{"id":10698,"date":"2022-01-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.italianlanguagefoundation.org\/?p=10698"},"modified":"2024-02-19T19:51:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T00:51:47","slug":"my-brilliant-friend-an-accurate-representation-of-everyday-life-in-1950s-neaples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/my-brilliant-friend-an-accurate-representation-of-everyday-life-in-1950s-neaples\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMy Brilliant Friend\u201d: an accurate representation of everyday life in 1950s Naples"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Written by Clara Vedovelli,<\/b> graduated in Language Education from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Bologna in foreign languages and literatures. During her masters, she collaborated with the Ca' Foscari School for International Education and she interned at the Pedagogical University of Cracow as a tutor of Italian. Clara is aspiring to gain hands-on experience in a professional environment outside the classroom, and she is focusing on creating active engagement on the ILF's social media platforms. Being born in the Italian Alps, Clara enjoys hiking and spending time in nature.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cMy Brilliant Friend\u201d (in Italian: \u201c<\/span>L\u2019amica geniale<\/span><\/i>\u201d) is an Italian-American TV series created by Saverio Costanzo based on Elena Ferrante\u2019s \u201cNeapolitan Novels\u201d saga. <\/span>The \u201cNeapolitan Novels\u201d are a 4-book series published in the U.S by Europa Editions. The series includes<\/span> My Brilliant Friend<\/span><\/i> (2012), T<\/span>he Story of a New Name<\/span><\/i> (2013), <\/span>Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay<\/span><\/i> (2014), and T<\/span>he Story of the Lost Child<\/span><\/i> (2015).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The third TV series based on the third novel will be broadcast on HBO soon this year<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span>If you love Italian culture and you want to get an insight about post Second World War Italy, here is why you should binge-watch the first two seasons right away.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Elena and Lila are two young girls born and raised in an impoverished neighborhood in the outskirts of 1950s Naples<\/strong>. Elena (also called Len\u00f9) is at first scared of Lila\u2019s stubbornness, boldness and bravery, but after a bumpy start the two girls pick up a tumultuous friendship that will last through their teenage years. The two friends couldn\u2019t be any more different: on the one hand, Elena is sensitive and submissive, on the other hand, Lila is rebellious, passionate and mysterious. Their friendship is challenged by the untenable hardships of life, crimes, resentments and differing circumstances<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>

The action takes place in the streets of the old <\/span>rione<\/span><\/i>, all the flats are based around the courtyard, which also hosts family dramas, criminal acts and working-class struggles. The whole community takes part in the plot going through the same life experiences and difficulties, which perfectly portrays the hard times that Italians had to go through after WWII. The whole representation of their life is pretty accurate, including the language.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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Watch the TV series in Italian if you want to listen to true Neapolitan<\/strong> (and some Italian), and get a truthful insight of real-life conversations in those days. It wasn\u2019t until the late 50s and early 60s that Italians learnt Italian<\/strong>, and even today in some remote areas or villages, the elderly still speak dialect. Not surprisingly, \u201cMy Brilliant Friends<\/i>\u201dwas first released with Italian subtitles, so that everyone in Italy could understand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The TV series touches\u00a0 upon relevant issues that affected further development of the characters and, overall, of the 1950\u2019s Italian generation. Topics such as education, emancipation, female friendships, power relationships among families, mafia, violence and man-women relationship play a major role in the plot of the TV series. Such controversial topics merge together and form the background to the characters’ ventures.<\/span><\/p>

In Ferrante\u2019s book, the narration flows smoothly and it weaves seamlessly in and out of memories and the TV series does justice to the books creating the perfect visual representation of Naples in the 50s.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Photo by Anastasia Zhenina<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a> <\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Adapting famous novels for the screen is risky, but \u201cMy Brilliant Friend\u201d is a gripping and absorbing TV series that the audience will love for its rawness and audacity<\/strong>. Being Elena Ferrante (a pseudonym chosen by the author) one of the screenwriters, it is no wonder that the TV show reflects the authenticity of the book and its slow-paced and emotional atmosphere.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Clara Vedovelli, graduated in Language Education from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Bologna in foreign languages and literatures….Read More <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10698"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10747,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10698\/revisions\/10747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italianlanguagefoundation.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}