, part of this incredible footage found its way into ’O SOLE MIO, the first ever attempt to glorify the uprising in a narrative film. But this wasn’t the only first in ’O SOLE MIO. Before Rossellini’s ROMA CITTÀ APERTA, Gentilomo shot outside the studio, at real-life locations, employing mostly non-professional actors working around the only star of the film, popular opera singer Tito Gobbi. The operatic baritone stars as an Italian-American officer behind enemy lines, who packs coded messages for fellow antifascists in his radio broadcasts – a specific local anthropological tradition that is still alive and well among the Neapolitan criminal underground.

Credits
  • Vittorio Caprioli - Fabriksbesitzer
  • Tito Gobbi
  • Adriana Benetti
  • Vera Carmi
  • Carlo Ninchi
  • Arnoldo Foà
  • Mario Amendola
  • Vincenzo Rovi
  • Tonino Delli Colli
  • Anchise Brizzi
  • Guido Bertoli
  • Ezio Carabella
Rinascimento Film
35 mm
SW
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