As any cinephile well knows, Naples has given Italian cinema many great stories and outstanding performers. In particular, the pen of the great playwright Eduardo De Filippo has served as the basis for very fine films in which the language of theater meets the rhythm of film editing. Among the best examples of this happy encounter is certainly "Saturday, Sunday and Monday", a TV movie made in 1990 by Lina Wertmüller and starring a magnificent Sophia Loren. The film winds its way through some of the most iconic places in the cities of Pozzuoli and Naples, resulting in a grand choral fresco over which the watchful eye of the Great Mother repeatedly evoked by Luciano De Crescenzo keeps watch. Why not do some good film tourism during your visit to Pozzuoli? Retrace with us the steps of the film and discover many interesting facts about a gem of Italian cinema.

Solfatara, bradyseism and the Great Mother.

"Near Mount Vesuvius and the seething solfataras, in the ancient city of Pozzuoli, from time immemorial the earth has been moving up and down slowly, so much so that the people who live there have gotten used to it." With this line recited off-screen, "Saturday, Sunday and Monday" opens, as if it were the beginning of an ancient fairy tale. Pozzuoli is immediately introduced to us through one of the peculiarities that have made it famous all over the world, the phenomenon of bradyseism. We thus make the acquaintance of Professor Luigi Iannello, played by the never-too-much lamented Luciano De Crescenzo: he is an extroverted geologist sui generis, convinced that Pozzuoli's terrain dances at the behest of the Great Mother, mistress and mistress of the Earth's depths. So we see Professor Iannello who, in the evocative setting of the Solfatara of Pozzuoli, is intent on explaining to a skeptical Fascist official that if "the statue of Duce has tilted over the twenty-three" it is precisely because "the Great Mother sta nu poc tuccat e nierv And decided to throw the male off the horse."

The Rione Terra, home of the Prior family

We discover that Professor Ianniello is wont to identify the Great Mother with various female figures of his acquaintance, including his neighbor, Mrs. Rosa Priore. This is how we first see our protagonist enter the scene, played by a Sophia Loren perfectly cast in the part: a proud matron absorbed in the sacred task of preparing the Sunday ragout. After a funny scene in which Donna Rosa animatedly discusses the recipe for the ideal ragù with other fierce mothers of the family at the butcher's, our protagonist returns to her sea-view house in the Earth District of Pozzuoli. Thus we meet her large and boisterous family, ready to gather for lunch the following day: her now grown-up children, Aunt Memè (the great Pupella Maggio, for whom De Filippo had originally written the role of Donna Rosa Priore) and above all her husband Don Peppino Priore, tormented by jealousy toward his beautiful wife whom he sees as too close to Professor Iannello.

A carriage ride through Naples

Don Peppino's concerns about his relationship with his wife are also reflected in his conversations with other characters. Peppino also feels distant from his son Rocco, who is very attached to his grandfather, who considers him far better than his father and far more skilled in business than he is. Unleashing Peppino's wrath against his father-in-law Don Antonio will be a carriage ride that will see some of the most characteristic places in Naples pass in the background: starting from the Rettifilo (as Corso Umberto I is commonly called) we see the carriage parade past the imposing Angevin Male, at San Carlo Theater and to the magnificent Royal Palace located in Plebiscite Square. These symbols of Naples accompany Don Antonio's chatter about hats and the fancy store his nephew has opened on Calabritto Street, kicking off a biting spat with Don Peppino.

The mute testimony of the Temple of Serapis

During Sunday lunch, tensions between the couple will explode in a violent scene that will threaten to irreparably crack the family ménage, in the same way that an earthquake caused by bradyseism cracks the walls of the house immediately after the quarrel. Indeed, Don Peppino's jealousy gets the upper hand and, after a riot of unfounded accusations, donna Rosa will have an illness at the end of an impassioned monologue. After such an outburst, only the darkness and silence of a bad day remain: Professor Iannello, saddened by the incident, will indulge in a night walk in the center of Pozzuoli admiring the ruins of the Temple of Serapis And silently questioning a statue of the Great Mother.

Monday: the dissolution of conflicts and the triumph of love

The third act, that of Monday, sees the resolution of the marital conflict thanks to the intervention of the daughter Giulianella: it is she, in fact, who discovers the real reason for her mother's resentment towards Don Peppino, and communicates it to the latter. Donna Rosa's reasons may seem futile at first glance: in fact, her rancor toward her husband stems from the latter's exaggerated compliments to the macaroni sicilian style cooked by her daughter-in-law. However, behind this seemingly silly pretext lies more than that: Rosa's frustration at finding that she has never received similar compliments from her husband, her impatience with the way he has completely delegated the care of the house and children to her without ever having an explicit word of gratitude for her.

Thanks to Giulianella's intervention, the couple will be able to speak frankly to each other, and they will discover that the fears that tormented them were not to be attributed to the end of their love, but rather to be interpreted as definitive proof of how much they cared for each other.