Netflix takes Ferrante’s coming-of-age tale about a bored teen and her brash, entrancing aunt and adds rocket fuel. They’re having a blast – and you will too
lena Ferrante fans have been treated to two particularly wonderful, yet very different, screen versions of her work over the past couple of years, from Maggie Gyllenhaal’s elegant film The Lost Daughter to, which remains one of the most stunning, if underwatched, literary adaptations of recent times. The Lying Life of Adults takes on Ferrante’s 2019 coming-of-age novel and, while it keeps good company, that also means it has a lot to prove.
In 1990s Naples, teenage Giovanna is bored and restless. Her parents are gorgeous, glamorous leftwing academics, while she feels like a misfit. Her grades are poor, she has little interest in anything other than novels , and, worse, she worries she is becoming ugly, having overheard her father, Andrea, expressing concerns that she is starting to look like her mysterious Aunt Vittoria, a woman evidently absent from their cosy family life.
Vittoria is a fabulous creation, on the page and on the screen, where Valeria Golino has a ball with her. Vittoria is Andrea’s estranged sister, and still lives where they grew up together, on the wrong side of the tracks. Andrea decides that if his daughter is so curious about her aunt, they should be allowed to meet. The reality of her should prove more of a deterrent than the idea of her.
Understandably, Giovanna is entranced by her aunt, then repulsed, then entranced again. This is a side of Naples she doesn’t know – the rundown area where Vittoria lives is entirely unfamiliar, but the people, too, are a revelation to her. There are some neat contrasts drawn between her parents’ lives, with its book-lined apartments and intellectual dinner-table conversations, and the loud, tactile world, “like Naples, but another planet”, where Vittoria lives.
As always, Ferrante has impeccable insight into the complex psychology of teenage girls, and Giovanna’s attempts at self-discovery, as she tries on and discards various identities, are painfully familiar and universal, even if the Neapolitan setting may not be. She borrows Vittoria’s insults and uses them as her own, which is funny, but also serves a purpose, particularly when it comes to the persistent approaches of boys her own age.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Pilot fighting for life after small plane crashes in Victoria's alpine regionA pilot is fighting for life after a light plane crashed in Victoria's alpine region. The small plane slammed into trees in the Mount Buffalo area, about one kilometre from where it set off at Porepunkah about 4.40am, according to police. 9News
Read more »
Boy fighting for life after alleged drink-driver crashes into carA driver hit another car, critically injuring an eight-year-old boy, and then blew nearly four times the legal alcohol limit on the NSW Central Coast, police allege. 7NEWS
Read more »
Miracle update in condition of boy left fighting for life in Sea World helicopter crashNine-year-old Leon has been unconscious in Brisbane Children’s Hospital with brain trauma since Monday’s crash. 7NEWS
Read more »
Covid reduced Australia’s average life expectancy and lifted death rates to historic highsCentre for Population report shows 129,000 people died between January and August 2022, 17% higher than average for the period
Read more »
Harry Kane admits World Cup penalty miss will haunt him for rest of his lifeHarry Kane has said his World Cup penalty miss against France has made him ‘even more hungry’ to be successful
Read more »
Australians’ life expectancy drops after spike in deathsLife expectancy for men and women is projected to have fallen by nearly five months - and the government expects a further drop this year.
Read more »