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‘Was that an earthquake?’ Italy’s great psycho-geographer tackles the Vesuvius-haunted Naples tourists seldom see
His films about Rome’s ringroad and the islanders and refugees of Lampedusa have won awards. Now Gianfranco Rosi is completing his trilogy, capturing a Naples ‘that is not immediately there’
TL;DR
- Gianfranco Rosi's new film, Pompeii: Below the Clouds, offers a poetic and unconventional portrayal of Naples.
- Shot in black and white, the film focuses on the city's inhabitants and their relationship with the Campanian volcanic arc, including Mount Vesuvius.
- It deliberately avoids typical representations of Naples, such as pizza, mafia, or Maradona, presenting a more 'frontier' atmosphere.
- The film features characters like a street teacher, a museum conservator, archaeologists, and a ship captain, whose lives and concerns are explored.
- Rosi emphasizes that the film contains no fictionalized moments but aims to blur the line between documentary and fiction.
- Recurring themes include poverty, violence, war, and a pervasive sense of tragedy that the residents have seemingly lived through.
- Despite the sense of doom, the film highlights a common quality among its characters: a 'secular devotion' and empathy towards others, which Rosi sees as the beginning of civilization.