Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A PUPPET WITH PUNCH
His aliases are many, from Punchinello or Mr Punch in Britain to Petruska in Russia. In his home town
of Naples, however, he's simply Pulcinella: the best-known character of the commedia dell'arte.
In his white costume and black hook-nosed mask, this squeaky-voiced clown is equally exuberant
and lazy, optimistic and cynical, melancholic and vitreously witty. As a street philosopher, he is antiau-
thoritarian and is often seen beating the local copper with a stick (hence the term slapstick). At home,
however, his wife's the beater and he's the victim.
While some trace his creation to a 16th-century actor in the town of Capua, others believe he has
been dancing and stirring since the days of togas...or even longer. In fact, his iconic hook-nosed mask
appears on frescoed Etruscan tombs in Tarquinia, north of Rome. The mask belongs to Phersu, a vi-
cious Etruscan demon known as the Queen of Hell's servant.
The Silver Screen
In this corner of Italy, locations read like a red-carpet roll call: 'la Loren' wiggled her
booty through Naples' Sanità district in Ieri, Oggi, Domani (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow;
1963), Julia Roberts did a little soul-searching in its centro storico (historic centre) in Eat
Pray Love (2010), and Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow toasted and tanned on Ischia
and Procida in The Talented Mr Ripley (1999).
Naples' home-made offerings have often been intense and darkly comic, holding a mir-
ror to the city's harsh realities. Feted for his 1948 neorealist masterpiece Ladri di Bi-
ciclette (Bicycle Thieves), Vittorio de Sica (1901-74) was a master at depicting the bitter-
sweet struggle at the heart of so much Neapolitan humour. His two Neapolitan classics,
L'Oro di Napoli (The Gold of Naples; 1954) and Ieri, Oggi, Domani , delighted audiences
across the world.
Appearing with Loren in both L'Oro di Napoli and the slapstick farce Miseria e Nobil-
ità (Misery and Nobility; 1954) is the city's other screen deity, Antonio de Curtis
(1898-1967), aka Totò. Dubbed the Neapolitan Buster Keaton, Totò depicted Neapolitan
cunning like no other. Born in the working-class Sanità district, he appeared in over 100
films, typically playing the part of a hustler living on nothing but his quick wits. It was a
role that ensured Totò's cult status in a city where the art of arrangiarsi (getting by) is a
way of life.
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