The Southern Way of Life - Southern Italy - page 474

case of art imitating life, Massimiliano Bruno's film Viva L'Italia (2012) features a
crooked, well-connected senator who secures jobs for his three children, among them a
talentless TV actress with a speech impediment. The Italian film industry itself came un-
der attack in 2012 when newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano accused several members of the
Italian Academy (which votes for the prestigious David di Donatello film awards) of hav-
ing conflicts of interest. As the satirist Beppe Severgnini wryly comments in his book La
Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind, 'If you want to lose an Italian friend or
kill off a conversation, all you have to say is “On the subject of conflicts of interest…” If
your interlocutor hasn't disappeared, he or she will smile condescendingly.'
John Turturro's film Passione (2010) is a Buena Vista Social Club -style exploration of Naples' rich and eclect-
ic musical traditions. Spanning everything from folk songs to contemporary tunes, it offers a fascinating
insight into the city's complex soul.
A Woman's Place
'In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns', said Fabrizio (Angelo Infanti) in
The Godfather . 'A woman at the window is a woman to be shunned', proclaimed the
writer Giovanni Verga in the 19th century. And 'Women are too stupid to be involved in
the complex world of finance', decided a judge when faced with a female Mafia suspect
in the 1990s. As in many places in the Mediterranean, a woman's position in southern
Italy has always been a difficult one. In the domestic sphere, a mother and wife com-
mands the utmost respect within the home. She is considered the moral and emotional
compass for her family. As Alessio reveals: 'The mother is the spine of a family, hence
southern men are often called mammoni (mummy's boys). The mum is always the mum,
an omnipresent role model and the nightmare of newly wedded wives.'
But times are also changing. According to Luca, a young Pugliese: 'It's only two gener-
ations ago that men and women were almost segregated. Women only used to go out on
Saturdays, and they had separate beaches for men and women.' His father Marcello adds:
'When my father met my mother, he saw her walking along the street and tried to speak to
her. Her brother said to him: “You speak to me first.” When he was permitted to visit, my
aunt sat between them and my grandmother was a chaperone.'