Pompei: Below the Clouds review – a stimulating…

The inner lives of buildings and institutions provide an intriguing and enlivening way of looking at the modern landscape, particularly through film. Just as human beings have personal histories that cause their bodies and minds to change over the course of time, so do buildings and the wonders of the natural landscape. 

Pompei: Below the Clouds is the new work from Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, and it continues the director’s project of lightly abstract and lyrical cine surveys in which he assumes the position of objective observer and allows life to unfold naturally in front of his watchful camera gaze. Rosi floats like a friendly ghost down the alleys, byways and – on occasion – underground caverns of modern Naples, which sits in the shadow of Vesuvius, juxtaposing the destructive history of antiquity with a quaint modernity that, in all aspects, appears happily anchored in the past. 

A government official bemoans the antics of tombaroli, amateur tomb raiders; migrant Ukrainian labourers physically clear out the grain holds of idling sea tankers; a local man tries to impress the joys of literature and learning on a gang of local scamps; emergency operators field a litany of calls detailing bizarre domestic situations. The film is ambling, gentle and doesn’t strain too hard to force a point, but allows you to appreciate the multifarious nature of life in a city where the spectre of destruction lurks ominously in the clouds.