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The Manetti brothers at Bif&st: “Neo-melodic singers, Naples’ true stars”

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- Song'e Napule, coming out on April 17, has conquered audiences in Bari, where it is in competition in the ItaliaFilmFest section

The Manetti brothers at Bif&st: “Neo-melodic singers, Naples’ true stars”
A scene from Song'e Napule

It took a while to execute, they weren’t even sure they wanted to do it. But in the end, Song'e Napule [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, the new film by Marco and Antonio Manetti, known as the Manetti Bros., is somewhat of a masterpiece. After a sci-fi film (L'arrivo di Wang [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) and a horror film (Paura 3D [+see also:
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), in this new film – lauded at the Bari Bif&st and coming out in movie theatres on April 17 – the two Roman brothers have made a take on the police movie genre of the 1970s. 

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Paco (Alessandro Roja), the main character, is a mild and unemployed pianist who enters the police forces by pulling a few strings and is forced by his tough boss, Cammarota (Paolo Sassanelli) to infiltrate a popular Neapolitan neo-melodic band, headed by Lollo Love (Giampaolo Morelli) in order to capture a dangerous Camorra killer.

“The film was born from an idea by Giampaolo Morelli with whom we worked on the television series L'ispettore Coliandro,” Marco Manetti, who was a guest in Bari, says. “Giampaolo had the image of a pianist policeman who had to infiltrate the band of a neo-melodic Naples singer in mind. For probably about four years, he told us we had to do it, that we were perfect for filming in Naples. But we were not convinced. Then we met producer Luciano Martino who served as guide to us and the project took form.” 

Song'e Napule is an immersion into the varied world of neo-melodic Neapolitan singers: “We already knew that world a little because we had previously filmed videos for Nino d'Angelo and Gigi D'Alessio, who are former neo-melodic singers,” Marco Manetti says. “We were particularly inspired by an MTV show where Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto, director of La mafia uccide solo d'estate [+see also:
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interview: Pierfrancesco Diliberto
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]
) followed one of these singers. Alessio, around for a day, as he went to weddings, communions and serenades. In the beginning, we had a trash vision of it, but then we understood they were real musicians: some did soul, others rap, rock. It is an interesting experience, because nobody knows them outside of Naples, but in their city, they are true stars.”  

The film is a take on a genre that was extremely popular in the 1970s: police movies. “The truth is the police movie element came later,” Antonio Manetti says. “What we wanted to do was a police comedy to the sound of music. Then, one day, as we were doing surveys for the film, we started seeing a Giulia (an Alfa Romeo car produced in the 1960s and 1970s) go by, and we stopped the man driving it. We wanted it on set. The driver agreed to lend it to us, as long as he was allowed to be in the film with his girlfriend. Filming in Naples is easy, everywhere you go people help - in exchange for something.”  

Song'e Napule was produced by Devon Cinematografica with Rai Cinema (“our first film with a major production entity” according to Marco Manetti). Microcinema will be distributing it starting on April 17.

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(Translated from Italian)

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