Naples. Filumena, a mature woman with a past as a prostitute, has been for twenty-five years the retainer of Don Domenico (Mimì) Soriano, a wealthy Neapolitan pastry chef and his longtime client. In fact, Filumena administers his property and household as a proper wife. In order to force Don Mimì into marriage and to abandon her dissolute conduct, Filumena pretends to be dying, involving in the deception a doctor and the priest who will celebrate the marriage “in articulo mortis” with Domenico who, believing her to be dying, marries her with the prospect of a brief liaison. The discovery of the deception upsets the man who, in the meantime, had woven an affair with a young woman. At Mimì’s reaction, Filumena lays her cards on the table: she tells him that she has three children, the fruit of an oath made to the ‘Our Lady of Roses’ not to have an abortion, that she has renounced changing her life with another man who would marry her, hoping for the end of Soriano’s previous marriage Filumena asks Mimì for recognition of the paternity of the three children, Mimì enraged walks away with the intention of wanting to do everything to obtain the annulment of the marriage. Filumena reveals to Domenico that one of the three is her son, and since he does not believe her Filumena reminds him of when one night she wanted to love him with a true love that he did not understand, paying her as usual with a banknote that Filumena kept and on which she marked the date of her son’s conception: now, after tearing off the part with the date she returns the money to Mimì “…because children are not paid for” and leaves the house in a fit of pride. Filumena will never tell Mimì which of the three is her son, because she knows that Mimì would only devote his attention to him, favoring him to the detriment of the other two and causing disagreements between the brothers. Therefore, if Mimì wants to be father to his son, he will have to be so for all three indiscriminately because “‘E figlie so’ ffiglie (sons are sons)…. And they are all equal….” At first Domenico seems to be pulling away again and the marriage seems to be falling apart, but just as the man is about to explain the situation to the three young people he hears them call him “dad” for the first time. Moved by that recognition of paternity that he did not expect, Domenico resigns himself and marries Filumena, who for the first time will not hold back her tears.
Duration
100′
Key Cast
Vanessa Scalera, Massimiliano Gallo
Director
Francesco Amato
