Rione Luzzatti May 3, 1950. This is written on the box of old black and white negatives from the Riccardo Carbone Archives which show glimpses of the neighborhood where Elena Ferrante's novel 'My Brilliant Friend' is set, during the childhood years of the two protagonists Lenu' and Lila.
In the photos, just a few printed for the occasion of the television debut, the first signs of recovery in a neighborhood still marked by the war with ordinary people and school children moving between bare buildings, open sewers and beams supporting the walls of bombed buildings. "Images - as the curators of the archive explain - like those seen on TV where the historical setting of the neighborhood is faithfully reproduced by the sets set up by the production in the province of Caserta". The Carbone Archive, already partly available for consultation on the website www.archiviofotograficocarbone.it, is being recovered thanks to the digitalization and cataloguing campaign carried out by the Riccardo Carbone ONLUS Association. The set was rebuilt outside Caserta, in the former Saint-Gobain factory: 60 thousand square meters to recreate the Luzzatti neighborhood of Naples in the 50s, where part of Elena Ferrante's quadrilogy, My Brilliant Friend, is set.
For the TV series, directed by Saverio Costanzo and produced by Hbo, every single detail of Elena and Lila's neighborhood was reproduced, thanks to the scenography by Giancarlo Basili. Edited by Flavia vCappadocia.
Gustavo Gentile
Article published on November 29, 2018 - 22:11
