L'OR DE NAPLES

L'Or de Naples (title original : L’oro di Napoli) is an Italian comedy skits film, directed in 1954 by Vittorio De Sica.

Personal comments : Louis de Funès is not marked in the credits, he does not appears of the film but, he doubles the voice of the principal actor Antonio de Curtis.

♦ Synopsis :

Moments of life in the bustling city of Naples where Vittorio De Sica spent his early years. The Gold of Naples has six episodes inspired earthy news Giuseppe Marotta : A clown squatted and operated by a mobster ( Kingpin ), a rather light pizza seller ( Sofia) who loses the ring that her husband gave her ( Pizza credit) , the funeral of a child (a child is dead) , Count Prospero B. depleted inveterate player ( the Players) , the improbable marriage of Teresa , a prostitute ( Theresa ) , and the exploits of " teacher " Ersilio Micci , careful seller ( Professor ).

♦ Specification sheet :

  • Original title : L’oro di Napoli
  • Title french : L'Or de Naples
  • Director : Vittorio De Sica
  • Scenario : Giuseppe Marotta (writer) (it) and Cesare Zavattini (screen adaptation)
  • Producers : Dino De Laurentiis, Marcello Girosi (producers executive) and Carlo Ponti
  • Production : Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica
  • Picture : Carlo Montuori
  • Editing : Eraldo Da Roma
  • Original Music : Alessandro Cicognini
  • Decorations : Gastone Medin
  • Suits : Pia Marchesi
  • Duration : 131 min
  • Format : Black and white 35mm, 35 mm, 1,37 : 1
  • Date exit : Italy : 3 december 1954;  France : 13 august 1955

♦ Distribution :

  • Silvana Mangano : Teresa (Teresa)
  • Sophia Loren : Sofia (Pizza on credit)
  • Eduardo De Filippo : Don Ersilio Miccio (The Professor)
  • Paolo Stoppa : widower, Don Peppino (Pizza on credit)
  • Erno Crisa : Don Nicola (Teresa)
  • Antonio de Curtis dit Totò (VF : Louis de Funès) : Don Saverio Petrillo (The boss)
  • Lianella Carell : the wife of Saverio, Carolina (The boss)
  • Giacomo Furia  : the husband of Sofia, Rosario (Pizza on credit)
  • Tina Pica : the old woman (The Professor)
  • Alberto Farnese : the lover of Sofia, Alfredo (Pizza on credit)
  • Tecla Scarano : the friends of Peppino (Pizza on credit)
  • Vittorio De Sica : the count Prospero B. (The Players)

♦ Around of film :

  • This film was presented at Cannes in 1955 and , much later, the Toronto International Film Festival film in 1977. In Cannes , there was rather poorly received and divide all criticism. According to Jean A. Gili , " most journalists there saw a nice fantasy without perceiving the underlying drama of a wounded city. " In reality , even if L'oro di Napoli apparently seems to make some concessions to the commercial show - the film is produced by Dino De Laurentiis duo / Carlo Ponti - it is the result of research as carried Vittorio De Sica to find " in the register of comedy, its most fertile vein , that of careful observation of reality. Sign of strong emotional commitment , it bears for the first time on the city of his childhood screen. "

  • The director instructed on the meaning of the work , stating further : " My film is a comedy, and yet the idea of ​​death there constantly appears in filigree . The Neapolitan constantly thinking about death . This is what gives it probably smiling this philosophy, the wisdom you need to know to discover . There is no other than gold in Naples Neapolitan wisdom. " Vittorio De Sica also said: " I always execute all my directorial activity in Naples, because it is a city that really gives me the poetic human impulses , artistic . Naples is the most photogenic town, the most human of all the cities of Italy and the world. " Giuseppe Marotta , literary inspiration for L'oro di Napoli, then push Cesare Zavattini , screenwriter , and De Sica writing another film about Naples, The Last Judgment (1962).

  • The Gold of Naples went to Paris in 1955, amputated two sketches : One child died and Professor.

  • Freddy Buache , " The Gold of Naples is a film that shows too high possession of his means of expression does not deserve in any event , the admiration that was unjustly denied him in Cannes. Especially as this admiration was refused precisely what's best is to say, the intelligence of the story and the latent cruelty , if revealed, in each of his Neapolitan stories. "

  • A year earlier , Giuseppe Marotta attended the scenario of a musical film about the history of the city of Naples, Fantastic Carousel (1954) Ettore Giannini and which starred Paolo Stoppa

www.defunesmovies.com