Neapolitan Diary

Thirty years after making Hands Over the City (1963), Francesco Rosi returns to Naples, the much-troubled city of his birth, to make this fascinating documentary “sequel.” Neapolitan Diary explores how much things have — and haven’t — changed in the interim, and follows Rosi as he attends a screening of Hands Over the City at the local school of architecture. “Rosi records the transformations his city has undergone in three decades of change, shady dealings, and criminal violence. With overwhelming beauty and honesty, his cinematic diary investigates history, current events, memory, ancient architecture, and hope” (Film Society of Lincoln Center). “Shot with all the sacraments of great cinema . . . Perhaps his most beautiful [film], revealing the heart of his poetics” (Tullio Kezich). “A more personal exploration . . . Harsh and lucid, but never without hope of change, not even in bleak interviews with school-aged drug dealers” (Verina Glaessner). Colour, 35mm, in Italian with English subtitles. 90 mins.