Film & Music • Napoli è una canzone
Napoli è una canzone (Italy, 1927),
Director: Eugenio Perego, Director of Photography: Emilio Guattari. With Leda Gys, Angelo
Ferrari, Carlo Reiter, Grethel Stein and others. Produced by Lombardo Film
(b/w, 104 min, Italian intertitles)
With live music by and with
Burkhard Stangl, dieb13 and Angélica Castelló
In cooperation with the Cineteca di Bologna and the Austrian Film Museum
Print programme (PDF)
Burkhard Stangl, guitars, vibraphone, electronics
dieb13, turntables, grammophone, electronics
Angélica Castelló, recorders, electronics
Christina Bauer, sound engineer
Leda Gys, a diva of silent movies, had one of her most impressive roles in Napoli è una canzone. She plays a Neapolitan convinced of the power of music. When she “cures” Mary, a rich American, of her depression with a song, she not only makes a friend for life, but also meets and falls in love with Mary’s brother…
One of the movie’s cinematographic highlights is a hiking expedition to the top of Mount Vesuvius, which reveals impressive footage of the dangerously smoking crater.