Hey friends! Let’s just get right into it. I’m a real sucker for war and resistance films, so with Italy’s Liberation Day right around the corner, I figured I’d spotlight some Italian war movies. Let’s round out April with two ensemble pictures: The Camp Followers (1965) by Valerio Zurlini and The Four Days of Naples (1962) by Nanni Loy!
The Quick Gist
Le Soldatesse AKA The Camp Followers follows an Italian Lieutenant as he transports a group of prostitutes across war torn Greece into Albania, hoping to evade Partisan attacks along the way.
Le Quattro Giornate di Napoli AKA The Four Days of Naples is a resistance film depicting the four days of popular uprising in Naples against the occupying Nazi regime.
The Camp Followers
The Camp Followers is an anti-war road trip flick about an ambivalent and disillusioned Italian Lieutenant tasked with transporting a group of prostitutes from Athens, Greece to Albania, in hopes to boost the morale of the soldiers and Fascists busy fighting the resisting Partisans. Along with the women, a Blackshirt joins the expedition, a character that increasingly exhibits the brutality of the Fascists.
Although disturbed by the devastation and destruction he was party to in Italy’s invasion of Greece, Lieutenant Martino nonetheless remains in the Italian army. What else can he do??? Well, defect and join the Partisans for one! But that’s not his calling. His calling is to be a cog in the horrible machine of war.
The women he’s transporting are treated as cargo by all, except for him, who seems sympathetic to their situation. Does he feel a sort of kinship with the women, all of them forced into situations they feel unable to escape?
While the soldiers in the film treat the women as objects useful only to alleviate the realities of war, Zurlini does not. He creates well drawn characters of substance, with backgrounds, lives, and troubles specific to them; some able to remain more light hearted, using humor to mask the horror they’re living through, while others wish only for death. All the while, the relationships between the women, Martino, and the Fascists become complicated. Love, as well as hate, blossoms, and it’s these complicated, unlikely relationships that help make the film so compelling.
Shot in gorgeous black and white, the deep focus photography gives us that neorealist feel, while also allowing us to take in and linger on the many stunning faces. Zurlini’s mix of melodrama and realism make for a great combo.
The film stars French singer Marie Laforêt, the great Lea Massari, and Anna Karina in her mid 60s prime, where many of her most well known French New Wave movies were being filmed with Jean Luc Godard. Karina and Laforêt are two of the most well rounded women of the bunch, but are nearly opposites of each other in terms of how they deal with their impossible situation. On the other hand, for such a big name, Massari hardly speaks a word. Guess we can chalk it up to her playing a Greek character, though it still feels unfortunate.
While pin downed by Partisan gunfire, one Fascist urges the truck to escape ASAP, exclaiming that the women are like dynamite ready to blow for the the sex deprived soldiers. It brings to mind films like The Wages of Fear and Sorcerer — a truck traversing hostile territory, transporting the most fragile of cargo at the mercy of the elements, primed to explode at any moment.
While a clear anti-war film, The Camp Followers doesn’t deal in glorified images of Italians opposing Nazis and Fascists. It’s not so didactic. We are, after all, witnessing this through the perspective of a lieutenant in the Italian army. And although frustrated and disillusioned with his role in the war, Martino still fulfils his duty. It lends a complexity to the film that feels rather rare for the time.
While there are fun, humorous moments, the film is ultimately quite bleak, giving us the realities of war and the impossible situations so many found themselves in. There are no heroes here. Just suffering. C&C approved!
The Four Days of Naples
Nanni Loy’s 1962 film is based on the real life uprising of the population of Naples against the occupying Nazis that occurred between September 27 and September 30, 1943, just before the Allied Forces made their way to the city. Unlike The Camp Followers, this movie makes no bones about wanting to glorify the average Italian, making them out to be absolute heroes. Hey, defeating the Nazis was no easy task. According to some historians, this was the first time that the uber rigid and militaristic Nazi force surrendered to civilian resistance fighters.
Shortly after the war is declared over, the people of Naples begin to celebrate. But their celebrations are short lived, as the Nazis are hell bent on maintaining brutal control, despite the armistice. Reprisals take places, curfews are set. Men are rounded up to be taken for forced labor or to fight on the fronts. For every Nazi killed, a disproportionate number of hostages are murdered. The Neapolitans soon realize that to survive, they’ll have to take matters into their own hands.
Naples soon becomes a nearly a full united front: men, women, and children engage in guerrilla warfare, fighting for their lives and future. Women face down battalions of Nazis to free their men while families throw their last pieces of furniture out their windows into the narrow alleys below to stop the advancing enemy soldiers — anything to stop the Nazis. Under equipped and underfed, but not undefeated!
Like The Camp Followers, this film also stars Lea Massari, and here she actually has some lines. But she’s not the main character — no one really is. Just Naples and the united goal of liberation. This is also an ensemble piece, moving between characters and groups as they maneuver their way through the city; evading, attacking, and defending against the occupying force.
There’s a pretty solid cast here. Along with Massari, there’s Gian Maria Volonté, and a very short lived Jean Sorel. Don’t get too attached! While Nanni Loy leans into the image of the heroic Italian, he also doesn’t shy away from showing the grim realities of war perpetrated against civilians.
More technical and slick than some of the more famous Italian resistance films like Rome, Open City and Paisan, there’s still an immediacy to it, and some really great use of locations. Overall, I’d say this is a pretty solid entry in the WWII resistance genre, and I’m a little surprised it’s not more widely known or talked about. If you like resistance movies, then you’re probably going to dig this one.
Cool little fact: the cinematographer here, Marcello Gatti, also shot Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, the absolutely epic (and superior) resistance film, documenting the Algerian fight against occupying France.
So there you have it. Order yourself a pizza from your favorite Italian joint, grab a snack pack of cannolis, and celebrate Italy’s Liberation Day by watching some great flicks.
More Italian War and Resistance Films:
Also on the C&C server:
Tutti a Casa / Everybody Go Home! (1960) - Luigi Comencini. This classic commedia all’italiana film features Alberto Sordi who, rather than go home when the war is declared over, teams up with his pal to join back up with the remaining Italian forces.
Il federale / The Fascist (1961) - Luciano Salce. Another in the commedia all’italiana genre, the great Ugo Tognazi stars as a Fascist soldier tasked with capturing an anti-fascist professor to bring him back to Rome, not expecting a friendship to blossom along the way. This was Ennio Morricone’s first credited film as a composer.
Era notte a Roma / Escape by Night (1960) - Roberto Rosselini. Towards the end of the war, three Allied soldiers are helped by a Roman couple, who hide them away from the Nazi and Fascists still controlling Rome.
La Lunga Notte del ‘43 / The Long Night of ‘43 - Florestano Vancini. A young woman starts an affair with an army deserter as the brutal end of the war rages on around them. Pasolini is credited as one of the writers on this one.
More movies streaming for free elsewhere:
Violent Summer (1959) - Valerio Zurlini | The Night of Shooting Stars (1982) - Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani | Love and Anarchy (1973) - Lina Wertmüller | La ciociara / Two Women (1960) - Vittorio de Sica | Three more by Rosselini: Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), General Della Rovere (1959)
Password to watch on the site: pizzapastapartisans
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