Minor spoilers below.
On Monday night, HBO’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend came to a close after four seasons. The series follows childhood best friends Elena (Alba Rohrwacher) and Lila (Irene Maiorino) as they grow from scrappy kids in 1950s Naples to two adult women navigating the agonies and ecstasies of love, family, and loss. Since 2018, the series has served as an ever-prescient analysis of gender, friendship, and survival. Laura Bispuri was handpicked by series creator Saverio Costanzo to direct the fourth and final season—and her work even earned the elusive Ferrante’s approval (in her quintessentially anonymous way).
In a full-circle ending, the final chapter finds Elena and Lila staring down the machismo they were raised around with the same unified fervor that bound them together as small girls in the Rione Luzzatti. It’s a profound, visceral, and magnificent portrayal of what it means to a woman, what it means to be a mother, a friend. And while Ferrante’s work is ostensibly feminist, the allure of My Brilliant Friend, says Bispuri, is that she tells stories that are human—and that is their power.
In celebration of the finale, ELLE.com spoke with Bispuri about what it was like getting the call asking her to direct this crucial season, working under the auspices of Ferrante and immersing herself in her storytelling, and more.
What was your relationship with Elena Ferrante’s work like before working on the show? Were you already a fan of her books?
Of course I was a fan, a big fan. I read all of them very fast like [so many people], but at the time I was only thinking maybe one, two levels down into the story. When I started to work on the show, it was completely different—it became a sort of vertical process. I use the word vertical because for me, it was a process that kept changing—where I went deep into more and more levels, knowing more about the character’s lives, their relationships. Like a sort of labyrinth.
I had this ritual when we were shooting: Every night before sleeping, I would read the scenes from the day after and for me it was a way to be close to [Ferrante]. And it helped me understand the nuances; the hidden words. She is always sincere with her character and with life—that is the most important thing about Ferrante. And to be sincere with my actresses and my style—that is what I wanted to bring every day to shooting.
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So what was it like when you first got that call to direct this season?
It was incredible. Saverio called me and asked if I wanted to shoot the entirety of the final season and it was incredible for me—it was a dream and a big challenge, and for two years it was like I went into a tunnel. That was the only way to go so in depth.
And of course, previous episodes have been directed by women, but this was the first season that was entirely directed by a woman. Can you speak a little about the significance of that?
Well, the two protagonists are women but I think the books are for everybody. It’s also a feminist phenomenon, because it’s [rare] to have a story about two women. But it’s not an easy question to answer because people tell me all the time that I do feminist cinema but I think being a good director just means being a good director, whether you are telling stories about women or men.
I think [as a woman] I was very sensitive that these characters were different and I tried to show that—I tried to show the human parts of Lila and the fragile parts of Lila but on the contrary I tried to do the same with Elena—to show her strength, to change the [established] dynamic between them. So I tried to put myself inside them and feel a close relationship with these characters.
Alba Rohrwacher and Irene Maiorino in My Brilliant Friend.
Let’s talk about the build-up to the finale. It has such a powerful conclusion and this full-circle moment where we are once again, in Elena’s apartment, wondering where Lila is, like we were in the very first episode of season 1. What was it like creating the episodes leading up to it?
I tried to make every episode different from the next, to create a moment inside a big picture—like an old fresco. I knew that the final two episodes were something different—I loved all the episodes but the last two are something [unique] because there is this big tragedy and that was hard for me to shoot because I am a mother, but also it’s a hard thing for [anyone to see]. And it was difficult to understand Lila’s mind after that tragedy, we searched a lot to understand that atmosphere.
So we tried to shoot the last two episodes with continuity—and step by step, the closer I got to the end of the series, my emotional temperature got higher and higher. I was scared. I had a big responsibility to close this story. And then the final scene is very simple, but there is a long dialogue so we had to really focus on what to do with the camera. And it’s not easy because you can’t do anything strange or different with the shot—you have to go in depth on the character. So I tried to make that scene very close, to focus on the nuances of the dialogue. Because the motion is so high in that moment. And I will always remember it.
Alba Rohrwacher
I think that’s one of the most stunning things about this season—the way intense emotion is depicted both through very passionate displays and very quiet restrained moments.
I tried to do exactly that. I tried to do it frame by frame. I focused on the direction of the characters, the relationships, the atmosphere of Ferrante. It’s not an action series—my style is very simple, I like to do long takes. I don’t like to stop the actors. I want a physical relationship between the camera and the actresses. I use this style to build emotional flow—because of course it is a show that is not reality, but it feels very close to reality, you know?
Can I ask you a question? What was your favorite episode?
I loved the episodes where we see Lila and Elena parent together. So much of Ferrante’s work challenges conventional notions about motherhood—what it means to be a mother, the power of it, and the beauty of it coexisting with the pain. And mothers are defined in many ways, but the most important is love—love makes a mother, a family.
I agree. It was so emotional when we were shooting because we built a family in this building with two mothers and two daughters—it was incredible. It was a big, complex challenge that I loved doing with Irene and Alba. I always say, when I work with actresses I use this expression: I like to take their hand in my hand and work together. This is my way—and it’s what I did with Alba and Irene. Alba I have worked with before and we are friends, and with Irene it was my first time.
Irene Maiorino
And I understand that though you didn’t speak with Ferrante directly, she did approve of your direction of this season. What did that feel like?
I felt her trust and I needed that trust [especially] at the beginning. Saverio told me she also watched my movies, and maybe she felt the intimacy in my movies. I was thinking the other night, I wonder if she would be at the screening in Rome, but we will not know. Her mystery is so strong.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Caroline Reilly is a writer and menswear stylist based in New England. You can find her work in the Washington Post, Airmail, GQ, Vanity Fair and more. Find her on Instagram at @_carolinereilly.