The Elena Ferrante novel–to–screen adaptation pipeline is as strong as ever. The Lying Life of Adults is the latest Ferrante tale to get the TV-adaptation treatment. In the trailer for the upcoming Netflix series, a young Neapolitan teen (Giordana Marengo) seeks out her aunt (Valeria Golino), a free-spirited woman with whom she shares a wild nature, to better understand herself. There are class tensions in the ’90s-era drama, what with the put-together apartments of Naples’ upper crust, the aunt’s rugged home, and a Soviet red-stained communist rally overtly pointing to the city’s political and economic realities. Dreamy sequences see time moving backward — leaves fall up and cigarette smoke blows back into the smoker’s mouth. It’s a coming-of-age story with obligatory scenes of a petty fistfight and our protagonist blissfully riding a chair swing at a local fair. “If you want to become a woman,†the aunt says, “if you want to grow up, you have to fall down. You have to get hurt.†Co-written by Laura Paolucci and Francesco Piccolo, who also penned HBO’s My Brilliant Friend, alongside Ferrante herself, the show also stars Pina Turco and Alessandro Preziosi as Giovanna’s mother and father. The Lying Life of Adults arrives on Netflix January 4, 2023.
Nothing in Life Is Promised Except an Elena Ferrante Screen Adaptation
