‘My Brilliant Friend’ Trailer: The Fourth and Final Season of Elena Ferrante’s Saga Returns to Naples

Ryan Lattanzio
·3 min read

The fourth and final season of HBO’s sumptuous 20th-century saga “My Brilliant Friend” brings us back to Naples one more time. HBO has released the trailer for the last 10 episodes of the series, based on Elena Ferrante’s worldwide-bestselling quartet of Neapolitan novels, with Season 4 adapting the last book, “The Story of the Lost Child.” Watch below.

The series is created by Saverio Costanzo, who hands directing duties over to “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine” filmmaker Laura Bispuri. Costanzo’s partner and Bispuri’s longtime collaborator Alba Rohrwarcher joins onscreen as protagonist Elena Greco after narrating behind the camera the last three seasons. Irene Maiorino joins the cast as Elena’s complicated longtime friend Lila, whom she first met as a girl in 1950s Naples. This season brings us back to the namesake Italian city — which the production recreated on a vast soundstage when not filming on location — where Elena, aka Lenù, has returned after another torturous round at romance with political writer and lothario Nino (Fabrizio Gifuni) in France.

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As Costanzo previously told IndieWire, if Season 1 was meant to evoke Italian Neorealism, Season 2 the French New Wave, and Season 3 the New Hollywood of American filmmaking, what era will “My Brilliant Friend” Season 4, which finds us in the 1980s, draw from in film history? The first episodes find Lenù and Lila reunited after years apart, and everyone once again telling Lenù that Nino, whom Lila also had an affair with years prior, is very bad news.

Here’s the official synopsis for Season 4 courtesy of HBO: “Based on the bestselling novels by Elena Ferrante, ‘My Brilliant Friend’ follows Elena Greco and the most important friend in her life, Raffaella ‘Lila’ Cerullo. After meeting as children in 1950s Naples, their story goes on to cover over 60 years, exploring the mystery of Lila — Elena’s brilliant best friend and, in a way, her worst enemy. The fourth installment of the saga, titled ‘Story of the Lost Child,’ delves into the adult lives of Elena and Lila. They find themselves entangled in the turmoil of Italy in the late 1980s, nearing the end of decades of political violence and social unrest. Amid motherhood and career demands, amid betrayals, threats, disappearances, and natural disasters, Elena and Lila once again reside in the same neighborhood.”

The elusive Italian author Ferrante — who has never publicly revealed her identity and only corresponded with the production via a few short emails — remains the subject of many international adaptations. Maggie Gyllenhaal adapted “The Lost Daughter” into an Oscar-nominated film starring Olivia Colman, while Isabel Coixet is set to mount a film version of “The Days of Abandonment” with Penélope Cruz. That novel was adapted into an Italian film in 2005. Ferrante’s most recent novel, “The Lying Life of Adults,” came to Netflix as a limited series in 2023.

“My Brilliant Friend” Season 4 premieres on HBO and Max on Monday, September 9.

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