There is life for independents. Even if it is an unequal game. Especially if on the one hand there are Jurassic Worldthe new chapter of Top Gun and Benedict Cumberbatch alias Doctor Strange traveling in the multiverse of madness. And on the other the visions of Night exterior from Marco Bellocchio And Nostalgia from Mario Martone. Yet in the ranking of the most viewed films of the week there is a thriller that winks at horror: it is Black Parthenope, eighth in the standings last weekend, twelfth throughout the week. Produced by Volcano Pictures and Wam, directed by Alessandro Giglio has a feature: it is shot almost entirely in the undergrounds of Naples. In that city below the city that condenses archeology and legends, a place of ancient rites and modern speleological inspections.
Naples paradise
by Carlo Bonini (editorial coordination), Alberto Crespi, Arianna Finos and Carmine Saviano. Multimedia coordination by Laura Pertici. Gedi Visual production
The starting point is the legend of the “munaciello” – of which we have seen another (and high) representation in It was the hand of God from Paolo Sorrentino – as told by Matilde Serao. A presence in Naples that spans generations and that in Giglio’s film is the protagonist of a story that is intertwined with that of the “pozzari”, the experts who worked and knew almost every inch of the subsoil of Naples. A project that is 100% independent: from production to promotion to distribution.
And if the plot tells of the real and metaphorical journey of Cécile, a young French heiress, to get out of those magical places that she tried to transform – even – into underground parking lots, the protagonists of the film are precisely the locations: from the Bourbon Gallery to the Mirabilis Pool. of Bacoli. Places where actors and crew had to work, even shooting at a depth of 40 meters. A thrilling journey through underground rivers, sea caves, ancient aqueducts, crypts of churches abandoned for a few centuries, in the early Christian church where the siren Partenope is said to be buried. A film from the underground that faces the sun at the top of the charts.