- Dad! Where are you going? - Come.
Don't you want to see where your dad works?
Vittorio, what are you doing here?
I brought my daughter to see the courthouse.
What a pretty girl!
In middle school she got A- in Latin, A in Italian...
If she had a swank family she'd have got all A+.
This morning I enrolled her in high school.
No less!
Good morning.
- Good morning, Judge. - Excellency, good morning.
- I'd like you to meet my daughter. - This isn't the right time.
That's Judge Iodice, he's a big wig.
He does the most important trials in Naples.
He does them all.
This morning he was elsewhere.
If you're a hammer, strike, if you're an anvil, keep still.
We've to keep still, we're anvils.
Now pay attention,
to go to school, you take the train and get off at Montesacro.
From there you take the tram, the 21, that takes you to Via dei Tribunali.
Don't get it wrong, don't take the 12
because that goes to Piazza Nazionale, got that?
All right, Papa.
Alfonso!
- Good day. - How are you?
I took my daughter to enroll at high school.
I'm showing her the route from home to school.
- Pretty girl. - Thank you.
- How are you? - Everything's fine.
I'm going to the post office to pay some bills for the counselor.
- What happened with him? - That's another story...
Let's just drop it.
- It ended up like I said? - Like you said.
Lenù, where are you going?
What are you doing?
It's the sea.
It was the first time I saw the sea.
I felt dazed by the light,
by the sound.
It seemed that, although the spectacle moved me,
many things, too many,
were shedding around me, unable to be grasped.
I thought about Lila, about the two of us,
about that day we went off but then we came back.
At that moment I thought about the two of us,
about that day we went away together and then we came back.
Do you remember?
And then my father there... I'd never seen him like that.
He says hello to everyone, he always stops to talk.
I gotta tell Rino that we have to accept the invitation to Gigliola's.
I want to go, even if Rino and my father can't come.
- Weren't you listening to me? - Of course, I was.
I wanna show you something.
Look, I got it from the library.
HOW TO DANCE
Come.
- What are you doing? - Follow me.
Dip!
- I'll teach you. - Do you know how to dance?
- He's really good. - Come here.
Put your feet on top of mine.
This is how I taught Lila.
You got a lowcut dress
A hat with ribbons and with roses...
You don't know how obsessed my sister is!
If I show her a new step, she practices it until she's got it.
Just as well we don't have a gramophone.
Do you know what word gramophone is?
No.
It's Greek.
Come here.
I loved you
You loved me...
Later I'll write "gramophone" for you with Greek letters.
She began studying Ancient Greek even before I started high school.
She always did the things I was supposed to do,
before me and better than me.
Lovely ladies!
At the party Gigliola's mother threw for her name day,
everyone was there.
Giuseppina Peluso, Alfredo's wife,
with her children Pasquale and Carmela
was under the same roof as Maria Carracci,
Don Achilles' widow,
with her children Stefano, Pinuccia and Alfonso.
For the first time, the murderer's children
were in the same room as the victim's kids.
Anything could have happened.
So, what happens now?
Are you gonna dance? Make me dance on my own?
Better that way.
Go, Antonio!
Rock'n'roll!
Why don't you go?
I don't know how.
But you practiced rock'n'roll so much.
I don't feel like it, I want to stay here with you.
- Why aren't you dancing? - I can't do this one.
Me neither, come on.
Antonio, are you okay?
Ada, come with me.
You're good, Lila.
Lila?
Will you dance with me?
Carmela...
Michele, I don't want Pasquale here.
Signora Spagnuolo.
Pasquale, can I have a word?
- Ada, we gotta go. - What happened?
- Lenù, let's go. - Let Lila finish and we'll go.
No, we gotta go now. Rino's not here, she's gotta come with us.
Come on.
Cocksucker!
Lila, we gotta go.
- All right, we'll go now. - Wait, one more dance.
- Let go of me! - I'll take you home.
- Let go of me. - I told you to wait!
Let go of me!
- What's wrong? - Let's go.
Do you believe this guy!
- He touched me! - Lila, we gotta go.
What an asshole!
Just as well Rino wasn't there, he'd be dead.
You shouldn't have danced with him.
Come on, let's join the others.
Come on, Lila.
Sooner or later they'll come down, sons of bitches!
They got money and tell the poor:
"Kick out the Pelusos!"
Pieces of shit!
I left out of respect for Signora Spagnuolo.
But now I'll wait for them, I'm not afraid of their money.
Everyone knows where their money comes from!
Lower your voice.
The Solara's bar is a hangout for camorristi and loan sharks.
They ran a black market in there,
they gathered votes for the monarchists and fascists.
- People don't forget. - Pasquale, please.
Carmela, I'm not afraid of anyone.
Not even of Stefano Carracci, who thinks he's God Almighty.
The grocery store thrives
with the money of that rat Don Achille.
Cut it out.
And Dad was right to kill him.
Now I'll have to take care of the Solaras.
I swear to God, I'll wipe them off the face of the earth!
And you danced with that douchebag.
I didn't dance with anyone.
I just danced, what the fuck you want?
I didn't dance with you either.
What the fuck do you all want from me?
Pasquale's right, we can't always keep our heads bowed.
We can't always stay under them.
We gotta do something, stand up to those assholes.
You're scaring me.
Let's all go home.
Enzo, go if you want, we're not budging.
Okay, I get it.
We're gonna deal with the Solaras some other time.
Let's go home.
Are you serious?
Let's go home, Antonio.
But don't do that.
Sorry, Pasquale.
Never mind.
People talk and don't know anything, you know a lot of things.
- Don't make fun of me. - I'm not making fun of you.
I mean it, you know lots of stuff.
Explain it to me.
What are monarchists? And fascists?
And what's the black market?
Certain people made money from people's hunger during the war.
They sold bread, pasta, coffee at exorbitant prices.
People were forced to buy them to survive.
Everything you see, the houses, the cars, the buildings,
they bought it all by fleecing from someone else.
Do you understand?
Let's move away from here.
Tell me, explain it to me.
It slowly became clear, not only to me,
who had been watching her since we were in first grade,
but to everybody that Lila had begun exuding a fluid
that was not simply seductive, but also dangerous.
When school started again, on one hand, I suffered greatly,
because I knew I wouldn't have any more time for Lila.
On the other, I was happy to get away from her.
It was a bloody war, lasted ten years, with thousands of casualties.
But we don't know if this war really happened
or if it's a war that sums up all wars.
Where was I?
Yes, when the Trojans decide to leave Thrace.
Miss?
The young lady in the fourth row, I see you a little distracted.
I still haven't learnt all your names, there are so many of you.
What is your name?
Elena Greco.
Greco, why don't you continue?
You tell me how the plot continues when the Trojans leave Thrace.
The Trojans leave Thrace and go to Delos,
where they consult the orocle of Apollo.
Silence!
It's pronounced "oracle".
In Delos that oracle invites the Trojans
to seek the ancient mother.
So, the Trojans go to Crete.
But Crete wasn't the land the new city was to be built on,
but Italy.
In Italy too, the Trojans encountered difficulties.
This is the curse of the Harpy Celaeno, from Book 3:
"That you may reach Italy,
to Italy you shall go and freely enter her harbors,
but you shall not gird with walls your promised city,
until the wrong of violence towards us sees you punished. "
Sarratore!
Lenù.
Lenù, what happened? Why are you going?
Nothing, why?
You look awful... what happened?
At school I said something dumb about the Aeneid.
Beautiful, the Aeneid!
Wanna keep me company? We'll eat a sandwich, I'm on my own.
Papa and Rino went into town to buy some stuff.
Come in.
Wanna go halves?
- You know the Aeneid, too? - Yes.
The whole story of Dido, who falls in love...
who believes in love even though she suffers.
I think it means that if there's no love
not only does a person's life have no worth,
but nor does that of the whole city.
At school we've only got as far as Book 2.
Aeneas abandons her, as is always the case.
- At school I saw Nino Sarratore. - And you're telling me now?
- He didn't even see me. - But you gotta stop him.
And tell him about Melina, how she is doing.
So he'll tell his father.
Is Marcello Solara interested in you?
- Yes. - And you?
And Enzo?
We're friends.
And Stefano Carracci?
- You think everyone is interested in me? - Yes.
Has Pasquale declared his feelings?
- Are you nuts? - You're always together.
He walks you to the shop.
He explains things that happened in the past,
he tells me what's behind the wealth of certain people.
The camorra, the black market.
Loan sharking.
We don't know anything, we don't realize what's going on.
Stefano's grocery store used to be Pasquale's dad's carpentry shop.
Don Achille made the money before.
And the Solaras too, but how?
No one could care less.
And our families spend in their stores.
That frightens me.
No, we're afraid of things we don't know.
The more we know, the less we're afraid.
Lila!
Look who's here!
Here's the little one. See how she's grown?
Lila was beautiful.
Nino, if he saw her, would have been entranced by her.
I realized she was ahead of me in everything,
as if she were going to some secret school.
From that moment I decided to buckle down and study,
promising myself I would never be less than her.
Good morning.
Be seated.
Seeing as it's the last day before the Christmas break,
I have been clement.
Do not fear.
Greco, come here.
Did you copy this translation?
No.
I swear.
You know I can tell if you really know things
or if you've copied them?
Yes.
Anyway...
A fine A.
Thank you.
Boselli.
An utter shambles.
Well done!
Maiello.
You too, have distinguished yourself.
Elena!
- Want to walk home together? - Yes.
Is it okay if we always walk home together?
I don't know, if you like, sure.
Wait.
Do you want to go steady with me?
Did you understand?
- Yes. - And what's your answer?
All right.
Yes.
I said yes to Gino only because I wanted a boyfriend before Lila.
I felt strong.
I had gone beyond the neighborhood, I was going to high school,
I was with kids who were studying Latin and Greek
and not with bricklayers, mechanics, fruit vendors
and shoemakers, like her.
Here I am!
Rino, I'm going shopping for the Christmas dinner.
- I got a list this long. - Me too.
Lila, what about that thing?
- You wanna see something? - Yes.
Keep it to yourself, though.
Lila told me you're going out with the pharmacist's son.
It's not true.
So, you like rich kids!
Let her touch them.
You know who can afford these shoes?
Your sweetheart and your father-in-law, the pharmacist.
Bend them.
- See how strong it is? - It's true.
- We need to make them stronger. - Why?
The seam is still too wide.
And maybe they're too soft.
How long would it take Dad to see these mistakes?
Why are you always giving me shit?
Then let's try again with the water.
No, Dad could come back any minute.
You're scared to put it in water.
You're very skilled, Rino.
They turned out really well.
Tell that to that bitch of a friend of yours.
See? She likes to fiddle around.
Touch.
- It's dry. - It's wet.
Only you feel the wet.
Feel it.
- It's a little bit wet. - See?
It was only in the water for a moment and it's already wet.
It's no good.
We have to sew it all from scratch again.
What do we care about a little damp?
You're in a hurry and hurry's not good.
- You wanna teach me how to live? - That shoe is wet.
Why do I have such a stubborn bitch for a sister?
Drop it, Rino.
One day you say I'm doing it right, the next that I have to start over.
- It's just a pair of shoes. - Be quiet, Lenù!
Now you listen to me:
I don't want to spend my life being a servant!
Let's get out of here, he's crazy.
You hear me?
He thinks he's close to being rich.
He got it into his head to take out a loan to buy fireworks for New Year's.
He thinks the neighborhood will think we're getting richer.
- To make the Solaras jealous. - But where's he getting the money?
The Solaras have been preparing the fireworks for a month.
Pizza with escarole, then?
Then I'll take a jar of honey for the struffoli.
Honey... perfect.
This is going to take all day.
This pasta stays firm when you cook it that's a treat.
Then?
Give me a pack of sugar.
Sugar, there you are.
Look here, look at this! Anything else?
You look really good.
- No. - Yes.
Even with pimples.
Is it the satisfaction you get from school? Is it love?
It's not love.
I don't even know if I have feelings for Gino.
And you? Don't you want a boyfriend?
I only want to think about the shoe project.
Alfonso! Get the girls' shopping list.
Lenù. Hi, Lila.
- You got a shopping list? - Of course.
Give it to me.
Which prosciutto did Signora Lisetta buy?
The rustic one.
All right.
Will you do a quarter for me, too?
We understand each other, then. Pinuccia!
- Good evening. - How pretty you've become.
- Just as well Alfonso was there. - Or we'd still be there.
Lenù.
Do you want to celebrate News Year's Eve at my place?
- Alfonso really wants you to. - We've already got plans.
We're with her brother and the family.
Invite Rino and your parents, it's a big house.
For the fireworks we'll go up to the terrace.
You know the Pelusos are coming with us, right?
Let's start over.
Everybody come to me, we'll dance, we'll drink spumante.
As they say...
New year, new life.
Let me know.
Stefano!
- And the fireworks? - What do you mean?
We'll bring ours, and you?
- How many fireworks do you want? - Lots.
Then come to me,
when dawn breaks we'll still be letting them off.
Have a nice evening.
Why is he inviting everyone?
For you. See how he stared at you?
No, he's doing it for you, he's in love.
To get you into his house, he's even inviting communists,
even his father's murderers.
I see.
He wants to do something to stand out.
What's Stefano's message?
"My father was what he was, but I'm not like him,
enough with all this neighborhood scheming."
Lila's right.
It's not just an invitation to let off fireworks.
He's saying that our fathers did bad things,
but we, their children, should be different.
You read too many books, you never let your brain rest.
What do you mean by "different"?
Better, the opposite of the Solaras,
who are worse than their father and grandfather.
I don't know.
I think these are things that you think, not him.
Guys, you still haven't realized
that Stefano Carracci is a clown?
He's only inviting us to show off in front of the neighborhood.
What am I supposed to do?
Don Achille sucked my father's blood a little at a time.
Papa was a good man and you know it,
the carpentry shop was his life.
Don Achille took advantage, what was Papa supposed to do?
You should see Mama's face when she comes back from the prison.
You're right, Pasquale,
but that's precisely the problem.
Do we want to stay like this or do we want to change?
And if we want to change,
should we be on Stefano's side, who suggests we change,
or on the Solaras', who are drowning the neighborhood in poison?
I don't want to be on anybody's side.
I want to see the Solaras dead.
But think about it.
If we let off the neighborhood fireworks together,
I want to see if the Solaras still act like clowns.
Good evening, come in.
Hi, Lenù.
Lila, good evening.
Good evening, madam, all good?
Good evening, Don Fernando. Happy New Year!
Hi, Ada.
Signora Peluso, it's a pleasure to have you here.
Good evening, Stefano.
- Good evening. - Don Vittorio...
Rino, all good?
Thank you.
Pasquale, it's a pleasure to have you here, thank you for coming.
I'll be right there.
- Try it. - Don't you like it?
They're delicious.
Be honest.
Everybody, I'd like to propose a toast to the new year
and I'm very happy to have you all here.
But first, if I may, I'd like to raise a glass to Signora Peluso.
- And her children. - Thank you, son.
Carmela.
Pasquale.
Thank you for coming.
This year wonderful things will happen to all of us,
from the babies to the grandparents.
Out with the old...
for our own sake and that of the neighborhood.
Happy New Year!
Cheers!
Happy New Year.
Thank you.
- Stefano, what are we doing? - Rino's right, it's ten minutes away.
Let's go up!
This is gonna be a great year for everyone!
We'll make the buildings shake tonight!
You'll make me shake like that.
Or what kind of New Year's Eve is it?
Three crates of rockets for us, three of small rockets, pinwheels...
Where are the kids? Here!
- I'd like one of these. - Here.
Alfonso, you gonna help us, or not?
You're just standing there like a lug.
Go and help Rino.
Go, Alfonso.
It's midnight!
Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two,
one...
Reload!
Mamma!
The last night of the year was like a night of battle,
in the neighborhood and all of Naples.
The smoke from the gunpowder made everything hazy.
If there's a civil war, I thought,
like the one between Romulus and Remus,
between Marius and Sulla, between Caesar and Pompey,
they would have the same faces as these,
the same expressions, the same postures.
Everyone in the neighborhood knew
that what had happened until then was very little.
Facing us were the Solaras.
Everyone said that they'd have really let it rip
only after all the beggars had finished their little crackers
and showers of silver and gold,
only when the absolute masters of the party were them.
We'll burn you alive, you and your kind!
Sons of bitches!
Let's fire it into his face.
They're shooting at us!
Guys, they're shooting at us!
You've got nothing more to say?
They did it on purpose.
Slowly, slowly, don't be afraid.
You come down too, come home.
Don't stop.
What's wrong, assholes?
- They did it on purpose. - Rino, calm down.
Guys, we'll reload, don't worry.
Pieces of shit!
Pasquale, you're doing three at a time.
Here, put this in, too.
Let's set them on fire!
Rino, where are you going?
Guys, reload them.
There's plenty of them.
Something was happening to her,
what she later called "dissolving boundaries".
It was, she told me, as if on a night of full moon over the sea
an intense black stormy mass advanced across the sky
swallowing everything.
Take these too, assholes!
Do you see Rino?
Look at him.
Lila imagined, saw, felt,
as if it were true, her brother breaking up.
In front of her very eyes,
Rino's customary expression gave way,
showing her what he was truly made of.
Every second of that night of celebration horrified her.
Pieces of shit!
Worthless pieces of shit!
We showed them who's in charge in this shitty neighborhood!
You'll all burn together! You'll all die together!
Assholes! That's what you are!
You're not worth nothin'!
Pieces of shit!
- Fire! - Show us!
You'll all burn together, assholes!
Pieces of shit!
Assholes!
Shitholes, take this, too!
Are they done?
Wait, I'm gonna get them.
- Yes! - They've run out.
We showed them who's in charge in this shitty neighborhood!
Another one!
Lila, come on.
- We gotta do downstairs! - They're shooting guns!
Don't be a fool!
Pieces of shit!
Assholes!