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    The Life-Changing Journey of ‘My Brilliant Friend’

    The four actresses who played Lenù and Lila from adolescence to middle age discuss the end of the HBO series.In the fourth season of “My Brilliant Friend,” premiering Monday on HBO, the childhood friends and fierce rivals Lila and Lenù navigate marriage and divorce, motherhood, loss and middle age.This is the final chapter, catapulting the protagonists from the 1970s to the 21st century against the background of Italy’s upheavals, and is based on “The Story of the Lost Child,” the fourth book in Elena Ferrante’s wildly popular Neapolitan series.Writing in The Times, James Poniewozik called the show “one of the most incisive portraits of a lifelong relationship ever made for TV.” But this final season also ends a production project that started in 2016 and which all of its lead actresses agreed was the most important of their careers.Margherita Mazzucco, 21, played Elena “Lenù” Greco, and Gaia Girace, 20, played Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo, through three seasons — from the characters’ adolescence to their 30s. Neither had acted before they were cast in 2017, but they are both now stopped on the street at home and abroad.For the seasoned actress Irene Maiorino, 39, who plays Lila in Season 4, the show offered a chance to become better known outside Italy. And the already internationally acclaimed Alba Rohrwacher, 45, who narrated the series before being cast as the grown Lenù. Rohrwacher described the role as an “incredible journey” that “can only happen once in a lifetime.”The four women met together for the first time on a recent muggy afternoon in Rome, to discuss passing the baton from one pair of Lenùs and Lilas to the next and whether there were heightened expectations now that Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” had been named the best book of the 21st century in a recent New York Times survey. (They all laughed: They’d heard.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Review: ‘My Brilliant Friend’ Comes to a Brilliant Conclusion

    HBO’s Elena Ferrante adaptation completes one of the best portraits of a lifelong relationship ever made for TV.“I was born in a poor, run-down neighborhood, very run-down, where men’s fury, their violence, was and is a daily occurrence.”In an author’s talk, Elena Greco (Alba Rohrwacher), known to us as Lenù, is describing herself the way we encountered her in the first season of “My Brilliant Friend.” In a gang-ridden, suffocating area of 1950s Naples, she found an ally and sometime rival in Raffaella Cerullo, called Lila, with whom she would be bound for life.By the fourth and final season, which begins Monday on HBO, Lenù has become the writer of her own story, in acclaimed essays and novels. But she is also still very much living it — drawn back to her old neighborhood, its passions and its dangers, as one of TV’s best series reaches a potent, finely observed conclusion.Lenù and Lila met in the beginning of the series as classmates, two smart girls in a place of poverty and street beat-downs without much opportunity for women. (The younger Lenù was played by Elisa Del Genio and Margherita Mazzucco, Lila by Ludovica Nasti and Gaia Girace; in Season 4, Rohrwacher takes over as Lenù and Irene Maiorino as Lila.)Lenù’s intellect is controlled and her nature studious; she’s a hard worker who does well in academic settings. Lenù’s genius is wild and uncontrolled — it burns and bursts out of her. Lenù is cautious and a people pleaser; Lila is enigmatic and brave, with a fierce sense of justice. Each has something missing in the other. Lenù adopts something of Lila’s rebelliousness. Lila, though she sometimes denigrates Lenù’s ivory-tower pursuits, also seems to admire and perhaps envy her success.Fabrizio Gifuni plays Nino, a longtime crush of both of the friends.Eduardo Castaldo/HBOWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Disney+, Max, Hulu and More in September

    “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” “A Very Royal Scandal,” a “Walking Dead” spinoff and “Agatha All Along” arrive.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of September’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘A Very Royal Scandal’Starts streaming: Sept. 19Earlier this year, Netflix debuted a movie called “Scoop,” about the complicated negotiations that led to Prince Andrew’s headline-making 2019 interview with BBC Two’s “Newsnight,” covering his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The three-part mini-series “A Very Royal Scandal” tells the same story in a little more detail, with a screenplay from Jeremy Brock (the co-writer of “The Last King of Scotland”). Michael Sheen plays Prince Andrew, while Ruth Wilson plays Emily Maitlis, the interviewer, who kept pressuring the prince with follow-up questions, asking him to account for all the time he had spent with Epstein over the years.Also arriving:Sept. 10“The Money Game”Sept. 24“Evolution of the Black Quarterback”Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier in “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol.”Emmanuel Guimier/AMCNew to AMC+‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol’ Season 2Starts streaming: Sept. 29When this spinoff of “The Walking Dead” was first announced, it was supposed to be the story of the soulful hunter Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and his hard-edge pal Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) venturing into new territories together in a zombie-ravaged world. But when that territory turned out to be Europe, McBride had to drop out for what was described as logistical reasons. Her Carol made a cameo at the end of Season 1 though; and she is now on board for Season 2 (as well as an already announced Season 3). This new season will find Carol searching for her friend in France, while Daryl reluctantly gets more involved with the twisted political situation overseas, trying to help some good people make things better.Also arriving:Sept. 6“The Demon Disorder”Sept. 7“All You Need Is Death”Sept. 12“The Tailor of Sin City”Sept. 13“In a Violent Nature”Sept. 16“Candice Renoir” Season 10Sept. 20“Dandelion”Sept. 26“Wisting” Season 5Sept. 27“Oddity”Sept. 30“The Bench” Seasons 1-2We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    What’s on TV This Week: ‘After Yang’ and the State of the Union

    Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith and Justin H. Min star in a new sci-fi movie on Showtime. And President Biden delivers a State of the Union address.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Feb. 28-March 6. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTRAYVON MARTIN: 10 YEARS LATER 8 p.m. on BET. Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black teenager in Florida, was shot and killed almost exactly 10 years ago by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain. Gayle King, the co-host of “CBS Mornings,” hosts this hourlong special, which commemorates Martin and looks at the activism that his death continues to help galvanize. The program includes interviews with Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, and other mothers whose children have been killed by the police or by gun violence.MY BRILLIANT FRIEND 10 p.m. on HBO. The third season of the show, which centers on a friendship between two girls, Lenù and Lila, who come of age in mid-20th-century Naples, will debut on Monday night. It is adapted from the third of Elena Ferrante’s four Neopolitan books, “Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay,” and finds Lenù and Lila grappling with careers, marriage and, eventually, motherhood. This will be the final season for the actresses Margherita Mazzucco, 19, and Gaia Girace, 18: The fourth book in the series, “The Story of the Lost Child,” which would be the focus of a potential fourth season, revolves around the characters in middle age. “I have never read the final pages of the fourth book,” Mazzucco told The New York Times recently. “I don’t want to know how it ends.”TuesdayPresident Biden in February. He is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York TimesSTATE OF THE UNION 9 p.m. on various networks (check local listings); streaming on Facebook, Twitter, WH.gov and YouTube. President Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday night. Biden will presumably speak to the progress that his administration has made since his first address to Congress last year — including the passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and the nearly $1.9 trillion stimulus package — though he’ll have a lot more to cover. He’s likely to address Russia’s war on Ukraine, the selection of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court and the state of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosen safety guidelines.Inside the World of Elena FerranteThe mysterious Italian writer has won international attention with her intimate representations of Neapolitan life, womanhood and friendship. Beginner’s Guide: New to Elena Ferrante’s work? Here’s a breakdown of her most important writing. Latest Novel: Following the success of her Neapolitan novels, the author returned to fiction with a suspenseful story about parents and their sins.English-Language Translator: The work of Ann Goldstein has helped catapult Ferrante to global fame. Humility is a hallmark of her approach.Onscreen: The HBO series based on Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” is a testament to the elusive writer’s ability to create inscrutable characters.Lenù and Lila: The actresses playing the two protagonists in the HBO adaptation grew up with their characters. Here is what they said about it.THE LARRY DAVID STORY 9 p.m. on HBO. What’s the difference between Larry David the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” character and Larry David the successful producer and performer? Based on a trailer for “The Larry David Story,” the answer is a dusting of facial hair and a touch of introspection. David reflects on his life and career in this two-part documentary, which covers his upbringing in Brooklyn, his beginnings in comedy, his success with “Seinfeld” (which he co-created) and his more recent work on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The documentary was directed by the comic and filmmaker Larry Charles, a staff writer on “Seinfeld” whose well-established rapport with David comes through in their conversations.WednesdayLA STRADA (1956) 6 p.m. on TCM. When the Oscar for best international feature is handed out at the Academy Awards ceremony next month, the winner will become part of a lineage that “La Strada” helped establish: This Federico Fellini classic was the first movie to win the best foreign-language film honor when that category became a competitive award at the Oscars in 1956. The movie raised the profiles of both Fellini and his wife and collaborator, Giulietta Masina, who plays a young woman who is sold to a traveling circus strongman (Anthony Quinn). “‘La Strada’ is often sentimental and not always convincing but the ending packs a wallop,” J. Hoberman wrote about the film last year in his “Rewind” column.ThursdayTilda Swinton in “The French Dispatch.”Searchlight PicturesTHE FRENCH DISPATCH (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO Signature. Wes Anderson drew inspiration from the old-school days of The New Yorker for this ornate anthology comedy, which follows a collection of eccentric magazine writers and their subjects — played by an ensemble that includes Bill Murray, Benicio Del Toro, Léa Seydoux, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand and Tilda Swinton — in a mid-20th-century French city. Typewriters clack. Cocktails disappear.FridayAFTER YANG (2022) 9 p.m. on Showtime. In his 2017 feature debut, “Columbus,” the filmmaker Kogonada used the modernist architecture of Columbus, Ind., to give a surreal, otherworldly undercurrent to a modest story about a close friendship. His new movie, “After Yang,” takes place solidly in the future: It centers on a mother (played by Jodie Turner-Smith), father (Colin Farrell) and young daughter (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) whose humanoid robot, Yang (Justin H. Min), breaks down. The loss of Yang is essentially the loss of a family member, but it may be possible to repair him.SaturdayVin Diesel, left and John Cena in “F9.” Giles Keyte/Universal PicturesF9 (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO. If the “Fast and Furious” movies went all-electric, and the grunt of gasoline engines was muted, the series could still rely on Vin Diesel’s voice to fill out the low end of the sonic spectrum. The latest installment of the series introduced a new villain, played by John Cena, and brought back the familiar faces of Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Helen Mirren and Charlize Theron. The movie also saw the return of the director Justin Lin, a veteran of the franchise who had stepped away for several years. Lin makes the movie “feel scrappy and baroque at the same time,” A.O. Scott said in his review for The Times.SundayLester Holt, left, and the former Attorney General William P. Barr in an NBC News primetime special.NBC NewsNBC NEWS PRIMETIME SPECIAL 9 p.m. on NBC. Lester Holt interviews the former Attorney General William P. Barr in this hourlong special. The two discuss Barr’s final days as Attorney General during the Trump administration, when he rebuked former President Donald J. Trump’s false claims of a stolen election by acknowledging that the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. The conversation also touches on policing in America, among other topics. More