EDUARDO CASTALDO / FREMANTLE
SERIES – This Wednesday, July 1, France2 is broadcasting season one of the Italian series “L’amie prodigieuse”, a faithful adaptation of the literary saga launched in 2011 and already broadcast on Canal +. Signed under the pseudonym of Elena Ferrante – a mystery still unsolved – the work has attracted more than 10 million readers around the world, hanging four volumes during the neighborhood life of Naples from another time.
“The prodigious friend” tells the complex friendship – punctuated by admiration and jealousy – of the young Lenù (Elena) and Lila (Rafaella). Linked for a childhood shortened by injustice, the two young girls saw their paths separate in the 1950s when one was allowed to continue her education, when the other – however gifted – was condemned to the walls of the family shoemaker.
In the post-war context of an Italy still marked by fascism, where violence and poverty reign, the innocence of heroines has no choice but to become mature. Determined and hardworking, they refuse to be the collateral damage of a deeply patriarchal society and fight in parallel, with their own means (education or commerce), to gradually overcome the cruelty of Neapolitan life.
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To bring her work to the screen, the elusive author (or author?) Mixed her pen with those of Francesco Piccolo (screenwriter of “Habemus Papam”) and Laura Paolucci (associate producer of the film “Gomorra”) in the scenario development. Behind the camera, Saverio Costanzo (director of “Hungry Hearts”) set out to capture the boiling of a mutating Naples.
The fruit of an Italian-American collaboration (involving HBO and RAI fiction in production), the series “L’amie prodigieuse” is enjoying unprecedented success in his homeland, where it attracts nearly 7 million viewers. Like the novel, the serial adaptation in turn hopes to go beyond Italian borders. This is already the case in France, where the series was first broadcast on Canal + before being broadcast on France2, “L’amie prodigieuse” takes us one way for Neapolitan fever.
The costumes: reflections of the disparities of the time
To perpetuate on the screen the feat of “The Prodigious Friend”, the production team explored the Campania region for eight months in search of the faces of heroines. With this ambition, more than 8,000 children and 500 young adults were auditioned to get as close as possible to the expectations of readers. At the end of this impressive casting, four young girls won the prestigious roles of Lenù and Lila (children then adolescents). Alongside these novice actresses, 150 actors and 5,000 extras were in turn retained to give life to the novel.
A heavy task then imposed itself: that of dressing them. On the set of “L’amie prodigieuse”, no less than 1,500 costumes – mixing old clothes and original creations – were used to accurately recreate the historical context of the 1950s. Stylist Antonella Cannarozzi, interviewed by The HuffPost, admits having even lost count of the pieces specially designed for the series: “We made so many costumes that some did not even have the opportunity to be used!”.
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EDUARDO CASTALDO / FREMANTLE
In the post-war Italy described by Elena Ferrante, social misery is carried on the shoulders. “The people are us,” laments Lenù, in a passage from the first book. Thus, if the classicism of clothing is a characteristic of the time, it is mainly imposed by poverty, which therefore leaves little room for fantasy … when it sometimes prevents even dressing. A difficult situation that Antonella Cannarozzi discovered during her research:
“In the 1950s, it happened that members of certain Italian families, in the north and in the south, took turns to go out in winter, having only one pair of shoes available for the home. This explains why Lila launches out with passion in the manufacture of shoes, a symbol of luxury at the time, like coats. ”
Antonella Cannarozzi uses the term “recycling” to describe the clothing trend as it existed in a poor neighborhood in southern Italy. Because in a post-war context, nothing could be wasted: “the coats of grandmothers became the skirts of their grandchildren” illustrates the Italian designer. When style was dictated by an economic situation, ingenuity and natural elegance became the only factors of distinction.
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EDUARDO CASTALDO / FREMANTLE
Yet “uniforming,” the uniform could also betray a financial situation. The school in Italy, where it was imposed, then became the first theater of social inequalities. The adaptation of “The Prodigious Friend” demonstrates this: when Lenù’s outfit is accessorized with a white collar, Lila’s dress – often dirty – is devoid of it. Antonella Cannarozzi justifies this choice:
The uniform had an apron, with a white collar and a ribbon, but not everyone could afford to buy it. The poorest then tried to dress their comrades uniformly with the clothes they had available.
Beyond an indicator of wealth, the uniform was also a reflection of the pervasive sexual discrimination in society. “Compulsory for everyone in primary school, it was only imposed on girls in middle and high school,” says the Italian designer. Girls who, ironically, had less access to education at this level. Their families believed, for lack of means or out of machismo, that they would be more useful at home.
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EDUARDO CASTALDO / FREMANTLE
“A society which finds it natural to stifle so much feminine intellectual energy with domestic tasks and the education of children, is its own enemy and does not even notice it.”
– Extract of The prodigious friend, Tome 3
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EDUARDO CASTALDO / FREMANTLE
The decor: a district of Naples with fire and blood
To faithfully recreate the singular atmosphere of the popular district of Naples where the intrigue of “The prodigious friend takes place”, the technical team (itself composed of 150 people), did not skimp on resources. The film set was installed in the Marcianise industrial area, near Caserta north of Naples. It required more than three months of work and a budget of 30 million euros. Spread over 20,000 square meters, it is a set of 14 buildings, 5 indoor floors, a church and a tunnel, intended to set the scene for the series as described in the original work.
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A colossal work of reconstruction, justified by the predominance of Naples in “The Prodigious Friend”. A protagonist in its own right, the city is both a source of torment and of hope for the heroines. Because beyond the neighborhood from which they seem to be trapped, the center of the city – heart of wealth, history and culture – becomes the promise of possible social advancement.
If the district is never named in the tetralogy, a number of clues have brought connoisseurs of Naples on the trail of Rione Luzzatti. In this popular suburb on the outskirts of the city – separated from the latter by rails and vacant lots – stand concrete buildings built after the war, similar to those where Lenù and Lila grew up.
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Elio Maiello, head designer of “L’amie prodigieuse”, explains to HuffPost that isolation is the very characteristic of a working-class district: “It is compartmentalized and knows precise limits. From then on, it takes on the appearance of a ‘village’, the city is understood as ‘the outside’ ” [d’où l’enthousiasme qu’affichent les fillettes au cours de leur escapade vers la mer].
This exclusion is, moreover, the first image that came to mind when he read Elena Ferrante’s novel: “The heart of the neighborhood where young girls live beats on its own pulse. It is a microcosm with its rhythm and its customs, conditioned by – and conditioning – the life of its inhabitants ”. A characteristic that has gradually been confirmed in the photographic archives and testimonies of residents, consulted for the sake of authenticity.
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EDUARDO CASTALDO / FREMANTLE
EDUARDO CASTALDO / FREMANTLE
In this full organization reigns the law of the strongest. It is duly applied by the influential Neapolitan mafia [la Camorra, plus vieille organisation criminelle d’Italie, sous les traits des Solara dans la série]. A chaotic environment where adults tear themselves apart under the eyes of children through violent clashes and gossip, which can be watched from the balconies where clean linen hangs. In the dusty streets or in the dark staircases, one screams (more than one speaks) in the Naples dialect.
″ So was it possible that only our neighborhood was saturated with tension and violence, while the rest of the city was radiant and benevolent? ”
– Extract of The prodigious friend, Tome 1
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If Naples has naturally evolved a lot since the 1950s – be it in terms of architecture, means of transport and its general appearance – the portrait of this charismatic district drawn in “The Wonderful Friend” is not so far from reality as we know it today, according to Elio Maiello:
“Naples is the fruit, for better or worse, of its deep and long history: for cultural, political and social reasons, it has been one of the cardinal cities of the Western world since Magna-Greece.”
“Less affected today by the phenomenon of globalization, which unifies large cities around the world, Naples preserves its strong identity. Its areas ‘less contaminated’ by modernity, and therefore more popular, still belong to its inhabitants. This is what makes its beauty unique. ”
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See also on The HuffPost: “Bureau des Légendes”: this recruitment test is very real at the DGSE
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