Side Street Story

A side street in Naples, from 1940 to 1950. First the fascists, then the Germans, then the Americans. Gennaro Iovine is the most honest man on the street and for exactly that reason is permanently in trouble. His wife keeps the household going through the war on the black market. When Gennaro goes off to the front and comes back years later, the street has money and is unrecognisable. Nobody talks about the old rules any more. The question the film puts is whether surviving a war is enough, and whether the person who survived is still the same person. Eduardo De Filippo directs; ninety-one minutes, adapted from the play he wrote and staged himself, and he plays Gennaro. Totò and his sister Titina De Filippo are in the cast. It is among the best known transfers of Neapolitan theatre to the screen.