Passione (2010)
Director: John Turturro
88 min.
Opening night reception: Thursday October 20, 2012
Aperitivo italiano followed by the screening of the movie Passione by John Turturro
Aperitivo: Thursday, October 20 at 5:30
Screening: Thursday, October 20 at 6:30
Passione (2010)
It is undoubtedly useful to sort music by nationality, period, genre and style, but the actual example, that “Passione” John Turturro’s galvanic tribute to the songs and singers of Naples, Italy, was a documentary about soul music, that might be confusing, since that term commonly refers to 1960s African-American music.
But what else could you call the tradition that Mr. Turturro samples? The music in “Passione” combines sensual suavity with raw emotion, mixes heartbreak with ecstasy, acknowledges the hard realities of poverty and injustice and soars above them. I suspect that if artists like Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin were to see this film, they would recognize their own art within it.
Mr. Turturro, an eloquent, self-effacing guide establishes an essential kinship between Naples and other musical hot spots. Like Havana, Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans, it is a city where colliding and commingling musical cultures fused into a distinctive and continually evolving hybrid. There is a rich past informing every note and melody, a tangle of influences that brings echoes of Spain, North Africa and other parts of the Mediterranean basin, including Istanbul, the subject of Fatih Akin’s magnificent 2006 music documentary “Crossing the Bridge” And there is also an ethic of exploration and invention that is open to infusions of jazz, pop and hip-hop.
A.O. Scott- New York Times
Add comment September 19th, 2011