With ‘My Brilliant Friend’, ‘Gomorrah’, and ‘The Name of the Rose’, the golden age of Italian television might not be too far
The small screen has been controlled and censored of its content for the longest time,
something which the government has not been able to practice on the big screen.
Elena Ferrante’s revolutionary Neapolitan series took us back to the generation who were fighting against the Fascist censorship on Italian media- be it cinema or television or the press. As the first person narrator, Lenuccia, Ferrante shows us the nooks and corners of Naples in the 1960s and ‘70s when communism was brimming in the underground, like a distant clarion call to overthrow the fascist ideology of the preceding generation. Keeping at par with this audacious and revolting thought of an entire generation replacing the other, HBO’s 2018 adaptation of the first book in the Neapolitan series, ‘My Brilliant Friend’ saw Italian television redeem itself from its decade long struggle to gain a global appreciation.
Italian television industry, unlike its devout cinema noir, has been notoriously under political influence since its inception. While on one hand, Italian cinema acted as the pioneer of motion pictures and was often known to have been the foundation of several movements in the new wave of films and other art forms, its small screen ventures continued to remain subdued under the concentrated and highly politicized ideologies. The jurisdiction control of Prime Minister Berlusconi’s family upon public broadcasters such as Rai is one of the major factors why Italian television was unable to cope with global small screen revolution. In fact, for the longest time Rai would broadcast nothing but state-owned programs that were highly censored and were nothing compared to the Golden Age of cinema which found its inception on the Italian silver screen. As the only channel to have gained popularity among the mass, it would broadcast shows that were highly regulated in content but, fortunately, not compromise on quality. However, what Rai managed to achieve was to unify the Italian audience who even in the 1950s, ‘60s, and early ‘70s were still divided in their dialects and culture. Just as every form of dictatorship comes to an end, very soon public monopoly was established upon Italian television.
With the launch of Rai 2 in the late 1960s, public monopoly began to get a stronger hold upon the content of television. Yet the quality of Italian TV was not even half as good as its big screen masterpieces and it was only in 1973 that the television finally found its own ground among the common mass when a private amateur cable channel began to deliver its own programs. With the Constitutional Court’s intervention which assured private broadcasters that public monopoly on national level does not apply to local broadcasting, Italian TV finally got the freedom to make what it does best, establish magic realism on screen. About 550 channels popped up with their own shows, and soon by the 1980s Italian television was able to reach where the US and the UK had been dwelling for the preceding four decades- the homes of the common mass. Yet, it was not until recently- and with recently we mean the 2010s decade- that Italian TV show experienced a revolutionising change in its content, and thus the audience.
2014’s ‘Gomorrah’, based on journalist Roberto Saviano’s titular novel, told the story about a Neapolitan criminal family that finds itself on the brink of a civil war while trying to defend itself from enemies who will literally stop at nothing. Hailed as Italy’s most popular crime drama of all time, the familiar theme of bloodshed within a family which is relatable both in their crisis and selfish wants, ‘Gomorrah’ has quickly reached an international pedestal. As it is being compared and also praised with its US contemporaries such as ‘The Wire’ and ‘The Shield’, ‘Gomorrah’ has also become a big concern for the nation’s present government. Only today Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris has claimed that the show is responsible for the increase in crime rates in the city.
‘Gomorrah’ has already become a subject of controversy among the conservative circle of the nation. (IMDb)
Claiming the show’s plot line to be a subject of a major debate, Magistris has stated, “Let's talk about the fact that in the evenings after the TV series is aired, episodes of violence increase, and that happens often. It means there's a theme of the negative model or symbolism of the evil. If one wants to deny it and say 'long live Saviano' regardless, it makes a resounding mistake." On one hand, his statement is almost a direct reminder of the Fascist chains that had locked up Italian television shows under conservative rule for the longest time, on the other hand it is a reassurance of the fact that the renaissance of the small screen has begun in Italy. With its present tendency of uncensored content, perhaps the most suitable instance of TV renaissance in Italy can be given with HBO and Rai’s adaptation of ‘My Brilliant Friend’, a riveting tale about female friendship and a parallel showcase of the Italian struggle to break free from all conversative ideas.
‘My Brilliant Friend’ took Italian television on the international pedestal. (IMDb)
As the show is headed for a second season, which is an adaptation of the second book in the series, ‘The Story of a New Name’, it actually brought to us not only the cinematic excellence of Italy but also a halcyon revolution in classical music. Max Richter’s theme track for the show, ‘Whispers’ clearly echoes Lenuccia’s urge to keep pace with her best friend, Lila’s bold outlook towards life, and yet it maintains Ferrante’s discipline in storytelling. On the other hand, ‘My Brilliant Friend’ is an epitome of everything that Italian cinema is known for- the precise use of mute color palette, nudity as a political statement, and the spanning frame that captures decades within the glimpse of an eye. The show has been immensely praised for its portrayal of female friendship but its achievement lies in the fact that it brought back the neorealism which is a capital factor in Italian motion pictures.
‘The Name of the Rose’ is yet another ambitious venture by Rai. (IMDb)
Most recently, Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’ was also adapted by Rai for the small screen, and in its way it too has uncovered the ambitious venture of the small screen. The series is almost a reminiscent of the Lumiere Brothers’ documentation of Pope Leo XIII in 1896, which sort of spearheaded the motion picture movement in Italy. Led by John Turturro, almost leaning to a ‘Gomorrah’-like power play and maintaining the subtle tensions of ‘My Brilliant Friend’, the show has established the fact that Italian television is just as ambitious as its big screen counterpart. Hence, it can be said now that the Golden Age of Italian television isn’t far away and when that happens it will act as the most powerful machine to churn out an army that will eradicate the Fascist grip on motion art in Italy.
