Retrospektive 2019

Le quattro giornate di Napoli

The Four Days of Naples
Nanni Loy
I 1962
120 min
V'19

Nachdem die „Vier Tage von Neapel“ in ’O SOLE MIO erstmals und entschieden melodramatisch verfilmt wurden, folgt sechzehn Jahre später LE QUATTRO GIORNATE DI NAPOLI treu den historischen Ereignissen. Nach dem Waffenstillstand 1943 verschanzen sich Reste der italienischen Armee in der Stadt und werden von deutschen Truppen überrannt, die mit der Deportation der Neapolitaner in Arbeitslager beginnen. Die Bevölkerung revoltiert und vertreibt die Besatzer noch vor der Ankunft der Alliierten. Mit rastloser Kamera gefilmt, feiert Nanni Loy den Aufstand als Hymne an die Bewegung der Massen und schafft ein neorealistisches Denkmal für den städtischen Guerillakrieg.

 

Whereas ’O SOLE MIO represents the first, and decidedly more melodramatic and intimate cinematic treatment of the Four Days of Naples, the eponymous Nanni Loy epic shot sixteen years later stands as the definitive take on this historical event. For a start, Loy follows the historical timeline faithfully. After the 1943 Italian armistice, various leaderless remnants of the Italian army around Naples scramble into the city. Several Italian officers desert their posts and flee in panic. German invaders quickly overrun the city and start wreaking havoc, destroying property and rounding up male citizens for deportation to German labor camps. Unlike the cowardly officers, the people of Naples refuse to bow. Aware that the Allies are close and liberation imminent, they revolt against the Germans and, over four bloody days of rebellion, manage to expel the occupiers before the Allies even arrive. Nanni Loy’s restless camera depicts all these events as a hymn to the movement of the masses – as one single, extended action sequence that glorifies the collective antifascist hero and a neorealist monument to the concept of urban guerrilla warfare. Nominated for an Academy Award, LE QUATTRO GIORNATE DI NAPOLI was also released in the States where some of the critics – baffled by the film’s violent immediacy and sense of authenticity – went so far to call it a documentary.

Credits
  • Raffaele Barbato
  • Charles Belmont
  • Silvana Buzzanca
  • Luigi De Filippo
  • Domenico Formato
  • Enzo Cannavale
  • Carlo Bernari
  • Pasquale Festa Campanile
  • Massimo Franciosa
  • Nanni Loy
  • Marcello Gatti
  • Ruggero Mastroianni
  • Carlo Rustichelli
Titanus
35 mm
SW
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