Elliot’s Watching - Week of 5/23/21: My Brilliant Friend

Elliot’s Watching - Week of 5/23/21: My Brilliant Friend

The Saverio Costanzo adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend (Season one, 8 episodes) is to the best of my recollection an extremely faithful rendition of the first volume (and maybe part of the second?) in the author’s quartet about her coming of age in working-class Naples and in particular about her relationship - I’m assuming that the Linu character is closely based on EF’s own life, that this set of novels is part of the relatively new auto-fiction movement - with a much more adventuresome, risk-taking, rule-breaking best friend, Lila, as their life paths divulge - best friend’s family cannot or will not send her on for higher (i.e., post middle school!) education even though she’s obvious gifted and talented. Over the course of Season 1 the two girls move from childhood - playing with dolls and carefully observing the lives and mores of the families in their tight-knit neighborhood, beginning about 1950, and following the two girls as the grow to adulthood, have their first awkward sexual experiences, and get caught up in various family rivalries, including some violent gang or clan episodes. The series moves along in a slow and stately manner; it’s not a show of great tension or high drama, which may for some be a drawback though for me that made the show more credible. The production itself is quite beautiful, as the Italian team has really re-created the look and feel of life in this time and place: The many long shots of the street life if the neighborhood are particularly striking. The only real drawback for me has been my difficulty at times keeping the characters and their family backgrounds (and rivalries) in focus - a lot of characters are introduced over the 8 episodes, sometimes with little or no context, but maybe that’s just my problem. Those who loved the novels, in particular, will really enjoy revisiting this world, so well captured in these 8 episodes.