Puglia by Rudolph Valentino
Of the three regions, it is the least represented on the screen. However, Alessandro Piva puts it in the spotlight with La Capa Gira
(1999), shot in the city of Bari. Two young thugs don't find the package of drugs they were supposed to recover... The film follows their adventures in the labyrinthine streets of this city marked by all kinds of trafficking and where an ancestral dialect is still spoken, which gives it its musicality.A classic in terms of its period and style, L'Age de l'amour (1953), by Lionello de Felice, tells of an adolescent love affair in a small town in this poor region. Let's also remember Il racconto dei racconti (2015), a fantasy film by Matteo Garrone partly shot in Puglia. A radical change of register for the director of Gomorra
, with Salma Hayek in the lead role. The film was in the official selection at Cannes when it was released.The silent film star Rudolph Valentino is from Puglia and has the longest name in the history of cinema (Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antoguolla!). He was born in Castellaneta in 1895, the same year that the seventh art was invented. In 1913, he left Italy for the United States. It was the actor Norman Kerry who persuaded him to try his luck in the cinema. After a few appearances on the big screen, his first big success, in 1921, was The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, whose screenwriter, June Mathis, had spotted him in The Eyes of Youth (1919). A star was born, which was confirmed by his role in The Sheik the same year. In Blood and Sand (Bloody Arena,
1922), he played alongside another silent film star, Nita Naldi. In 1925, his two biggest successes came out: The Eagle and The Son of the Sheik. Long criticized in the United States because of an image that would feminize the American man, he nevertheless kept the allure of an androgynous sex symbol.Dark Calabria
The most mythical of the films shot in the region, set in the mountains of Calabria, La Lupa (The She-Wolf of Calabria, 1953), by Alberto Lattuada, evokes the superstitions of the Mezzogiorno and at the same time recounts the drama of jealousy between a mother and a daughter. The film is an adaptation of a story from the end of the 19th century, written by Giovanni Verga
Luigi Comencini's film A Child of Calabria (1987) was quite successful. It tells the sporting adventure of a young runner who wants to become a marathon runner, and who strives to make his dream come true against his family's wishes
More recently, Gomorra (2008) by Matteo Garrone was a resounding success. It is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Neapolitan Roberto Saviano, published by Gallimard in 2007. Some of the scenes in this explosive investigation into the violence of the mafia in southern Italy were shot in the magnificent panoramas of Reggio Calabria, near the Strait of Messina. In the same vein, in 2013, Fabio Mollo made southern Italy and Reggio Calabria the backdrop for his film Il Sud è niente. A universe that shows that the law of silence of the Calabrian mafia, the infamous 'Ndrangheta, still reigns in the culture of this region
There are also a few documentaries, such asUn village de Calabre (2016), by Shu Aiello and Catherine Catella. The action takes place in Riace, at the time of municipal elections. It is one of the first villages to be able to welcome refugees thanks to social housing introduced by a committed town hall. But the xenophobic shadow of the opposition hangs over this pivotal moment, and the filmmakers endeavour to portray the daily life of the village with humanity. The film has won several awards, notably at the Visions du Réel festival in Nyon, Switzerland, internationally renowned for creative documentaries. Let's also mention Calabria (2016) by Pierre-François Sauter. Following the death of a Calabrian worker in Switzerland, his two friends and colleagues decide to drive his body back to his native province. An atypical road-trip from the north to the south of Italy
Basilicata, sacred land
In 1960, in his masterpiece Rocco and His Brothers, Luchino Visconti describes the harsh acclimatization to the cold urban life of a poor family from Basilicata who emigrates to Milan. But what is the face of the region today? Basilicata Coast to Coast (2013), by Rocco Papaleo and starring Max Gazze, has the originality to propose a road movie on foot through the region. A small group of friends decide to reassemble the band of their youth in order to participate in a festival. Starting from the port city of Maratea, they decide to walk to Scanzano Jonico. Their journey gives the viewer a beautiful regional portrait that stretches from the Tyrrhenian coast in the west to the Ionian Sea in the east. They pass through the towns of Trecchina, Lauria, Tramutola, Aliano and Craco. The latter, a ghost town perched on the cliffs, has in fact provided the backdrops for some blockbuster sequences, such as Quantum of Solace (2008) or Wonder Woman (2017). Christ Stopped at Eboli
was also filmed there in 1979 by Francesco Rosi, adapting the eponymous novel by Carlo Levi.The Passion of the Christ (2004), by Mel Gibson, was filmed in Matera, Basilicata, and even gives rise to tourist circuits in the region to visit the filming sites. Near the town of Matera, Craco was the setting for the scene of the hanging of Judas. Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) was also filmed in this troglodyte town, which acts as Jerusalem for the purposes of the film. Catherine Hardwicke also chose Matera as the setting for her Nativity, just as a remake of Ben Hur
produced by MGM was shot there. Basilicata is the ancestral land of the Coppola family, left by the grandfather of the famous director who left Bernalda to try his luck in America. Francis Ford Coppola recently returned to the family land and inaugurated his Palazzo Margherita, a palace with a family, gastronomic and, of course, cinematic theme.
