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The film opens on a spotless Naples, with Vesuvius in the background and panoramic views from the villas of Posillipo. It is a Naples of packed concerts, trendy bars and fish restaurants, and home to the villa in Via Petrarca where singer Tony Pisapia lives. It is also home to a San Paolo stadium heaving with people (filming took place before the beginning of an actual championship game), where Antonio Pisapia steps out from the changing rooms after an angry outburst from the coach and scores with a scissor kick, leading his team to victory. It's the last time he will though, as an injury sustained during training soon puts an end to his career.
The same Naples sits by and watches the decline of the two characters: Antonio wants to become a coach, but the chairman of his former club doesn't want him. Tony, meanwhile, after trying to make a comeback but to no avail, tries to take over the restaurant of one of the few friends he has left, Salvatore a Mare in Bacoli.
The sea is omnipresent throughout the film: at the beginning when Tony and his brother go underwater fishing, and in various other scenes at the port and on the beach: in one memorable scene, Tony is standing on Mergellina beach, near via Caracciolo and bitterly says to the fishermen "la vita è na strunzata" (lit. "life is a load of crap"). He later rediscovers a lost side of himself in jail, where he is sent after seeking revenge on Antonio (for which Nisida Prison (NA) was used).
The film opens on a spotless Naples, with Vesuvius in the background and panoramic views from the villas of Posillipo. It is a Naples of packed concerts, trendy bars and fish restaurants, and home to the villa in Via Petrarca where singer Tony Pisapia lives. It is also home to a San Paolo stadium heaving with people (filming took place before the beginning of an actual championship game), where Antonio Pisapia steps out from the changing rooms after an angry outburst from the coach and scores with a scissor kick, leading his team to victory. It's the last time he will though, as an injury sustained during training soon puts an end to his career.
The same Naples sits by and watches the decline of the two characters: Antonio wants to become a coach, but the chairman of his former club doesn't want him. Tony, meanwhile, after trying to make a comeback but to no avail, tries to take over the restaurant of one of the few friends he has left, Salvatore a Mare in Bacoli.
The sea is omnipresent throughout the film: at the beginning when Tony and his brother go underwater fishing, and in various other scenes at the port and on the beach: in one memorable scene, Tony is standing on Mergellina beach, near via Caracciolo and bitterly says to the fishermen "la vita è na strunzata" (lit. "life is a load of crap"). He later rediscovers a lost side of himself in jail, where he is sent after seeking revenge on Antonio (for which Nisida Prison (NA) was used).
The rise and decline of two men whose lives unfold in parallel, with their surname being the only thing they have in common: Antonio Pisapia, a footballer forced to retire after suffering an injury at the peak of his career, and Tony Pisapia, a successful singer who falls into disgrace after being accused, and then acquitted, of assaulting an underage girl.
