Movie Analysis: Goncharov and the 15-Minute City
The resurgence of Goncharov (1973) is an opportunity to explore European urbanism in the context of the film and the power of human-scale places.
Naples is often described as a gritty, chaotic and rough city that may feel unwelcoming to visitors. However, the saying “Rome is the heart of Italy, but Naples is its soul” is much more accurate. The city's grittiness lends itself well to the pulse-pounding action sequences in the film but the human-scale of the city also drives home the intimacy of the film's more tender moments.
The pictured piazza is part of one of the film's pivotal moments. How would this scene have been different when things aren't at human-scale?
The city may not be shiny and neat, but it is an ideal version of the type of 15-minute city many New Urbanists are trying to create in North America today. It obtains traces of qualities often sought in today’s development strategies: communality, social inclusion, a wealth of creative activity and a locally rooted economy.
The streets in Naples are lined with local services. There’s a mix of everything old and new: bars, Michelin-praised pizzerias, car repair shops, meat shops, designer shops, and whatnot. Many of these places feature prominently in the film. Can you imagine how some of these scenes would have been impacted if Goncharov and Andrey had to get in a car and find parking as they traverse the city?
The “15-minute city” may be defined as an ideal geography where most human needs and many desires are located within a travel distance of 15 minutes.
Indeed, with all its “messiness”, Naples has managed to maintain many aspects of the self-organized, organic, urbanism that we’ve so often lost. The city is like a giant placemaking effort: incrementally built, maintained and continuously re-envisioned from the bottom up through the transactions and activities of a variety of local actors.
While not the focus of the film, the city of Naples is a great example of what the 15-minute city should and could be. By paying attention to the human-scale of the city, you can see how the design of cities shapes our daily lives.
Language and images sourced from: https://urbanfinland.com/2017/08/24/urban-lessons-from-naples-potenza-and-matera/
Learn more about the 15-minute city at: https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2021/02/08/defining-15-minute-city
