The last chapter of the tetralogy of The brilliant friend finally arrives on the small and big screen in Italy too. The series is available from September 9th on the Max platform, with one episode per week. It will come to us on Rai Uno in a five-evening event starting from November 11th. Story of the Lost Child is the last book in the saga that tells the story of Elena Greco known as Lenù and Raffaella Cerullo known as Lila, a couple of friends who grew up in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Their story starts in the post-war period among the rubble of the recently concluded conflict – with its aftermath of hunger and poverty – and reaches up to the present day; the destinies of the two protagonists often intersect with the great events that have changed the history of our country, in particular with those that have to do with women’s rights, such as abortion and divorce. A few months ago, the New York Times crowned My Brilliant Friend as the book of the century, so it is normal that there is a lot of anticipation around the release of the last season and, naturally, also a lot of expectations on the part of the large community of readers and above all of Elena Ferrante’s readers.

As Domenico Procacci, one of the producers of the series, said, this project was born well before the Ferrante Fever broke out all over the world: even before the third volume of the tetralogy was released, his collaborator Laura Paolucci had presented him with the idea of ​​producing a series based on My Brilliant Friend. A few years later, Lorenzo Mieli and Saverio Costanzo – who was director and showrunner of the series – presented themselves to Procacci, who in the meantime had purchased the rights to the book, with the proposal of collaborating together on the project. The result, by all accounts, was a fruitful collaboration which allowed us to set up a truly impressive machine in terms of the number of people involved and investment for the best possible performance of the novels, which in the meantime had conquered half the world.

The Brilliant Friend, Gaia Girace says goodbye to her Lila: “I lived magnificent years”

Finally a woman as director, Laura Bispuri

After three seasons in which – with the exception of two episodes directed by Alice Rohrwacher – the direction was entrusted to two men, Saverio Costanzo and Daniele Luchetti, the fourth season bears the signature of director Laura Bispuri. For her it was a great challenge, given that she found herself managing a project already started by other directors and with a completely new cast. In this season, in fact, we will see Lila and Lenù as adults, played respectively by Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher. The latter had already given voice to the “adult” Lenù from the first season and had the opportunity, over the years, to work together with Margherita Mazzucco who played the young Lenù; with her, Rohrwacher said, the work was constant and of mutual exchange: on the one hand she was there to guide the young actress, on the other the young actress gave her contribution to the construction of the character. Totally different story for Irene Maiorino who had to pass several auditions to get the role of Lila, a character she was very attached to because the first book of the saga was given to her years ago by her “brilliant friend”. Maiorino worked by watching Gaia Gerace – who played the young Lila – from afar, trying to internalize her ways and gestures so as not to shock the audience and create a certain continuity with the work done by the young interpreter. In the last part of the series the actress let herself go and let her Lila resurface, an adult woman struggling with one of the most excruciating pains a mother could ever face.

Because we disagree with the words of Saverio Costanzo

The character of Nino Narratore played by Fabrizio Gifuni deserves a separate chapter. The actor said he was undecided until the end whether to accept the role of one of the most hated characters in the history of literature; what prevailed in the end was the challenge represented by the interpretation of a difficult but at the same time iconic role. In presenting the first two episodes at the Rome Film Festival, Costanzo said he was satisfied with the work done by the cast and Laura Bispuri and was keen to point out that he did not choose her because she is a woman but because, according to him, there are no differences of gender in art.

Watching the series and after reading Ferrante’s books, one can calmly and calmly disagree with this statement by Costanzo, who will certainly have his reasons for pursuing this idea, but to a trained eye – especially that of international spectators – It will not have escaped notice that one of the most blatantly feminist books in recent literature had to wait for the fourth and final season of its television adaptation to see the point of view of a woman, Laura Bispuri, behind the camera. The difference is there and you can see it and it’s a shame not to have noticed it before.

My Brilliant Friend is strong above all in the story and characters written by Ferrante, everyone agrees on this, from the cast to the production, including Costanzo himself. The television transposition of a global phenomenon is not a simple thing and the final result is more than satisfactory. However, the feeling remains that more could have been done, very little was enough. Maybe commit to finding a woman as showrunner and director from the beginning. Fortunately, there is no shortage of names and it would be enough to look at the work done by Bispuri and Alice Rohrwacher to realize the positive difference that the change of point of view can make to a series so focused on the female universe. It is not a question of form, but of substance.

Rating: 8