“Capri Rendez Vous”: a half century love story
May 9, 2019. It is almost midnight. Who loves Freed He knows: May 9th is not any day. It is an appointment, a secular rite. For weeks, the Fans have scrutinized the digital sky anxious, waiting for a signal. But that evening everything seems stopped. No ad. No beat. Only silence.
And instead. At 11:59 pm, in that moment suspended between the wait and disenchantment, it happens. Five new videos, an entire album. A story that does not just be heard, but shows itself, lets itself be lived: “Capri Rendez Vous “. An extraordinary project, signed once again by the wise hand of Francesco Lettieri. Five chapters, five songs, a single story that crosses more than half a century, from 1966 to 2019.
And in the center, always her: Caprisuspended between dream and memory.
Guagliò
“Time takes everything away, Marì …”
The curtain opens on a capri that exudes French cinema, wind and salt. The first frame is an bow to the Nouvelle vague. Lettieri drags us into the heart of a scene that seems to dance in the footsteps of “The 400 shots ” by Truffaut. In the background there is also the typical siren of the productions of Liberato, but on the song we will return later. Now let’s focus on the images
We know Marie, a French diva with a curious gaze, and Dino Linetti, director with a tired face yet still romantic. We are in 1966. Capri is a set, a mirage. And it is here that, between a recovery and a sigh, Carmine appears: a local boy, a sailor out of necessity. Lineti’s monologue is poignant. A reflection on the fleetingness of art and life.
A caress of nostalgia, a tribute to the poetics of Federico Fellini and Nanni Moretti, but probably also a tribute to Dino De Laurentiis, uncle of the current president of Calcio Napoli. Marie greets Dino, before going up to Carmine’s boat who will take her to the hotel (but not immediately).
The song, “Guagliò”it is a broken cry: the escape from a fate that chases, the fear of losing those who love you while running away. By whom? Perhaps from the police, moreover the text speaks of “soldiers who have it with me“. That if they were The Clash would be “Police on my back”. And that “Guagliò“probably screamed by them guards who chase him, it seems the echo of a love that already knows that he will have to resist the physical distance as well as that of time, while the mind inevitably recalls a well -known song of the 99 possessions.
Oi Marì
“Damn ‘in Marina …”
The story starts where it had been interrupted. Marie rises to Carmine’s boat, but the sea calls, irresistible, and she dives. Between the two, language becomes superfluous, also for the obvious linguistic barriers. Something stronger than words was born: an exchange of looks, gestures, complicity.
The scene, which recalls “The contempt “ Of Godard (moreover film shot in Capri), it is full of a light and melancholy sensuality. Capri is a perfect setting: beautiful, elusive, eternal. Music, on the other hand, changes rhythm. “Oi Marì “ It is a reggaeton disguised as a love song. Allegro apparently, but full of an almost unsustainable melancholy. Liberato sings the desire to retain those who slip away, always a step further.
Here too, the words are sewn with art: Spanish and Neapolitan intertwine, quotes from Ben E. King Memories whisper. It is a danceable lie, the one that tells liberated, while Neapolitan Marie’s name and asks her for a chance, promising to change your life.
Nunn’a I want ‘ncontrà
“Mmocc ‘a Chitemmuort, O’ Juorn Ca ‘t’Aggio’ nucrata …”
1975. The weather, just as Dino Linetti said, slips away like sand between his fingers. Marie is now a film star, perhaps even in the run for the Oscar. Carmine instead remained faithful to her island, at her roots. Then a random encounter, to a party. The eyes cross. Nothing happens, but in the heads of the two protagonists there is a world war.
The video, this time, is a tribute to music rather than in the cinema.
The saxophonist remembers James Senese and his Napoli Centraleand the atmosphere smells of Peppino di Capri While Undey Champagne, to toast a meeting.
“Nunn’a I want ‘ncontrà” It is an electronic storm, which appears only to explode in a visceral tammurriat. Past love still burns, as an embers under the ash. Yet proud, the protagonist refuses to meet her. To get back into the game. To suffer again. Freed gives us back this sentimental discomfort through the inevitable quotes, from Nino D’Angelo (“Passann and Spassan Sotto a studi Balcon“) a Céline Dion (“My Heart Will Go On“) passing through Adele.
You me faje ascì pazz ‘
“Comment no, come to FFA or alert in Los Angeles …”
1993. Capri is always there, but everything has changed. Carmine has a family, a life and a work as a policeman. Life flows between small gestures and great silences. During a night shift, he sees it: Marie. Drunk, fragile, lost. It is no longer the bright star of the past. She is only a tired woman, disillusioned and dedicated to alcohol, who, however, still retains a light that not even defeat has managed to turn off completely.
She recognizes him. He proposes to escape. To erase the past. Carmine Tentenna. In the end, in the penumbra, the wedding faith is parade. What happens is not shown to us by liters, but it is clear.
“You me faje ascì pazz ‘” It tells the oscillating between desire and regret. It is a quarrel that hides love, anger, tenderness. The song plays on the double sense of the sentence “Me Faje Ascì Pazz ‘“Meaning what “You drive me crazy” (both in a romantic and unbearability sense). The phrase “Faje Semp Chest, and you’ll Never Change“namely “You are always the same, you will never change“could be a response to the confidence betrayed. Remember in “Oi Marì” When did the protagonist promise that he would change if she had given him a chance? “Faje Cartin ‘and Filter, I Told You That I’m Sorry”, He replies while evidently proposes to discuss them by putting flowers in the cannons.
The phrase “scart ‘rusto’ and little pily Primera” It is another of the typical untranslatable Neapolitan expressions, deriving from the game of cards. We could make it with “Let’s go badly for the worse“. And then again”Miaz ” to all stu cazz ‘e burdell’ ce stann doije rose“, That He takes us back to the iconography of Liberato: La Rosa.
Nothing
“Quann tn vaje nun sent cchiu nothing …”
2019. Marie is back. White hair but the same dark glasses. He returns to Dino Linetti’s funeral, but he returns to look for Carmine one last time. He finds him on the cold marble of the cemetery, in a photograph. Not that of the mature man of their last encounter, but that of Carmine Barcaolo. Meanwhile, Capri has changed. Selfies, tourists, ephemeral and consumerism have replaced the dream.
The final video is an album of photographs. A love letter to the collection The Amalfi Coast Of Martin Parr (which is not by chance mentioned in the Credits). There are no more movements, there is no more life. Only images that tell a beauty that has now escaped.
The song is a total yield. No claps or EDM sounds. Only one guitar and a resigned voice.
“Since you’re not there, I don’t hear anything anymore“.”
Liberato comes to self -bearing himself, singing “November nun forgives, but May is na cross“. Is a concept That the mysterious Neapolitan singer repeated us until exasperation: May as a cursed month, in which that love story, narrated in a thousand sauces, ends. In both stanzas the text reads “Am Cantant Tropp Nun Tenimm Cchiu Voc”, that is “We sang too much, and now we have no more voice”, As if to emphasize that this story, after so many songs, has nothing more to say. To the point that in the last repetition it does not even conclude the phrase: the absence of voice is such as to prevent the singer from finishing the verse.
Liberato thus closes the story of his first incredible album. With four simple agreements and an absolute truth: nothing lasts forever. Because after all Capri Rendez Vous is not a story of love more than a reflection on the inevitability of time is.
“Time takes everything away Mari. I love cinema for this, because every moment it remains forever. Then immediately I realize that it is an illusion: the film will march and our films will be forgotten. Then, Mari, what is the difference between a single moment and eternity?”
Music is made of sounds, of course, but also of stories, connections and cultural revolutions, small or large. In my articles I try to tell her like this: with love, attention to detail and a immoderate passion for anecdotal. Because behind each song there is a part of the universe that moves. Storytelling as an approach to criticism and the musical story. My greatest source of inspiration, in this sense, is Federico Buffa.
My name is Marco BrunassoI have always dealt with music (and I have been writing for some years), exploring artists, records and movements that I consider irresistible and interesting. Some of my articles have already been published on Rockit and Techprincess (For the latter portal I created a storytelling column called Inside the song). For a few days I have co-founded an online magazine called Eye on hypeand I am founder, singer and bassist of the Indie-Rock band Lehavre.
