*** (out of five) Passione. Directed by John Turturro.
Now that the nation is teetering on the edge of a fiscal precipice, why not check out the cultural offerings in Naples--a place that dances literally on the edge of a volcano? This week, Cornell Cinema hosts the Ithaca premiere of John Turturro's Passione, a love poem to the musical heritage of the sun-splashed, forever shabby-chic Italian city (the film is also available on Netflix). Yes, the music of Naples is something usually associated with scratchy Caruso records. But even that sounds better than looking at Mitch McConnell's face on an otherwise fine summer day, doesn’t it?
With apologies to opera fans, Turturro's subject is the contemporary Neapolitan music scene, so that mostly rules out Senore Caruso. Instead, we get a sampling of the work of current artists, running the gamut from jazz-inspired (James Senese) to reggae (Raiz) to folk ballad (Peppe Barra) to crooners (Massimo Ranieri) to pop (Fiorello). Turturro mostly shoots them in the streets of Naples, the grit and character of which often threaten to upstage the artists. In the case of Pietra Montecorvino, a torchy singer, the artist seems to stalk the camera; in my favorite sequence, an artist named Raiz cruises the streets with cap rakishly askew, eying up passing females as they, in proper Italian style, return the compliment.
The tone is one of celebration, even reverence, for what Turturro calls "a city painted with sound." Naples, you see, is a place where life and trauma have coexisted for centuries, where the people have learned to sing and smile through their troubles. Whether any of this really makes Naples unique among the cities of the world is perhaps only a question a spoilsport would ask (what Meditterranean city has not had its share of troubles?). What is clear is that Turturro loves this city, and through his passione for it makes us want to love it too.
And why John Turturro, you ask? This is the guy, you may recall, who has either starred in (Barton Fink, O Brother Where Art Thou?) or played the antagonist in (Do the Right Thing, The Big Lebowski) a number of the more "hip" indie productions in the last twenty years. Yet he's hardly ever the "hip" guy in any of them. Indeed, with his perpetually skewed mouth and jangly screen presence, he's best described as a character actor approaching the iconicity of that patron saint of all twitchy character actors, Steve Buscemi.
But here he is, strutting the mean streets of Naples in a black duster, sporting some distinguished gray hairs, with a dancer's skip in his step. It's an inspiring combination, for if Naples can turn a guy like John Turturro into someone comfortable in his own skin, so at home around too-cool-for-school musicians and beautiful women, then what might it do for you and me?
When it comes to the passione of Neapolitan music, it's not always easy to pick up on what Turturro's talking about. But there's no good reason to disbelieve him.
© 2011 Nicholas Nicastro
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