Such a tender and at the same time cruel story! Well, what would you expect when we are talking of one taking place in times of sheer poverty, as the case almost everywhere in Europe was after the W. W.2, in a place famous for its beauties and notorious for its "peculiarities": Naples, Italy! And not just Naples, but a poor suburb of the city, populated in general by hardworking and honest, yet backward -very conservative if you prefer- and sometimes very stubborn and tough people. The story line is developed in a most natural, unpretentious way and everything illustrated in it, characters, situations, setting etc looks as honest as in the classical neorealistic italian films of the 50s. And just as the sentimental power of films like De Sica's "Il ladro di biciclette" springs from the pure honesty and truth of the bitter story they tell, so in "L'amica geniale" is its truth and honesty that make me often cry watching it, and not any cheap or less cheap dramatic scenes trying to evoke emotion. In other words, its enormous emotional power is due to its honesty and truth, to waking up memories of a past common to a huge number of people just by honestly retelling and reminding it, in other words its tremendous emotional power is something you will find "between the lines" so to say, and not to any "melodrama" if you see what i mean.
For me, a man brought up not too far from the place where the story is being developed, not long after the period this story takes place and in a more quiet and peaceful yet in many other ways not too different environment, - and that is a neighborhood in Piraeus, Greece,- my identification with the characters of the story is inevitable, hence the shocks of emotion it makes me feel . After all, the name of the main character is Greco! Helena Greco. Let alone the place itself which "feels" by history and name as greek as it gets! Napoli-Neapoli =Newcity!
For me, a man brought up not too far from the place where the story is being developed, not long after the period this story takes place and in a more quiet and peaceful yet in many other ways not too different environment, - and that is a neighborhood in Piraeus, Greece,- my identification with the characters of the story is inevitable, hence the shocks of emotion it makes me feel . After all, the name of the main character is Greco! Helena Greco. Let alone the place itself which "feels" by history and name as greek as it gets! Napoli-Neapoli =Newcity!