FOUR DAYS OF NAPLES
Italy, 1962, 124 minutes, Black and white.
Directed by Nanni Loy.
The Four Days of Naples is an impressive Italian war film, made in the 1960s, but a reminiscence of the impact of the war in southern Italy and a tribute to the people who survived and resisted. The screenplay was written by director Nanni Loy with many collaborators including the noted novelist Vasco Pratolini. The sweep of the experience of ordinary people in war in the Neapolitan setting is most impressive, and is an excellent war film.
It can be recommended. While a feature film and with professional actors in the central roles, it is filmed against the background of a realistic Naples during the war and with a large section of the populace. It is a moving account of a city and a people under Nazi occupation, their suffering, and their being driven to resistance. The resistance is dramatic, the reprisals quite horrifying. It is wel1 worth discussing because, while it has a basic story line involving central characters, it is really the story of a people.
1. An entertainment film or a morale-boosting film? What elements in the making of the film indicated either interpretation?
2. Comment on the style of the film: the news reel style; the anonymity of the actors, the documentary style of the war?
3. Comment on the use of the Neapolitan people, the use of close-ups and their faces, the fact that they were continually on the move and running, the use of sentiment and Italian feeling, (especially about the boy Gennarino).
4. The impact of the war situation itself? How was this communicated? The feeling of Italy versus Germany, with the background of their previous alliance? The demands made on the Neapolitan people? The spirit of resistance?
5. The importance of the execution sequence where the people were made to applaud for newsreels? What did it mean to the Neapolitans?
6. The effect of the atrocities of the people of Naples and their morale? The curfews? The lack of food and bread?
7. The importance of the sequence with the hostages in the arena? What right did the Germans have to take hostages? The feeling that these men would actually be shot and watched by their relations? The Fascist who tried to escape death? How did this reflect the situation of Naples?
8. The impact of the street fighting and the resistance? Why did people become so involved? Emotionally? At the risk of their lives?
9. The importance of the sequence at the arena where the resistance began to shoot and the people began to run?
How was this a portrait for the people of Naples?
10. The significance of the captain who came from nowhere and talked to the Resistance? What kind of man was he? What did he do for the Neapolitans? How did he help their morale?
11. The boys at the prison and their master? Their contribution to the resistance? Their returning to the institution? The roles the master played in the fighting? His being wounded and the boys caring for him? How did this sum up the strange atmosphere of the Four Days of Naples?
12. The significance of people throwing furniture and rubbish out the window on to the Germans? The involvement of the whole people in the resistance?
13. The horror of the fight in the streets when they discovered that they had only blanks? The deaths?
14. The barricades facing the wrong way? What did this say about the situations of war?
15. Why was the resistance so successful? Despite so many deaths? Why did the Germans decide to go?
16. How successful a film was this in evoking the memories of war? (Since the film was made almost 20 years after the resistance.) What is the purpose of making and rescreening films like this? What insight into human nature do films like this give? The nature of war as it affects ordinary people? Their suffering and their heroism? How heroic were the people of Naples?
