Lacreme Napuletane (Napolitane tears)

Francesco Satta, Italy

Fiction, 18'

It's an old story in Italy : the gap between North and South, il nord and il mezogiorno, a topic for jokes and for many comic movies too. A kind of cliché. And cliché is precisely the material of this film, the first short of a former journalist from Bologna. Two men, a businessman from Milan, and a retired man, very demonstrative, from Naple, are in the same train. The secondary characters are ordinary figures of the italian comedy too : the young soldier, the couple of english tourists, the fat lady... Nothing is real in the characters, the illusion is not the goal here.

The film goes so far in the demonstrative show of indifference to illusion that the scenery moving outside the train is made by projection of old postcards of an idyllic and perfect Italy. And when a character takes a taxi, he is in a car, in front of a projection of another postcard, a wink to the old car scenes, but with a still image. All the set in false, unreal, absurd, and the public is delighted to find new inventions, to see the scratches on the postcards... This kitsh universe touches the lights too, with a too colored, overexposed photo.

Nothing's real. But this is not an experimental film. The film is served by a very clever script, with situations and dialogues that obtains a universal laugh of every kind of audience. The actors, in their caricatural roles are very credible and strong, which give a contrepoint to the climate of irreality.

This film recieved a mention from the Press Jury of Clermont Ferrand, but the great succes was for the public : in town, you couldn't mention this film without bringing a smile on the face of any one who had seen it.