Trudie Styler trains her eye on Naples in her new documentary, “Posso Entrare? An Ode to Naples” that she wrote and directed. It premiered on Wednesday at the Festa del Cinema di Roma as a special screening.
Styler, known more for being Sting’s wife than for her own accomplishments, is an actress, cinema producer, director, activist, environmentalist, UNICEF ambassador and Italian wine producer. The 69-year-old from Bromsgrove near Birmingham, has had a home for years in Tuscany but decided to focus on Naples, because “this city is magnetic, it enters inside you and you never forget it.”
She was entranced not only by the picture-postcard panoramas, but above all, by “the Neapolitans who resist, those who with their commitment and dedication choose not to leave and are trying to improve their city”. The city though well known for its tourist charms, but also has an ill-deserved reputation for urban blight and Mob crime.
The title of Styler’s Ode to Naples is an allusion to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, written in 1820, at the height of the city’s popularity as the centerpiece of the European Grand Tour, considered at the time a crucial part of an educated and cultured person. In short, the apogee of Naples’ place as a global focal point of art and culture.
Styler’s film is a tribute to a city that has inspired generations of creative minds and captured the hearts of many visitors. The film follows Styler as she visits various landmarks, museums, restaurants, and neighborhoods of Naples, and interviews local artists, historians, chefs, and residents. It showcases the beauty, history, art, cuisine, and music of Naples, as well as the challenges and opportunities that the city faces in the modern era.
She was inspired by her own childhood in a council estate in England, where she experienced a strong sense of community and solidarity. Styler said she felt at home in Naples, where she met a priest who helps young people avoid the mafia, a 90-year-old woman who swims every day in the sea, and many other colorful and resilient characters. She said she wanted to show the beauty and vitality of Naples, a city that is often misunderstood and stereotyped. Styler does not have Neapolitan or Italian roots, but she said she loves Italy and its culture. She also speaks some Italian and has learned some Neapolitan words and expressions during her filming.
“It’s a city that is full of life, teeming, a city in chiaroscuro,” she told ANSA of the work that had a much-awaited premiere in the southern Italian port city on Wednesday.
On her Instagram page Styler wrote, “Two years in the making, I fell in love with Naples as I walked its streets and met its people. The city has suffered a global reputation for crime and volatility, a place that people left in order to make a better life elsewhere. But what I discovered were a people who are proud of Naples’ history and culture, who put their energies into their family, their community and their art, and who want to stay and enrich the city they love.”
Styler has chosen to focus, among others, on two “heroes”: Don Antonio Loffredo, “who with his arms that welcome all is forging a revolution today;” and actor Francesco Di Leva “who has chosen to remain with his youngsters with the theater project Nest, another way of changing the city from within”.
Trudie Styler had only visited Naples once in the past, accompanying her husband Sting, for a concert in the 1990’s. “I had no pre-impression of Naples,” she said. “But I did ask myself: Why haven’t I been?’ The city is safe and is getting safer. It is a thriving, buzzy place … I think Naples is having a Renaissance.”
The documentary also features Roberto Saviano, the Neapolitan author famous for his book Gomorrah; Alessandra Clemente, a Naples councilor whose mother was killed in a mafia shootout; and the women involved in Forti Guerriere, an association fighting against domestic violence and femicide.
“I focus really on the people who have remained [in Naples] because they want to make the city better, safer,” said Styler. “They have this ferocious, devoted loyalty and they are working as hard as they damn well can to make sure that people can be as safe and successful as they can.”
The documentary will be in theaters starting early November.
