Where it was filmed 'Naples in Veils'

With his Naples in Veils, Ferzan Özpetek turns his gaze on a Baroque and esoteric city, filled with rituals and traditions that are often unclear to those who come from outside. The film begins with a shot of the hypnotic, ellipsoid staircase of the Palazzo Mannajuolo, an art deco building from the early 1900s. Inside the ancient ritual of the figliata dei femminielli, where men mime giving birth, is taking place.

When the party is over, Adriana takes Andrea to her home by cutting across Piazza del Gesù: the Church del Gesù Nuovo with its unusual facade of black ashlar is in the background, along with the monumental obelisk dell’Immacolata at the centre of the square. Many scenes are set at Palazzo Pandola, also located on Piazza del Gesù, including a crucial fight between Adriana’s parents. Andrea’s house is in Marechiaro, a shorefront area in the neighbourhood of Posillipo.

After passing the night together, Andrea and Adriana decide to meet up at the Archeological Museum of Naples – MANN, in the “secret cabin” so-called for the presence of erotic and sexual artwork. Here a mystery begins that will follow Adriana throughout the film, and with it some unsettling feelings, which she discusses with her aunt Adele while walking down Via Colabritto, in the neighbourhood of Chiaia.

In the Toledo metro station, whose blue-turquoise mosaics that evoke the feeling of being under the sea make it one of the most beautiful in Europe, Adriana thinks she sees Andrea in the crowd. In a short scene, Adriana also walks through the Garibaldi metro station.

Other picturesque locations include the Galleria Principe di Napoli occupied by bottari, a group of kids who play the drums, and the Pharmacy degli Incurabili, part of the Complex degli Incurabili. Here Adriana finds Pasquale describing the treasures to a group of tourists, focussing on the veiled uterus, a longitudinal section of a virginal womb.

Still more magic and ritual meet when Adriana heads to the former convent of Naples where a medium, a sort of Cumean Sibyl (or priestess of the oracle), reads her future, and again, while searching for the meaning of some mysterious numbers, she and Pasquale watch a vajassa tombola, an unusual game of bingo with some femminielli (drag queens), on the panoramic terrace of the Certosa di San Martino, in the Vomero neighbourhood, with an enchanting view over the city.

Pasquale returns this time to the market of Borgo di Porta Nolana, where he drinks a lemonade with Adriana. The celebration in his honour takes place at the Cappella di San Severo which houses the 17th century Veiled Christ by Giuseppe Sanmartino, a sculpture famous for the realistic veil that covers the Christ figure.

The film also shows the hanging gardens of the Palazzo Reale, Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, Spaccanapoli, and lido Mappatella, between Mergellina and Lungomare Caracciolo, where the inspector delivers several photos to Adriana.