“Gambardella and Ottaviano’s song, however, is nothing to do with it, it is just a crafty enticement for this Neapolitan film which has been found at the bottom of the nitrates of the CSC – Cineteca Nazionale and restored in its original colours.

‘O marenariello is the story of Tore, a fisherman from Posillipo, who falls in love with a frivolous actress who has come to shoot a film on the shores of Mergellina. The poor seaman loses his head, abandons his promised bride Carmela and is on the point of doing something crazy, when all of a sudden he gets a hold of himself and serenity reigns once more.

A swish of parthenopoeia, a tender love story which brings us back to the Naples which only lives on in old songs, so different to those which authors like Piscicelli or Martone pitylessly describe today with their cruel cine-camera”. (Vittorio Martinelli)