The Skin (1981) on Netflix

Plot summary

Naples, 1944. The city is under American occupation, and Captain Curzio Malaparte works as liaison between the Allied command and the Italians. General Mark Clark wants 112 captured German soldiers delivered, and the Camorra mobster Eduardo Marzullo demands one hundred lire per kilo for each prisoner, a price he is ready to raise. Malaparte is also asked to look after Deborah Wyatt, an American aviator, and to arrange a Renaissance-style dinner whose centerpiece is a fish from the Naples aquarium. In the slums, mothers sell their children to Moroccan soldiers, and Jim, a young American captain and Malaparte's friend, falls in love with a girl. Malaparte moves through the city with detachment, arguing that American power has worn down the moral restraints of a hungry people.