LA REPUBBLICA (Italy)
NAPLES– They say if you want to enjoy Italian theater, just walk out the front door. That goes 20 times over in the endlessly colorful southern city of Naples.
Just such teatro di strada is all here in this amateur video (below), as a man unsuccessfully tries a U-turn in a tight street on the outskirts of the city. What follows? A motorcycle club, the middle-aged driver worrying about his mamma and his Fiat, a chanting Catholic procession, useless emergency workers, a prosciutto strapped on the back of a bike…and just about everyone and everything else around getting soaked up into this singular, once-in-a-lifetime moment. Just like every other day in Naples…
Note: Check below for a viewer’s guide in case you miss anything. But don’t worry about the bits of dialogue in the local dialect — they are saying what you’d guess they’re saying. So otherwise, just enjoy this sweet slice of Neapolitan life…
Video highlights:
0:06 – Uh oh..problemmino
0:14 – First honking starts
0:38- The bikers pull up
1:07- The procession arrives, singing slowly fades…
1:28- Coming down from the balcony for a closer look
1:35- An angry lady ain’t holding back
1:55- The driver says: “Mamma, don’t worry, I’ll get us out of here”
2:12- The priest hands over his cross so he can coordinates the collective U-turn.
2:29- The priest is firmly in charge
2:47- They ask the priest whether they should all lift the car up and turn it themselves? The priest sees the broken wing mirror on a nearby car and tries to keep order in the crowd that has gathered.
3:00- Explaining to the alterboys what’s going on
3:05- Shot of the leg of ham (prosciutto) on one of the motorbikes.
3:18- The angry lady again
3:35- “Leave me alone, let me turn the car”
3:59- The priest guides car out
4:04- As the car clears the turn, assembled crowd lets out sarcastic (or maybe sincere?) chorus of: “bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo!”
4:34- A flower send-off
