Passione
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Metascore
70 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: When acclaimed actor-director John Turturro was invited to make a film about Neapolitan music he was intrigued, as an Italian-American who’d grown up with many of the swooning ballads that had become popularized. But when he revisited the place from where these songs had come, and met the arartists living there carrying on the tradition, he was completely blown away. Preconceived ideas evaporated and what was meant to be a straight-ahead
    documentary transformed into a wild fantasia, an adventure into the vibrations of history. In the film’s 23 songs, you can hear the cultures of the city’s many invaders, the Greeks, Arabs, French, Spanish, Normans, and Americans. Eight centuries echo in the aqueducts in “The Song of the Washerwomen.” In “Tammuriata Nera,” WWII is relived as Al Dexter’s
    twang collides with the primal roar of Peppe Barra. “O Sole Mio” becomes blend of goldenage television performances and the North African vibe, and “Malafemmena” is portrayed for the first time in all its irony, in the context of its very inspiration. The song “Vesuvio” is performed only as it can be by those who live at the foot of the volcano bearing that name.
    Each song, whether written in protest or superstition, out of love, jealousy, or poverty, is an emotional postcard about what has changed and what has not. As we see, a solitary voice on the street can cause an entire intersection to break out into song. Passione is Turturro’s
    celebration of a city intensely alive. He has let the film come directly out of the people, the walls that surround them, and the land they inhabit. (Beta Cinema)    … Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    Jul 21, 2011
    90
    A beautifully structured and photographed film, John Turturro's rapturous Passione offers a vibrant exploration and celebration of Neapolitan music in all its grit and glory, presenting 23 musical numbers that encompass a millennium's worth of influences.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    Jun 21, 2011
    80
    While Passione praises the spirit of its subjects, it also attends to the discipline and tenacity that makes them worth noticing.
  3. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    Jun 21, 2011
    80
    If you're even slightly interested in folk music, there will be something here to simmer that curiosity into a full-on boil: the Arabic trip-hop stylings of monomonikered rapper-singer Raiz, raspy Pietra Montecorvino's Stevie Nicks–like dance tunes, a gorgeous sax solo from local jazz legend James Senese.
  4. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    Jun 24, 2011
    60
    It can sometimes be hard to sit through, but another song is coming soon, and anyway, close your eyes and imagine you're on vacation, sipping vino in a piazza, soaking in the street life.

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