John Turturro is an actor capable of conveying interior life and personal subtlety. But let’s be honest: We relish his ability to be loose and crazy, to go all Lebowski and get off the leash.
Two current movies showcase his zanier talents: “Cars 2” casts him as the voice of a cocky Italian ra
ce car and the third “Transformers” picture returns him to his role as a hyperventilating expert on alien robots. In each case, he makes you wish he had more screen time.
Turturro’s hammier tendencies come into play in his new film as a director, “Passione.” Here the extra helping of prosciutto is warranted. This is a music documentary with a great subject for the Italian-American filmmaker: the melodramatic, overheated musical traditions of Naples, featuring top-notch Neapolitan performers cranking it up.
The film is a series of songs, sometimes introduced by an onscreen Turturro, sometimes not, which might take place on a stage but are just as likely to be played in the streets or in an apartment.
Some are deliberately conceived as little dramas: as simple as an exchange of glances among streetwalkers and their customers, or as complicated as a wife discovering her husband in bed with another woman.
The songs without dramatic staging are no less arresting. In a number called “Tammuriata Nera,” three performers are almost at war with each other, spinning a portrait of the mixed-race children who resulted from the presence of American soldiers in Naples during the World War II.
The song’s super-charged performers are actor-musician Peppe Barra, Tunisian-born performer M/Barka Ben Taleb, and the American actor Max Casella, who raps out “Pistol-Packin’ Mama” over the musical stew.
That mix of influences brings up another of Turturro’s points, which is that Neapolitan music has taken on colorings from the many different cultures that have passed through the place. He reaches back to black-and-white clips of opera legend Enrico Caruso and pop crooner Sergio Bruni and lays them next to current-day hip-hop practitioners to prove his point.
“Passione” bears comparison to similar films, such as Carlos Saura’s recent “Flamenco” and Wim Wenders’ “Buena Vista Social Club.” It’s less disciplined and more chaotic than those movies, but maybe that’s a result of the setting; the shots of Naples show a crazy, overgrown city bursting at the seams.
Turturro pops up as a dancer and back-up singer in one clip, as though unable to hold himself back. His movie has a quality similar to his acting style; it’s a little too much and overstated, but awfully fun to watch. And listen to, of course.
“Passione” ½
Actor John Turturro assembled this tribute to the music of Naples with a series of numbers (most of them inflected with a certain hammy melodrama) set in the streets and clubs of the city. The movie’s a little chaotic and overstated, but it’s impossible not to enjoy the sheer energy of the songs. In Italian and English, with English subtitles.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG for subject matter
Showing: Northwest Film Forum
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
