Pompei: Below the Clouds review – a stimulating and wry survey of…

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 afriendly 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 aquaint modernity that, in all aspects, appears happily anchored in thepast.

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