Unforgettable ‘Friend’
HBO adapts Ferrante’s tale charting Neapolitan girls’ relationship
Elena Ferrante is one of the most beloved authors in the world. The elusive, reclusive writer (her real identity is a mystery) has created the Neapolitan Novels, a cycle of four books released starting in 2012 with “My Brilliant Friend” that charts the fraught friendship between two women, starting when they are girls in 1950s Naples. The novels are acclaimed for their ability to capture a tumultuous period in Italy’s history as well as the complicated bonds of devotion and lifelong resentments. They would seem to be impossible to adapt. And yet here we are, and so much the better for it. HBO, in conjunction with the Italian networks RAI and TIMvision, presents the first of her novels, broken into eight hourlong episodes, with Ferrante helping to script. The series draws you into a world of just a few blocks shared by several impoverished families crammed in decrepit apartments. It’s the kind of neighborhood where the local don can yank a mourner out of a church funeral service and beat him and the priest and the parishioners stare the other way. In the present, Elena, now in her 60s, is awoken by a frantic phone call from Lila’s son. Lila is missing. Elena is dismissive, rude. In spite of herself, Elena can’t resist offering suggestions to find her. When she is off the phone, she vows to finally reveal all she knows about Lila. “We’ll see who wins.” And our story really begins: Elena (as a girl, played by Elisa Del Genio) notices Lila (Ludovica Nasti) in their first-grade classroom. Elena is bright, but Lila seems supernaturally adept, able to read and solve math problems. She says she taught herself. She may be telling the truth. While Elena is shy, Lila seems to have a strength of will and a sense of self few adults possess. After Lila inadvertently humiliates an older boy in a ridiculous academic contest, the boy’s teenage brother beats her on the street. Lila refuses to apologize for showing up the other boy. Elena and Lila become inseparable. A copy of “Little Women” becomes a prized possession shared by both, so much so that they are able to recite passages back to each other. Lila can be capricious. She seems to sabotage Elena whenever Elena might be getting ahead of her — as when they both approach graduation from elementary school in the second episode (airing tomorrow) and try to convince their respective parents to allow them to study for the middle school entrance exam. With every hand needed to work to bring in money to survive, education seems like an extravagance. Lila’s father reacts to her impassioned plea by hurling her through a window. In the third episode, the story jumps to their teenage years, with Elena (now played by Margherita Mazzucco) and Lila (Gaia Girace) navigating their changed circumstances, their efforts to escape the neighborhood and the boys who would seek to claim them. “My Brilliant Friend” is presented in Italian with subtitles. Don’t let that scare you off. Take the journey. Amid the brutality, an intimacy and honesty unlike any other flourishes.