Original subtitles

FRANCESCO ROSI EXTENDS HIS THANKS TO ALL THOSE

WHO UNKNOWINGLY JOINED HIM ON THIS RETURN VISIT TO NAPLES.

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NEAPOLITAN DIARY

Screenplay by

Directed by

Sit down, all of you.

On your feet. Come on! What's your name?

No nonsense. What's your name? - Mario Cuomo.

- What were you doing there? - Snatching purses.

Snatching purses, huh? They only push there: Cocaine, heroin, pot.

I was snatching purses.

Maybe you didn't understand me.

You won't be going home tonight.

Give it some thought. What were you doing?

Snatching purses.

I�ll see him later in my office.

What's your name? - Esposito, Bruno.

- Age? - Fifteen.

- What were you doing? - I was pushing.

- How long have you been pushing? - Three months.

- How about getting a real job? - That's a drag.

A drag! Sit down.

Name? - De Biasi, Antonio.

- Who were you with? - Bruno.

Bruno's your friend? The one who pushes?

You didn't know he was dealing? Just keeping him company?

What do you do? - Nothing.

- Why don't you go to school? - I don't like it.

Sit down.

What's your name? - Titta, Ciro.

- Age? - Sixteen.

People shoot up around there. What about you?

You don't shoot up?

You push? Why?

To bring some money home.

Sit down.

What's your name? - Salvatore.

- Do you shoot up? - Yes.

- What's it cost you? - 100,000 lire.

A day?

Where do you get the money? - I steal.

You steal. Sit down.

What were you doing? - Buying pot.

- For yourself? - And to sell.

To sell? Sit down.

And you? What's with you?

- I carry money. - You don't go to school?

How old are you? - Fourteen.

You don't go to school? Sit down.

You're the one with the motorbike.

You're a courier. - No, I just stole the bike.

You just stole it? Sit down.

What were you up to?

I just went to see what was going on.

Okay, sit down.

You're older. Why were you there?

- To collect. - For the dope?

Collecting for whom? - I don't know who.

You don't know?

Another film about Naples?

Yes, another one.

Excuse me, but haven't we had enough?

Ask him.

You're Francesco Rosi, the director. I recognize you.

Why all these films about Naples?

See one and you've seen them all: Street urchins, the Camorra, drugs,

chaos.

That's what the times have to offer.

I�m from Turin, but I really love Naples.

Although Neapolitans don't care much for work

and we Northerners have to maintain them,

they're such happy, fun-loving people.

- I like that. Write that down. - Sure.

Preconceptions about Naples - even favorable ones -

miss the target.

True.

Let's hope your movie is a good one.

A north wind. Good for sailing.

We're stuck.

We can't be! People are waiting for me.

You can walk. It's close by.

Walk? With all this luggage?

What can I say? This is Naples.

Come on. We're gonna walk.

Let's not waste time!

I�m late.

Let's go.

Don't get all worked up!

Is it far from here?

No, the university's nearby.

We only took a cab because of the luggage. It's close.

They're probably all there waiting.

- Let's pick up the pace. - What? This thing's heavy!

We students of the School of Architecture

consider it important

to bring the debate on Naples

back to our university.

Did you do your homework? Who knows what they expect of you.

We must think back 30 years

and retrace those events that have so changed this city.

We thank all those present,

aware, however, of the significant absence of certain notables.

We can start the screening.

GOLDEN LION, VENICE 1963

Yes, the city's spreading that way

per the urban development plan.

That's why we have to bring it over here.

- Just like that? - Change the urban plan!

- What? - We change the plan!

No need. This land is zoned for farming.

What's it cost a square meter? Maybe 500 or 1,000 lire?

But tomorrow this same land,

this same square meter,

could be worth 70,000 lire or more.

It's all up to us.

A 5,000-percent profit.

There it is. That's today's gold.

What can beat that? Business? Industry?

"The industrial renaissance of the South. "

Sure, invest in factories: Strikes, unions, medical benefits.

It'll give you a heart attack.

I�m proposing no strife and no worries.

All profit and no risk.

That's the mentality of our entrepreneurs

even today.

Mother of God!

This is not an isolated event.

Yesterday's casualties, and others before them,

are victims of the shameful private speculation

transforming the face of our city more and more

as it finds allies among the very men sitting in this room!

What are you driving at?

We want an inquiry board comprised of every political group

to investigate real estate speculation.

I wouldn't change a word.

Look what a handsome man.

I�ve grown old from repeating the same things.

Your hands are so dirty you won't even let your own commissioner speak.

Our hands are clean!

This scandal threatens the governing committee,

all of us, the party, the entire project.

It's election time. Don't forget that.

Take my advice. You won't regret it.

Just what are you saying?

What are you getting at?

Let's hear it.

Your company gets a slap on the wrist,

a few city officials take early retirement,

and everything returns to normal.

You know how these things are resolved.

Let's lay our cards on the table.

You're telling me to withdraw my candidacy.

Are you all crazy?

My votes cost me millions. I got them one by one, door to door.

And when you needed them, you took them.

Now I should hand them over

to the first idiot you put in my place?

Sure, when you need Nottola, great. Otherwise...

it's God bless and good-bye.

But he's still a good investment as a private citizen,

because the money rolls in...

with no questions asked.

What about that?

Do we sacrifice it to your political ambitions?

Listen.

When you divvy things up, you expect me to come begging.

"May I build this high-rise? May I have this contract?"

I must be building commissioner. I�m the only one I can trust.

But why? To get the contracts for the project?

You've already got them!

We've got to win the elections, get a clear majority.

With all your shenanigans, we can forget it.

Stick to building! You're no politician!

We're all hanging by a thread.

I have to be commissioner.

Nottola, a bribe was enough back then.

Now you need a machine gun!

I stick to the facts. I build buildings.

De Vita says he has nothing against them

as long as they're built as dictated by law.

But the law is made here.

It's true. The law is made in this hall.

But you take advantage of your political power

with no concern for those who elected you.

The billions of lire in the city's special fund,

which belongs to all us citizens,

will be used only to legally stuff your pockets -

Thirty years later, it's the same old story:

Who makes the laws? And who pockets the public's money?

THE CHARACTERS AND EVENTS SHOWN ARE IMAGINARY

THE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT IS REAL

Thank you.

For my part, I would start with the last shots of the film.

I should think one couldn't conceive of anything worse

than those huge buildings built in a vacuum.

But the tragic events of these last few days in Palermo...

MAY 23, 1992 - JUDGE FALCONE, HIS WIFE, AND THREE GUARDS ARE KILLED

heighten the tension and dramatic impact of our meeting here today.

So much so that it may seem strange

to speak of Naples while all this is happening in Sicily.

JULY 19, 1992 - JUDGE BORSELLINO AND FIVE ESCORTS ARE KILLED

But Naples and Palermo are both ailing cities

in one and the same nation that's diseased in all its parts.

What has happened to Naples

in the 30 years since this film was made?

I ask Carlo Fermariello,

who played a leading opposition figure in the film,

and who's lived here in Naples these past 30 years.

The world has changed these past 30 years, and so has Naples.

We once had a solid productive base here,

a working force that characterized the entire city.

But now we're in the hands of the Camorra.

We're constantly on the defensive.

Hope is waning. The city has turned cynical and violent.

There is little democratic life. The institutions don't work.

The state is missing in action.

All development has become parasitical

because Naples consumes more than it produces.

This explains the north-south division

that has lately been jeopardizing our national unity.

That's the present picture.

If, as has been said, all of Italy is ailing,

the ills are more evident here in Naples.

What's changed these 30 years in Naples and elsewhere? UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER

Thirty years ago, the face of speculation was recognizable.

You could identify the Nottolas.

They still faced up to their responsibilities to some extent.

Today, speculation has corrupted civil life.

The politics of crime is widespread.

Our culture loses out and is itself lost, and the city has certainly lost.

What has happened in these years? Essentially two things. HISTORIAN

First: A wild, uncontrolled influx of money into the city.

The city was flooded with money

and abruptly carried out of its endemic southern backwardness.

Second: Politics is no longer at the heart of the city.

With the fall of the Left,

political parties have become mere financial committees,

differing only in name, indistinguishable one from another.

And yet the city appears vital, feverish with activity,

charged up with a perverse modernization.

A living body with bad blood coursing through its veins,

the blood of fast money,

of diverted public funds

soiled by drugs and other things.

An ethical decomposition of the city ensues,

but also social bonding - the city is more tightly knit than 30 years ago.

In fact, the Camorra is rewriting our social geography and class structure.

Gone is the middle class.

The city is not only oppressed by rampant lawlessness,

but also by a swelling of the poorer class.

Where Achille Lauro couldn't reduce the city to one big plebeian class,

the Camorra and the new bosses of the city are doing so.

This is what makes me pessimistic.

We can no longer identify the individuals behind this renewal.

I don't agree with the final part. PRESIDENT, YOUNG INDUSTRIALISTS

Naples wants to be reborn.

There's an entrepreneurial class that believes in it and wants to invest in it.

So many things lead to development, which means the creation of wealth,

but you must understand that this city is recovering socially.

If I help it recover socially, I can create conditions

for new industry.

So this is our reasoning.

We're against special intervention and assistance.

Naples doesn't want handouts, because it wants to join the rest of Europe.

This city must think to building its future. PRESIDENT - MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION

It has enormous potential.

It has a great university

and an excellent productive base.

This city builds airplanes

trains, cars,

and electronics.

It has centers of artistic creativity,

and it has another important resource: Its youth.

The young people of Naples are an asset, not a problem.

If we can harness all this potential -

if we Neapolitans, and nobody else,

can all work together in this direction,

toward this great task of recreating Naples.

I think it's our institutions that have failed to contribute

to developing the south, and Naples in particular.

The issue we must confront, among many others, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

is the need to reclaim our very identity.

And our identity here in Naples has a concrete shape:

That of the city's historic center.

It's a center of great richness,

with a wealth of monuments and artistic and historical treasures

that need not envy those of either Rome or Paris.

And it's a fact worth noting

that 250,000 people live there.

These 250,000 inhabitants, and this legacy

of churches, palaces, buildings, and monuments,

must regain their rightful dignity.

Among the projects for the future of this city,

I�m sure everyone agrees

on the need to reclaim and intelligently restore this legacy

rather than destroy it.

The many reasons for this are not just cultural -

let's even place those last -

but have to do with economic development.

I�d like to say something

about the growth of the greater metropolitan area SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

over the last 30 years.

Naples has become a megalopolis

of 31/2 million inhabitants.

The population encompassed in this area

rivals that of cities such as Trieste, Venice,

Florence, Bologna,

Bari, Messina and Catania

all combined.

Yet local authorities have not initiated

any long-range planning for this metropolitan area.

More than 700,000 people live below Mount Vesuvius,

a population the size of Bologna and Salerno together.

Exploitation here

has proceeded with arrogance and cynicism, SCHOOL OF SCIENCE

with no respect for the considerable natural riches and resources

of the Neapolitan area.

Witness to this fact are the one million inhabitants

of those zones at high geological risk -

paraseismic, seismic, volcanic, and hydrogeological-

and the annual pumping from this area's substrata

of 400 million cubic meters of water,

as well as the almost 10 million cubic meters of sewer water

that leaks into the substrata and is used as potable water.

Naples has the densest population of any city in Italy: SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

11,000 people per square kilometer,

five times that of Rome, twice that of Hong Kong.

When this film was shot 30 years ago,

Naples had a population of 700,000.

Now it's 1.5 million, more than double.

In this climate, projects are carried out

that are lethal for the city.

The historic center has been gutted.

Naples now has 31,000 vacant housing units,

or 150,000 vacant rooms.

Naples doesn't need a single additional housing unit.

We need green space, facilities, and services.

We need to reduce congestion and maintain the existing territory.

Naples has a population of 1.5 million, DIRECTOR, CAMORRA EXPERT

but 386,000 are unemployed.

That's not true. Everyone works.

They work in Camorra-run businesses.

The 120 clans identified in Naples are 120 companies

that take in 8 trillion lire a year

and employ at least 400,000 people.

Not even FIAT has this employment capacity.

Drug dealing has turned the Camorra into an industry.

There are 216 known distribution points in the city,

one every 400 meters.

There are 30,000 heroin addicts.

Each spends 150,000 lire a day.

The Camorra takes in 41/2 billion lire a day,

135 billion a month,

1.6 trillion a year on heroin traffic alone.

If you add cocaine and other drugs,

the figure is 3 trillion.

This torrent of money flows into the economy of the city,

contaminating everything, the entire social structure,

and corrupting the civic conscience of the Neapolitans.

Drugs are the principal source of income for organized crime, SCHOOL OF LAW

or, as I see it, the prohibition of drugs is.

Simply because certain substances are declared illegal,

their commerce generates the dizzying profits just mentioned.

It's time we experiment with new ways

to deprive organized crime of its principal source of income.

I believe there's only one way -

that suggested by the European Parliament -

moving beyond outlawing drugs

and legalizing them instead.

I would like to discuss juvenile crime. DIRECTOR, JUVENILE CENTER

Delinquent Naples...

In Naples, 1,000 children are presently in reformatories.

There are 60,000 children between 12 to 18

who commit burglary, who steal, who snatch purses

and act as runners for the Camorra.

For these youths and all those youths

who I believe are the future salvation of Naples,

I propose three solutions:

First, we must see that all children attend school.

We must revitalize our professional training programs

so that the youth of Naples can learn trades

other than those offered by the Camorra,

and we must unmask and denounce

all the slackers and good-for-nothings employed in city offices.

The strong ties between business,

politics and the Camorra JUDGE

makes the judiciary's task much more difficult.

Yet in recent years, courts in Naples have shown they won't play

the subordinate role they played in the '50s and '60s.

This change in attitude has had two results:

First, they've carried out more hard-hitting investigations

of state bureaucrats.

Second, attempts to interfere with judicial authority have increased.

Judge De Chiara is right. SCHOOL OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY

The situation here is different than in Milan.

It's harder to get at the truth here

because of the front created by politics, industry, and the Camorra.

Even the structure of criminality is different here.

We have, of course, industrialists who offer bribes,

as well as Camorra-controlled enterprises,

with their subcontractors, the cement racket, etc.

And now we have the new figure

of the politician-entrepreneur

who sets himself up through relatives, friends,

partners and front men,

forming companies that corner the major contracts

received as public commissions for billions and trillions of lire.

Even the real estate market

is no longer controlled by private speculators

but by state-subsidized corporations

invariably in the hands of politicians.

Real estate speculation is automatically focused

on their vast land holdings.

It's been 50 years, not 30, Rosi,

that a principle has been taking shape in this city:

No more urban development

infringing on the historic center and seafront

but only along an axis northeast of the city.

And yet for 50 years we've seen the exact opposite,

which is why we keep talking about decentralization.

And still the urban projects under discussion even these last two years

once again concern the historic center and seafront,

properties of now inactive industries.

And this happens, my friends,

with the staunch support of certain professors

in this very School of Architecture.

We're no longer in Italy here, or even Europe,

but in the Middle East.

We must stop these individuals or there is no hope for Naples.

I agree with Professor Craveri.

The most speculative projects in the last 10 years have issued from this university: ARCHITECT

urbanizing the industrial areas and gutting the historic center.

But alternative projects defending the environment have come forth as well.

And something else: 30 years ago, builders had the arrogance

to decide the city's future, but now it's the Camorra.

It's our duty in this school to educate generations of experts

who can determine how best to respond to social needs.

We'll conclude our meeting by hearing from Professor Zevi.

Very well. I�ll try to wrap things up

on as explosive and controversial a note as possible.

As usual.

I propose establishing at least two - though there's a dozen more -

at least two criteria for the future of Naples.

First, no more checkerboards.

No more of this absurd and criminal system

of slicing up the land at right angles.

Every city has its problems with this checkerboard system,

but none with the same maniacal intensity as Naples.

It doesn't even exist in Rome.

But it's existed in Naples from ancient times until today.

So I say no to military checkerboards

according to the Roman military system of camps.

No to "oligarchic checkerboards. "

No to "Jesuit checkerboards. "

No to Nazi-Stalinist-Fascist checkerboards.

Secondly, no to symmetry.

Symmetry is the derelict instrument and symbol

of the desire to suppress diversity.

Here's one thing. Here's another.

They fit them together since they're symmetrical.

If I�m the element of diversity, where does that leave me?

To conclude and get to my point:

Naples needs a courageous act of inventiveness and imagination,

something that's risky to even think about.

If Naples is able to come up with a revolutionary approach

to address the temporary and ineffective solutions

implemented over the last 50 years,

then I�m certain the city will have a brilliant future.

- What do you mean, no? - I�m tired. I�ve had it.

Lazybones.

If he'd mentioned Mount Vesuvius, I wouldn't have worn these shoes.

All these stones. - Just think if it came to life again.

Yeah, boom! Just like that.

It's dormant now, but not forever, they say.

Who says?

- The experts. - Come on.

People don't think about it. That's how they are.

Imagine having to evacuate 700,000 people!

Bite your tongue!

Civil defense will take over, which around here means San Gennaro.

Come on, kids.

Coming!

I�ll now demonstrate an experiment

that consists of simulating an earthquake

and registering it with the oldest instrument of its kind in the world:

The electromagnetic seismograph of Luigi Palmieri

built here in Naples in 1856.

During an earthquake, even the slightest movement

sets the pendulums swaying.

At the same time, a clock stops,

a bell starts ringing,

and two pencils record the pendulums' movements.

But Vesuvius is dormant.

- Unfortunately. - Unfortunately?

When a volcano is inactive for long periods,

people lose their historical memory.

So when it reawakens, they're unprepared.

The problem here is that the freeway is the only escape route.

Imagine what could happen

if something's not done immediately.

Excuse me, but how long now has Vesuvius "behaved"?

Well, from 1694 to 1944.

But it hasn't exactly "behaved. "

There have been many eruptions,

but fortunately none of great note.

And Pompeii?

That eruption was exceptional, and very strong,

explosive.

As the people tried to flee,

they were killed by the fumes.

Then the ash covered them in their last moment of life,

exactly as we find them today.

"Ashes fell on the ships,

hotter and denser the further the ships advanced,

as did black stones, burned and cracked by the fire.

The shallow waters and the rockfalls from the mountains

cut off access to the coast.

At the same time, from many points on Vesuvius,

fires blazed with high flames,

their incandescence heightened by the darkness of the night. "

- How long did it last? - 72 minutes.

Charles was so taken with the place

that he immediately ordered a royal villa to be built on the site.

To those who pointed out the menace of nearby Vesuvius, he replied,

"I�m sure the Lord, the Virgin Mary and San Gennaro have thought of that."

Like I said earlier.

Naples without San Gennaro is nothing!

But San Gennaro without Naples is nothing either!

I hope that thing will protect us from the traffic!

Go, go!

Blow your horn.

Come on. Weave your way through,

or you'll never get anywhere in Naples.

Watch out! Can't you see they're crowding you!

Where do you think you are?

Oslo? Stockholm?

You're on the Golden Mile, Torre del Greco and Portici.

Keep your wits about you.

Look up here to the right, through this gate.

These were all seafront villas.

But in this state of decay, it's all thrown together.

Don't you see that that's true of all Naples?

You need a keen eye.

How many of them are there?

Picture the coastline dotted with villas.

There were 122 in all,

all of them beautiful.

Thus "the Golden Mile. "

Imagine the splendor.

You need some imagination!

Strange, but I feel at ease in all this bedlam.

What did you say?

I feel at home in all this bedlam.

But don't tell anyone I said that.

It must be the vivacity of the people.

Yeah, like bacteria swimming in their culture.

What's so funny?

Look where you're going.

This is where Enrico de Nicola lived,

first president of the Italian republic.

To give you an idea,

even as president he'd have his old coat redone by turning it inside out.

I knew his tailor. He told me. - Ancient history.

Not really. Just 40 years ago.

He used public transport and paid for his own train tickets.

A man of uncompromising honesty.

Don't be so smart.

What a twit!

Professor Zevi called from Rome, sir. He'll call again.

Hello. Room 445.

Hello. Ah, Bruno.

No, Bruno. You absolutely must come.

I�ll take up very little of your time.

Thanks.

Here we have a series of packing crates.

Crates of green glass,

beige glass,

transparent glass, and even cement crates.

Packing crates everywhere. Why?

Because everything's fashioned after the checkerboard.

Instead of letting the city blossom in conformity with its needs,

they preordain the city, lay it out in advance.

Then, on this checkerboard configuration,

they place these bulky shapes, these packing crates.

But all that is secondary. What's primary?

I�d like to know- since opinions vary so much -

what is the hydrogeological situation of the land?

Do the waters of Vesuvius really flow under here? ARCHITECT

Is it true that we're on a floodplain?

Is this, in essence, marshland?

If you're building skyscrapers, you're either in New York or Venice.

In New York, on rock - great, you can build.

In Venice, you'd better not.

On this spot, frankly, I don't know.

But I�d like to know!

The financial district must have its outline,

its dimension, its limit, its boundary.

This can be done only by creating green space

to the east to delimit the city.

We've seen our original objectives turned on their head. ARCHITECT

The financial district

should have developed along the industrial axis,

thus reducing congestion by creating offshoot activities.

But the opposite took place.

The interests concentrated here have led to uncontrolled building,

transforming a city that was once linear

into a city centered around a sort of cul de sac,

bounded by a prison, a cemetery and a train station.

The new courthouse.

It burned down before it was even finished. JULY 30, 1990

Thirty-two stories high, the city's second tallest skyscraper.

A short circuit was ruled out as the cause,

and the possibility of arson is now being considered.

Mr. Rosi, you made the best film ever about this city: The Gold of Naples.

- That was De Sica. - That wasn't you?

Sorry.

Oh, well. De Sica, Rosi - it's still Naples!

Have some fruit!

You're interested in Naples?

The ancient city center was the largest in Europe.

This is an ancient Roman road, the Decumanus.

It crossed the entire city, from one end to the other.

This palazzo was built in the fifteenth century:

The Palazzo del Panormita.

You work in television?

You've got a camera. Get a shot of this.

Look at this 15th-century building. They've ruined it.

Mr. Rosi, you've been here since this morning.

Are you shooting a movie? I�m at your service.

Still got film fever, eh?

There's the statue of the Nile.

And there's the Decumanus.

Hey, I�m no tourist.

The church of San Gregorio Armeno. Beautiful, huh?

The Greeks were always coming to Naples.

I had a motorcycle 20 years ago.

The cops were always after me. I was just a kid.

I�d dare them to catch me in the Spagnoli district.

I�d ride through at full blast. They called me "Crazy Agostino. "

When they'd show up, it was vroom!

Quiet!

It was a real Neapolitan carousel with me and the police.

And they never caught me even once!

These two columns here were found underneath where we're standing.

There was a theater too.

Nero would come to sing here 2,000 years ago.

He liked Naples. The Neapolitans always applauded him.

There are streets below us. It's all hollow down there.

They found streets 60 meters wide. There were shops too.

Those shops of 2,000 years ago

still exist today.

Restorers, sculptors.

This statue here of San Caetano

has been here for hundreds of years.

FROM THE TV PROGRAM SAMARCANDA

- What does a killer earn? - Five million lire.

Is that always the fee?

Five million for a big shot, somebody important.

It can come down to 300,000 lire for a -

A nobody.

- The police came and arrested- - Two of my friends.

For pot?

They didn't have pot.

Naples is loaded with pot, cocaine, and other stuff.

- You work? - There isn't any work.

- So you steal? - Yeah.

For money.

- What's a stolen motorbike worth? - 100,000 lire.

- And brand-new it costs - - 1,700,000 lire.

Not drugs. Hashish.

- That's not drugs? - No, it's smoke.

You saw them. Were there any scales?

Just one scale.

And they found three grams of cocaine,

100 grams of hashish,

and a little packet of glucose.

You plan to go on living this way?

Yes, I like it.

Would you kill for the Camorra?

I don't know. Many of us already do.

Would you be willing to kill for a heroin fix?

May we see those?

See this pastry dough?

That becomes the babas au rhum you're eating.

Good, huh?

And these are Proust's madeleines.

The bakeries here were once called boulangeries.

The signs on some older shops still say that.

A woman who did ironing was called a repasseuse.

The French, the Spanish - they all left something behind.

For 30 years he fought

against crime and the Mafia, ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES, 1975

and the Mafia killed him!

You are the Mafia!

Never before had they dared to go so far.

It's the first time they've killed

a prosecutor of the republic!

Mafioso!

A heinous crime that threatens our entire judicial system!

An affront to the power of the state!

"Giovanni Antonello Petrucci,

beheaded in 1486 for participating in the conspiracy of the barons.

Here he lies, his head in his arms. "

Isabella of Aragon,

daughter of Alfonso II, and duchess of Milan.

- Joan of Aragon - - Who? Joan the Depraved?

No, she was from Anjou.

Ferdinando Francesco d'Avalos,

hero of the Battle of Pavia.

And then there's Alfonso I.

The moment he died, his heart was carried off to Spain in a jar.

His body followed a few years later.

Hello.

Nice church bells.

You call those bells?

They're electric.

Bells are what I played, pulling on ropes.

I played Bach on those bells!

"He was blond, handsome, and gentle in appearance.

In 1268, Carlos I of Anjou ordered the beheading

of Conradin of Swabia, Frederick of Baden,

and seven of their companions.

From then on, the site was used for executions.

On the obelisk fountain that adorns the square,

the severed heads were displayed. "

Pasquale, get a detail of this.

Then a shot of the garland.

And this here.

Who would think to put apartment buildings on a square like this?

Look, they were ugly even back then.

It says here that laws forbade construction outside the city walls

for safety reasons,

and that certain buildings were already over five stories.

"Before the plague of 1656,

the population of Naples numbered 450,000.

The plague reduced it to 270,000.

Repeated famines

caused hordes of peasants

to flee the countryside

and crowd around the gates of the city,

drawn to this vast den where man and beast

vied for food and even for air itself.

'In Naples, the plebs are more plebeian than elsewhere, '

said Montesquieu, calling them 'the savages of Europe. "'

Are the plebs, then,

at the heart of the city's ills? SOCIOLOGIST

No, they're the result of this city's ills. HISTORIAN

These problems took the form we know even today in the 16th century,

when Naples became the administrative capital

and focal point of the entire south.

This created enormous demographic congestion

when the masses

of the southern countryside converged on the city.

This same plebeian class

exists to some degree even today.

It was their presence

that inspired the expressive yet dramatic

16th-century description of Naples:

"A paradise inhabited by devils"- that is, the plebs.

But without this pathological drive for Naples to be the capital,

we wouldn't have had the plebs,

nor would the chronic ailments have begun then

whose consequences are still felt today.

"Naples lost, at the executioner's hand,

almost all its important leaders. "

That's a quote from Stendhal.

These Jacobins were the first advocates INSTITUTE FOR PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES

of a common political sentiment: That of Italian nationality.

They were not only Neapolitans.

They came from Puglia, Calabria,

Basilicata, from all of Campania.

And they weren't just bourgeois intellectuals.

Many were also of the Neapolitan nobility.

There were also 30 bishops,

as Vincenzo Cuoco noted

in his historical essay on the revolution of 1799.

This is the well-known portrait of Luisa Sanfelice,

martyred during the revolution of '99.

Francesco Mario Pagano, philosopher and follower of Vico and Filangieri.

Eleonora Pimentel Fonseca,

editor of the Neapolitan Monitor, a republican journal.

Vincenzo Cuoco,

Domenico Cirillo,

and Gennaro Serra of Cassano,

son of the lords of this palazzo,

who was, at 25 years of age, decapitated on the Piazza Mercato.

The parents of Gennaro of Cassano

begged the king for mercy,

but the vendetta of the monarchy was implacable.

Before that, carriages headed for the palace

would always pass through that carriage door.

From that day on,

it remained barred out of contempt for the monarchy.

Naples, Caserta, Salerno, Avellino, Potenza, Bari, Matera:

These are the areas of southern Italy struck by the earthquake.

The heaviest losses occurred in Naples, Salerno, Avellino and Potenza.

Ninety-seven towns were hit, to one degree or another, by the quake.

Some suffered little, while others reported casualties and vast destruction.

So far, 1,012 bodies have been extracted from the rubble.

The force of this quake -

10� on the Mercalli scale -

is overwhelming,

more devastating than the quake that hit the northern region of Friuli.

"For the first time,

all of Italy could watch, thanks to television,

how two regions coped with a similar problem,

and how each obtained and spent funds allotted for their reconstruction.

Was it really feasible that the citizens of a northern region

as prosperous and hard-working as Lombardy

would agree to spend their money

to bolster the coffers of the Neapolitan Camorra

and support political bribes and environmental destruction?"

Thus ambassador and essayist Sergio Romano

explained recent separatist tendencies in Italy

using the example of the two earthquakes.

"Official data seem to indicate

that the earthquake lasted not several days but years.

The number of towns damaged

has gradually risen from 389 in 1980 to 687,

and they continue to ask for and receive emergency funds.

A government estimate in 1988 calculated the cost at 40 trillion lire.

Other more reliable estimates that include all forms of funding

place the figure at 60 trillion. "

Giorgio Bocca, The Disunity of Italy.

Naples is a parasitical city, granted. ECONOMIST

But it was also a productive city of industry.

Over the last 50 years, its industrial fiber has gradually been destroyed.

This has given enormous power to the local ruling class.

"A corrupt ruling class," everyone says.

Agreed.

Rotten to the core in every one of its political components.

Then what sustains this governing political class

made up of men who exercise their power

not just locally but nationally?

It's easy to say elections in Italy are free and democratic.

Not so!

Here in Naples, votes are strictly controlled

through favors,

through the Camorra,

through tenuous jobs and black market labor.

This is the main pillar of local power.

There is, however, another, more solid buttress.

It's the external support - hard as it is to believe -

that these Neapolitan politicians receive

from major industries and from national banking interests.

But it's true, because these politicians

dispose of the trillions of lire in taxpayers' money

that the national industries receive when they undertake,

or merely promise to undertake, investments in the south.

What can be done?

I don't believe in moralistic sermons

nor in administrative controls,

because more laws are broken than are enforced.

I believe only in social constraints.

Naples is in decline because it no longer has

a working class that's stable and fully employed

and therefore socially and politically independent.

Let's get that back.

There you go.

Want a hand? No?

See these low-lying reefs?

We call them chiane.

I know every one of the chiane along this part of the coast.

I spent my childhood here.

A happy childhood.

You can say that again: A happy childhood.

See all the palm trees in this villa?

It's a beautiful garden.

A baron lived here who often traveled to Africa.

A strange type who slept on a boat

or in an unusual chalet at the edge of the garden here.

Go take a look. Behind those trees.

What's so unusual here that's worth looking at?

Memory embellishes things. It's been many years.

Franco!

Franco, wait up!

Over here! Pull it up!

- Quick, pull it up! - Careful, or they'll squiggle away!

Don't let 'em get away!

Lots of sardines and octopus! Get 'em!

Look how big they are!

The fishermen! Hurry! Let's go!

Hey, you little thieves! You're stealing everything!

Quiet! Let's hide up here.

Wait a minute. I�ll see if the fishermen are coming.

Look at all the airplanes!

They're gonna bomb!

Imagine all the fish that'll be floating after the bombing!

Mullet, walleye, sea bass - and we can't get them!

They're bombing us, and he's worried about fish!

Look!

You cold?

My boyfriend'll kill me if he sees me with an American.

Don't worry. Once these guys are drunk, they can't do anything.

Meat and vegetable stew!

We were too understanding in Sicily, Genovese.

True, true.

The colonel wants everyone's cooperation

to end this shameful black market.

Strict rationing will ensure

a fair distribution of American aid to the people of Italy.

Long live America! Long live Italy!

Start playing.

How do you explain the fact

that all these Mafia bosses,

these authentic gangsters,

were issued regular passports

and permits for weapons?

How is it that Italian police files describe them as

"persons of irreprehensible political and moral conduct"?

Why don't you ask your immigration Service and Department of Justice?

These gangsters, these mafiosi -

who sent them to Italy?

You Americans! And by the hundreds!

You called them "undesirable elements. "

They landed in Sicily right behind the Allied forces.

Then they moved up the peninsula from Naples

to Milan and Genoa,

following your army.

Ask your generals why they appointed as mayors of the liberated cities

men like Calogero Vizzini and Genco Russo,

men known and feared as Mafia bosses.

Ask Colonel Poletti why, as military governor of Naples,

he chose as his collaborator his right-hand man, Vito Genovese.

You knew very well he was a renowned criminal boss!

A fleet of fishing boats, cargo ships, and yachts

fitted out in Marseilles and Sicily

sail the Mediterranean

from Tangiers to Beirut,

from Malta to Genoa and Trieste,

at the orders of a Mafia boss,

a quiet man with sad eyes

who lives undisturbed in Naples:

Lucky Luciano.

In just a few years, this man created

the largest international criminal organization that has ever existed.

Siragusa's like you. He talks like you and acts like you.

You and he have cost us a lot of sleep here in Italy these ten years.

Yeah, Siragusa's a Sicilian like me.

Just like

the chief prosecutor in Palermo...

Scaglione.

And like the chief of police.

All Sicilians,

and I, just like them,

live quietly, without bothering anyone.

Only Siragusa, the mad dog, gets these funny ideas!

He was right about the Canepa brothers.

We caught them red-handed.

We'll arrest their contacts in Spain too.

And sooner or later we'll get you too.

It's all a frame-up by Siragusa.

The Canepa brothers were arrested three months before.

But then the judge in Rome let them go.

I have nothing to do with that.

But your partner, Antonino Sorci, does.

We have the documents.

They had a holding company together in Rome.

You need proof.

To form a company, you need a notary.

We found him.

The same one you used when you bought the Orleans Park

together with Sorci and Mancino.

Is it a crime to buy a little land?

Over 160,000 square meters,

all with building permits from the city of Palermo.

If the city issues permits, it means it's legal.

Even the university bought into that land,

and even some of your government ministers.

Things are changing, Charlie Lucky.

If you're counting on political protection, you're fooling yourself.

Political protection?

I don't even know the traffic chief here in Naples.

In America I played politics,

but face-to-face with President Roosevelt.

In America...

you mentioned an address once...

and the police found a case of heroin.

I told them what I knew.

Today I know nothing.

You can talk to me.

I have my own ideas about you,

and they're different from Siragusa's.

It's in your interests.

It's in your interests, for your career.

Your interests!

And those of Siragusa, the generals, the chief of police.

It's in politicians' interests too

to distract the people,

who don't know anything and never will.

In politics, when it serves your purpose,

you deal with hoods and what you call mafiosi.

Sorry, but I can't be of help.

This is another of those many moments in the history of Naples SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

when everyone's talking about this city

as if something's going to happen, but nothing ever does.

The only constant is the paralysis

that characterizes life in Naples and its transformation.

And should one hint at doing something

or actually attempt to tackle these problems,

he's immediately attacked

by all those who benefit from the status quo.

On the one hand, we have...

Are you going to tell me what you're doing in Naples?

I�m interested in what they have to say. Did you forget I�m Neapolitan?

Come on. Your assistants are here with a video camera.

I�m taking a few notes.

I might do a television film, a sort of "Neapolitan diary. "

You think I can convince people that Naples is a dynamic city that mustn't die,

and that if Italy gives up here, it'll give up everywhere?

- May I quote you? - If you like.

There's Carlo Fermariello. Let's listen.

...billions above and beyond the monies already allotted and never spent.

But let it be understood that as citizens of Naples,

we must safeguard ourselves before all Italy.

We must safeguard ourselves by establishing and insisting

on respect for laws so rigid, so inexorable,

as to finally overcome the old, justified prejudice that exists in our regard.

What's going on?

The conference hall is dark too. Someone go see what's going on.

- Are there no emergency lights? - It's a technical problem.

It can't be fixed tonight. This happens even in New York.

- When will it be fixed? - I don't know.

Now we all go for pizza!

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