Quite faithful to the book for what regards the plot, but really different in ambientation: this movie transports London's story in a middle 900s Napoli and adapts the situation to Italian features. This choice, however, doesn't screw London's concept, that instead is maintained as well: the story of a man that for love tries to transform himself from a popular condition to a life of richness and knowledge.
But love, in this story, is just the narrative input: it is instead the tragedy of a man that wants to pass in bourgeois world and than discovers all human limits of that universe (made of lies and unrespectful behaviours) and at the same time loses part of the ancient world. The suicide is the unique form of freedom for this man strange between men. With an excellent interpretation of Marinelli and wonderful landscape and photography, this movie manages to maintain London's aims and at the same time gives them the beauty of italian atmospheres.
But love, in this story, is just the narrative input: it is instead the tragedy of a man that wants to pass in bourgeois world and than discovers all human limits of that universe (made of lies and unrespectful behaviours) and at the same time loses part of the ancient world. The suicide is the unique form of freedom for this man strange between men. With an excellent interpretation of Marinelli and wonderful landscape and photography, this movie manages to maintain London's aims and at the same time gives them the beauty of italian atmospheres.