The Skin 1981

Naples, 1944. General Clark, Burt Lancaster commander of the United States Fifth Army, negotiates with Eduardo Marzullo, a Camorra mobster, over the delivery of 112 German soldiers captured during the four days of insurrection. Marzullo requests a hefty bribe—one hundred lire per kilo, with sharp increases if payment is delayed—and relies on Curzio Malaparte, the Italian liaison captain, to broker the deal. Curzio Malaparte, Marcello Mastroianni, is also given the task of pleasing the aviator wife of an American senator and of organizing a Renaissance-style dinner that centers on a fish: a reputedly living “siren” from the Naples aquarium that resembles a cooked child.

In the city’s slums, desperate mothers sell their daughters as prostitutes to Moroccan soldiers, while Jim, the young American liaison captain and friend of Malaparte, Ken Marshall, falls in love with a young girl. Jim soon discovers that the girl is being presented by her father for a fee as the city’s only virgin, a revelation that unsettles him and points to the deeper corruption surrounding wartime Naples. Malaparte moves through this “hell on earth” with a cold, almost clinical detachment, observing how power, fear, and poverty intertwine to erode moral boundaries.

Malaparte’s worldview is challenged when he tries to explain to the woman, amid an orgy involving homosexuals, that the corrupting power of the Americans has eroded the moral scruples of a population reduced to poverty and want. The scene underscores a cynical assessment of how liberation and occupation intersect with dire human choices, desire, and disillusionment.

A volcanic eruption—Vesuvius—breaks into the narrative, and the aviator endures a brutal assault by a group of drunken soldiers. This traumatic moment lands her among the many innocent and defeated women around her, highlighting the brutal consequences of war on individual lives and dignity.

The tale culminates with the Fifth Army arriving in Rome via the Appian Way. As crowds cheer the liberation, tragedy echoes amid the celebration when a man is crushed beneath a military tank, a stark reminder that even moments of victory can carry unforeseen and devastating costs.