The interview
twelve o’clock, September 8, 2021 – 15:12
At the Modernissimo in Naples the preview of “Qui rido io”, applauded in Venice. «Naples is one, I don’t believe in the division between high and low. I care about everything. For “Nostalgia” I go back to shooting at Sanità, my films are islands of an archipelago “
from Mirella Armiero
“Qui rido io” faces the test of the Neapolitan public tonight (the national preview at 21 at the Modernissimo cinema with the entire cast is already sold out): an eagerly awaited film, warmly applauded in Venice that adds a new piece to the refined and profound excavation that Mario Martone has been conducting for years on Naples and its culture, starting from the brilliant debut with “Death of a Neapolitan mathematician”, passing – just to mention the latest titles – for “The fabulous young man” and “The mayor of the Rione Sanità” .
Why Scarpetta?
“Scarpetta was a genius of the theater driven by an incredible hunger for social redemption, a revenge that leads him to write Here I laugh on his villa in Vomero. He was a patriarch: he had children with his wife Rosa, with her sister, with his wife’s niece, and while not recognizing them he makes them all study, male and female, and all become actors in his company, or geniuses like Eduardo De Filippo “.
From Caccioppoli to Scarpetta: is the intellectual Martone on his way to popular Naples?
«But Scarpetta is very intellectual! His theater has given rise to products of high culture … and then Naples is one, I don’t believe in the division between high and low with regard to this city ».
This theme has been discussed at length with regard to the «Fabulous Young Man», where Leopardi is fascinated by the vitality of the «plebs» …
«It is the Neapolitans who see this distinction, who have this push for separation. Outside there is no such perception. I personally make mine the lesson of Fabrizia Ramondino, who taught me to look in this way: Naples is all one, ubiquitous, a single body. Leopardi also thought so, just read his texts. I do not separate, I think all aspects of Naples are interesting, the film on Caccioppoli is equivalent to the one on Scarpetta ».
This long pursuit of Naples is significant: many films shot here in the city even after having left it for years. Why?
«I still quote my friend Fabrizia Ramondino: she said that Neapolitan writers are chased by their own city like a shadow. It is the same for me. And then here in Naples there is now a training ground for formidable actors and a great cinema machine ».
The Naples of “Qui rido io” is a magnificent city, these are years of great cultural ferment.
«It is the Naples of the Belle Epoque, a wonderful and lost period. The city pulsed with life and culture: there was the great theater of Scarpetta, then Viviani came. There were halls everywhere and great songs, many of which are heard in the film, where I also included some songs from a later era. In Naples there was Elvira Notari, the first female film director; it was a world in motion ».
Now instead for “Nostalgia” by Ermanno Rea is back to turn to Health?
«Yes, my works are an archipelago, with connected islands. For the “Mayor” taken from Eduardo I have already filmed in the neighborhood and also there was the theme of paternity denied as in Scarpetta ».
Speaking of your filmography, would you still shoot the famous «Salita» of the «Vesuvians»?
“Of course, among my films he is one of those most dear to me, I think he is one of the most beautiful, even if he is like an unfortunate son. Among other things, there was a very human Toni Servillo, just like this Scarpetta ».
“Here I laugh” is written with his wife Ippolita Di Majo. How do you work together?
«She is the female part in the creation of my films and in this new work the female gaze is very important, Scarpetta’s women are women who suffer but also proud and powerful. Working with Ippolita was, as always, wonderful, but each one writes on his own, then submits the work to the other. The film is also like a theatrical script and in this it is a tribute to Eduardo who has shown us how the full range of human emotions can enter into a comedy ».
On stage there is also Eduardo Scarpetta, the young actor heir to the dynasty.
“Excellent. He is the son of Mario, an actor very dear to me, with whom I worked in the theater, for Viviani’s “Ten Commandments”. I wanted him strongly and waited for him to recover from his health problems; at the end of my work he gave me two family heirlooms that I had almost forgotten. Now I went to fish them out: it is the script of the “Son of Iorio” and the related room book. It almost seemed like a message in a bottle ».
8 September 2021 | 15:12
© Time.News