Italian eCenter

150th anniversary of Italian unification

2011-03-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

The 150th anniversary of Italian unification will be celebrated on 17 March.

The official website of the celebrations is: http://www.italiaunita150.it/ (in Italian)

Symposium on Contemporary Italian Cinema (Indiana University, Bloomington,April 14-16)

2011-02-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

Symposium on Contemporary Italian Cinema

The second annual Simposio sul Cinema Italiano Moderno e Contemporaneo (Symposium on Modern and Contemporary Italian Cinema) will take place April 13-16, 2011, at Indiana University in Bloomington. The event, organized by IU's Department of French and Italian, will feature several films, documentaries, and shorts as well as numerous presentations. Scholars and film fans from across the country and around the world will discuss many aspects of modern and contemporary Italian production.

Luchino Visconti’s "Death in Venice" (Brookline, February 21)

2011-02-14T17:37:00.000-08:00

The Coolidge Corner Theatre will present legendary Italian director Luchino Visconti’s 1971 Death in Venice on Monday, February 21 at 7pm. In Visconti’s lush and haunting version of Thomas Mann’s novella, an artist obsessed by his ideal of physical and spiritual beauty jeopardizes his own life to be near the object of his desire. Playing Count Aschenbach, Dirk Bogarde embodies the outwardly civilized and meticulously reserved composer as he takes a rest cure in Edwardian Venice. The dichotomy between the intellectual and the sensual is brought to the fore by Aschenbach’s first glimpse of the beautiful young Tadzio, unleashing a secret obsession. The Count’s fascination with the youth’s physical perfection is mirrored in Visconti's masterful visual style.

This presentation is part of the Coolidge’s ongoing Science on Screen series. Before the film, guest speaker Nancy Etcoff, a faculty member of the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative and a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the science of beauty. Dr. Etcoff has conducted research on the perception of beauty, emotion, well-being, and the brain for over 20 years. Her critically acclaimed popular science book, Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty has been published in over a dozen languages, and was the subject of a one-hour Discovery Channel program.

Tickets: $9.75 general admission/$7.75 students and Museum of Science members, and free for Coolidge members. For more information and advance tickets, visit www.coolidge.org.

Staging the Outlandish and Clowning the Lyrical Legacy and Transformation of the Commedia dell’Arte (Toronto, January 22, 2011)

2011-01-17T13:50:00.000-08:00

Conference Sponsored by The Emilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies and The Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the University of Toronto

9:00 AM Welcome

9:15 AM Session 1
Erith Jaffe-Berg, University of California – Riverside
"Mediterranean Cartographies in Commedia dell'Arte"

Clarissa Hurley, University of New Brunswick
"The Lyrical Ugly: Commedia dell'Arte and the Aesthetics of the Grotesque"

Rosalind Kerr, University of Alberta
"Flaminio Scala's Fake (Lesbian) Husbands and Palimpsestic Performance Texts"

10: 45 AM Break

11:00 AM Session 2
Kyna Hamill, Boston University
"Venetians Don’t Ride Horses!"

Paul Stoesser, University of Toronto
"Harlequin's Slapstick"

Keith Johnston, University of Toronto
"Commedia dell'Arte in Music? The Case of the Comic Intermezzo"

12:30 PM Lunch

1:30 PM Session 3
Elisa Segnini, Dalhousie University
"On Ephemeral Theatre. Reflections on the Author-Actors of Early Twentieth Century Pantomime"

Veronika Ambros, University of Toronto
"Commedia dell’Arte in Bohemia. Transformations and their Functions"

Gabrielle Houle, University of Toronto
"Of Masks and Legacy: Giorgio Strehler's 1990 Staging of The Servant of Two Masters"

3:00 PM Break

3:15 PM Session 4
Guillaume Bernardi, Glendon College-York University
"Commedia dell’Arte and French Classical Tragedy: Between Historically Informed Performance and Directorial Vision"

Gian Giacomo Colli, Franklin and Marshall College
"Performing Commedia dell'Arte: Practicing vs Rehearsing"

Donato Santeramo, Queen’s University
"Gordon Craig: The Übermarionette and The Commedia dell’Arte"

Caryl Clark, University of Toronto
"Revising Pantalone: Jewish Representation in Goldoni's and Haydn's 'Lo speziale'"

5:15 PM Closing Remarks Domenico Pietropaol

January 22, 2011
9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Robert Gill Theatre
Koffler Student Centre
214 College Street, 3rd Floor

Amnesia and Remembrance (Boston, January 30, 2011)

2011-01-12T11:31:00.000-08:00

A commemoration of Italian Holocaust Remembrance Day will feature the critically acclaimed 2003 Italian film "Facing Windows," starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno e Massimo Girotti. Before the film, Professor Nancy Harrowitz (Boston University) will present a lecture entitled, "Making the Past the Present," and Professor Virginia Picchietti (Univeristy of Scranton) will speak on 'Memory of Italian Shoah and Ferzan Ozpetek's "Open Windows."'
The film will be shown at 12:45 and followed by a round table discussion with Virginia Picchietti, Nancy Harrowitz and John Bernstein.

January 30, 2011
11-3:15

Boston University, George Sherman Union Conference Auditorium
775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

Sponsorred by Boston University and the Consulate General of Italy in Boston, in collaboration with the American Jewish Committee and the Consulate Heneral of Israeel to New England.

The Risorgimento of the Jews, “the dream of a homeland for the free and equal”

2010-12-28T04:51:00.000-08:00

* The second article of “Star of David and the Italian Flag, Jews and the construction of Italy”, the initiative promoted by CulturaItalia [the Website of Italian culture] in collaboration with the Judaica Europeana project to celebrate 150 years of Italian Unity, is online: Ester Capuzzo: the Risorgimento of the Jews, “the dream of a homeland for the free and equal” [CulturaItalia - Un patrimonio da esplorare]

* Previous post

Female self portraits (Florence, 12/17/10-1/30/11)

2010-12-25T00:14:00.000-08:00

Autoritratte (Female self portraits)
“Artiste di capriccioso e destrissimo ingegno” (Lady artists of inspired and most dextrous ingenuity)
Florence, Uffizi Gallery, Sala delle Reali Poste, from Dec. 17, 2010 until Jan. 30, 2011

"Eighty female self portraits – sixty from the Vasarian Corridor and from the repositories and the twenty new ones brought in for the exhibition – lead us to reflect on the meagre 7% represented by the self portraits by women, lost amidst the vast Uffizi collection as a whole, now numbering 1,700 artists’ self portraits.
It was extensive reflections on these figures that triggered the research that has been translated into a chronological display itinerary which – in addition to fostering an interpretation through names and numbers of the historically subordinate condition of women artists, at length confined to areas that limited their expressive capacities, at least in comparison to the opportunities offered to men – also led to the inclusion of portraits of female artists from the seventeenth century up to the present, selecting works variously illustrative of quality, naivety, academism or fashions, but frequently also strokes of genius.

Strikingly, the Uffizi collection numbers some of the female artists who were acknowledged as worthy of mention between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century. A few who managed to emerge at that time, a considerable number fully recognised today, and a few to be restored to the light of lost identity or fame, as in the case of Maria Hadfield Cosway, whose youthful self portrait has recently been identified in the portrait of an unknown young lady.
Starting with the mirror self portraits which, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century tended to be admired because apparently produced “by the brush of a man of outstanding talent rather than that of a woman”, we arrive – also through the use of the new media – at the attempt at mimesis and deconstruction of the identity that traversed the twentieth century, rendering the image no longer a duplication of the model but rather its equivalent.
The ‘disrespectful’ number of contemporary female portraits, which failed to reflect the actual evolution of the arts in the twentieth century, led us to request new self portraits from women artists in Italy and abroad of our own times – also with a view to updating and to the future of the Collection; they responded with enthusiastic and generous donations. Carla Accardi, Vanessa Beecroft, Mirella Bentivoglio, Nadia Berkani, Antonella Bussanich, Lynne Curran, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Niki de Saint Phalle, Marilù Eustachio, Esther Ferrer, Giosetta Fioroni, Jenny Holzer, Yayoi Kusama, Ketty La Rocca, Lucia Marcucci, Elisa Montessori, Patti Smith, Tinca Stegovec, Alison Watt and Francesca Woodman. The twenty new self portraits hence assume a symbolic role of offsetting, exemplifying the myriad shifts of thought and style which, through both new and traditional media – painting, sculpture, drawing, tapestry, photography, visual poetry and video – made the just-closed century so fertile and did so precisely through the endeavours of a host of determined and committed women, eminently capable of expressing their creative ingenuity."

* Article by Valeria Ronzani [Il Sole 24 Ore]

'Una scuola italiana'. A film by Giulio Cederna and Angelo Loy

2010-12-23T01:06:00.000-08:00

* blog

Death in Venice made easier by new funeral rule

2010-12-22T01:14:00.000-08:00

* article by Tom Kingtom [The Guardian]

The Star of David and the Italian flag, Jews and the construction of a united Italy

2010-12-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

* Article from CulturaItalia:

"Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries is a partner in the European project entitled Judaica Europeana (http://www.judaica-europeana.eu/) financed by the eContentplus programme. The objective of the project is to gather digitalized information that documents Jewish presence and heritage in European cities and make them available on Europeana.

CulturaItalia is the Website of Italian culture (http://www.culturaitalia.it) which, in collaboration with the Judaica Europeana project and to celebrate 150 years of Italian Unity, is promoting the “Star of David and the Italian Flag, Jews and the construction of Italy” initiative.

This is the title of the new Web 2.0-style space open to all CulturaItalia users who wish to tell - via text, videos, photographs and audio- what they know about the Jewish contribution to social, cultural and political life in Italy from when the country was united, 150 years ago, to today.

Through the stories to appear in this section, in particular, added space will be given to learning about the history and traditions of the Jewish community since Italy was declared united 150 years ago.

Customs and traditions have changed with the passage of time, participation in the political scene, integration and migration after Unity, but also the religion itself, what was it before and how has it changed? Culture, through observation and by studying the products – from books to theatre – that best, according to the reader, represent the history of the relationship between Judaism and the Unity of Italy.

Alongside this initiative there will be articles and in-depth studies on this theme by the editors of CulturaItalia, as well as documents sent in by various institutions, the public at large and schools of all levels."

- First Article: Anna Foa: the Jews and the construction of united Italy, "An intense, qualifying identification"

ABC/F=Futurism (Canton, 12/14/10-3/6/11)

2010-12-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

"The exhibit “ABC/F=Futurism” is scheduled for December 14 at the Guangdong Museum of Art of Canton and will be open to the public until March 6, 2011."

* Article "Futurism as a Global Vanguard" [Cultura Italia]

The Hunts of the Grand Dukes (Poggio a Caiano, 12/18/10-5/8/11)

2010-12-19T00:03:00.000-08:00

The Hunts of the Grand Dukes
Two tapestries from the celebrated series made for the Villa of Poggio a Caiano
from Dec. 18, 2010 until May 8, 2011

"The exhibition, which opens on 18 December, displays the recently restored large tapestry made to a design by Alessandro Allori showing the Swan Hunt, and the large tapestry showing the Wild Goose Hunt, again to a design by Alessandro Allori, which has been subject to conservative maintenance for the occasion.
The two tapestries both belong to the Florentine State Museums; the first is normally conserved in the Villa of Poggio a Caiano and the second in the Tapestries Repository of Palazzo Pitti, which is managed by the Costume Gallery of Florence.
Datable around 1577-78, the two tapestries are part of a famous series commissioned by the Grand Duke Cosimo I and by the Grand Duke Francesco I to adorn the Villa of Poggio a Caiano. This show makes it possible to display to the public two works of outstanding quality that are not normally available for viewing, and also to document the history of the Hunts series and its restoration through graphics and informative panels."

Bridges to Italy

2010-12-18T04:33:00.000-08:00

"BRIDGES TO ITALY is a non-profit business association headquartered in Los Angeles, Cal. aiming to advance business networking opportunities and investments between Italy and United States, one of the strongest economic, research and innovation systems in the world.

BRIDGES TO ITALY is dedicated to helping American and Italian entrepreneurs, researchers and investors pursue new business opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic."

Palazzo Farnese - From Renaissance collections to French Embassy (Rome, 12/17/10- 4/27/11)

2010-12-13T09:43:00.001-08:00

* website

Opening of the new Museum of Ceramics in Mondovì

2010-12-12T06:03:00.000-08:00

Museo della Ceramica
Mondovì (Cuneo), Palazzo Fauzone di Germagnano

* news [abbonamentomusei.it]

Down Pompeii? The ruin of Italy's cultural heritage

2010-12-04T04:04:00.000-08:00

* article by Michael Day [The Independent]

44° Rapporto sulla situazione sociale del Paese/2010

2010-12-04T02:31:00.000-08:00

"Giunto alla 44a edizione, il Rapporto Censis interpreta i più significativi fenomeni socio-economici del Paese in una confusa congiuntura. Le Considerazioni generali introducono il Rapporto sottolineando come la società italiana sembra franare verso il basso sotto un’onda di pulsioni sregolate. L’inconscio collettivo appare senza più legge, né desiderio. E viene meno la fiducia nelle lunghe derive e nella efficacia della classe dirigente. Tornare a desiderare è la virtù civile necessaria per riattivare la dinamica di una società troppo appagata e appiattita. Nella seconda parte, La società italiana al 2010, vengono affrontati i temi di maggiore interesse emersi nel corso dell’anno: la pericolosa china verso l’appiattimento, la proliferazione della logica d’offerta, l’intreccio (virtuoso o pericoloso) dei sottosistemi, la frammentazione del potere. Nella terza e quarta parte si presentano le analisi per settori: la formazione, il lavoro e la rappresentanza, il welfare e la sanità, il territorio e le reti, i soggetti economici, i media e la comunicazione, il governo pubblico, la sicurezza e la cittadinanza."

Moravia House Museum

2010-12-03T01:40:00.000-08:00

The house on Lungotevere della Vittoria, Rome, where Alberto Moravia lived from the Sisties till his death, is opening its doors to the public.

* source

Donna allo specchio by Titian (Milan, 12/3/10-1/6/11)

2010-12-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

* website

Museo del Novecento (Milan, Opening: Dec. 6, 2010)

2010-12-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

* website

Mario Monicelli dies at 95

2010-11-30T05:47:00.000-08:00

* article by Michael Roston [New York Times]
* article by Alessandra Rizzo [Los Angeles Times]
* article by Alessandra Rizzo [Washington Post]

Ghirlandaio (11/21/10-5/1/11)

2010-11-29T07:38:00.000-08:00

GHIRLANDAIO. Una famiglia di pittori del Rinascimento tra Firenze e Scandicci
November 21, 2010 - May 1, 2011

ItalyGuides.it

2010-11-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

"ItalyGuides offers you a rich collection of more than 200 virtual panoramas of Italy most famous art city monuments. These can be explored 360° and each of them comes with text written by history of art professionals. ItalyGuides.it also provide free audio guides download (for iPod or mp3), video in high definition (HDTV), google maps and more than 3000 photos in our photo galleries."

Italian students protest against education reforms

2010-11-26T10:40:00.000-08:00

* dossier [Repubblica.it]
* videos [Unita'.it]
* pictures [LeMonde.fr]

Torino Film Festival (Turin, 11/26/10-12/4/10)

2010-11-22T05:03:00.000-08:00

* website
* dossier Repubblica.it

Italy celebrates with a tightened belt

2010-11-22T04:14:00.000-08:00

* article by John Hooper [The Economist]

Una pagina bianca per l'Istruzione - Scriviamola insieme (Ferrara, 11/20/10)

2010-11-21T06:31:00.000-08:00

"L’iniziativa “Una pagina bianca per l’istruzione_ scriviamola insieme” nasce dalla collaborazione tra Rete Universitaria Attiva – Unione degli Universitari di Ferrara e il poeta e art performer ivan, con il patrocinio del comune di Ferrara.
La pagina bianca rappresenta, come racconta lo stesso ivan, “un gesto pubblico che dia la possibilità a tutti di esprimersi attraverso l’arte e la poesia in un dialogo costante con la città”. Ed è proprio sfruttando questo dialogo tra tutti i soggetti coinvolti e non all’interno del mondo dell’istruzione della città di Ferrara che si è deciso di dare vita ad una pagina bianca grande quanto l’intera piazza della Cattedrale.
Argomento comune: Le eccellenze del mondo dell’istruzione pubblica. Tutti potranno partecipare e contribuire, scrivendo, disegnando, lasciando un semplice segno. Bambini, insegnanti, studenti, genitori, docenti, semplici passanti e curiosi saranno gli attori principali di questa performance artistica in grado di esaltare gli aspetti positivi e le tante eccellenze del territorio ferrarese, dalla scuola dell’infanzia all’università e alla ricerca. L’iniziativa verrà poi replicata nei 20 Atenei confederati con l’UdU (Unione degli Universitari) nel periodo compreso tra la fine di novembre e gli inizi di dicembre. I tasselli che compongono questo mosaico italiano verranno poi ricongiunti a Roma in un grande evento culturale nazionale che si svolgerà a Roma che vedrà l'opera ferrarese come centro dell'iniziativa.
Ci teniamo e puntualizzare che lo scopo dell'iniziativa non è affatto una contestazione, nè una manifestazione di piazza, ma nasce dallesigenza di sensibilizzare la cittadinanza e di valorizzare il carattere pubblico del mondo istruzione e quindi di esaltare la propria eccellenza, nello specifico quella ferrarese che negli ultimi anni ha fatto grandi salti di qualità;
Le sperimentazioni e l’ormai consolidata qualità del sistema di istruzione primaria e dell’infanzia ferrarese (ed emiliana in generale) non solo sono diventati oggetto di studi e analisi da parte di nazioni, ipersensibili al tema della formazione, come la Svezia, la Danimarca e gli Stati Uniti, ma vengono ormai presi a modello in tutto il mondo per l’avanguardia della programmazione e delle attività didattiche. [...]"

* slideshow [repubblica.it]

IMMaginario Festival (Perugia, 11/17-21/10)

2010-11-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

* website
* Immaginario Festival's Channel

World Tourism Expo Unesco (Assisi, 11/19-21/10)

2010-11-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

"1st MEETING FOCUSED ON THE TOURIST PROMOTION OF THE WORLD HERITAGE TOWNS AND SITES

The Wte World Tourism Expo Unesco represents the first world meeting focused on the human heritage.
The projects considers the organization of a yearly exposition in order to support the peculiarities of the UNESCO sites, offering its exhibitors a qualified and well-organized opportunity to show their concrete opportunities to meet tour operators and journalists coming from all over the world.
During the event which will last three days there will also be meetings and manifestations where experts, operators and professionals will be present.
During these meetings we will face the main themes which involve this field such as the exploitation and the marketing of the Unesco world heritage considering a sustainable tourist point of view."

Open Restauration of the Assumption of the Virgin by Vasari (Arezzo, from Nov. 6)

2010-11-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

The restoration workshop of the Assunzione della Vergine con gli Apostoli, i Santi Agostino e Romualdo, e il committente by Giorgio Vasari, located inside the Corte d'Onore of the Arezzo City Hall (via della Libertà 1), is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays, from 11am to 1pm and from 3:30pm to 5:30pm.

"The second step of the event will focus on the US exhibition of the restored Pala dell'Assunta by Giorgio Vasari, signed and dated 1539. The Pala will be hosted by one of the most prestigious museums in Washington DC and/or New York. More information will be disclosed once all the necessary documentation is formalized. "

[source: www.vasari500.com]

Florens 2010

2010-11-13T08:10:00.000-08:00

* website

Pompei, a symbol of the Italian catastrophe

2010-11-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

* article by Philippe Ridet [Le Monde]

Save the Children Italia: Joung Migrants

2010-11-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

* article

Discovering the Vatican Library: an story open to the future (Rome, 11/11/10-1/31/11)

2010-11-11T05:42:00.000-08:00

"CONOSCERE LA BIBLIOTECA VATICANA: UNA STORIA APERTA AL FUTURO"
November 11, 2010 - January 31, 2011
Braccio di Carlo Magno (St. Peter's Square)

"1,600,000 printed volumes, 80,000 manuscripts and 100,000 archival units, 8,400 incunabula, about 300,000 coins and medals, 150 thousand prints, drawings and engravings, and over 150 thousand pictures.
These are just some of the numbers of the historic "Library of the Popes" which reopened to the public last September 20, after three years of extraordinary building work.

On the occasion of this reopening, which was long awaited by the many scholars who feel at home here (about 20,000 each year), the Vatican Library, which soon will receive a visit from Benedict XVI, is revealed to the public through an exhibition in the Braccio di Carlo Magno (Saint Peter's Square).

The exhibition, whose title may be translated as Discovering the Vatican Library: an story open to the future, was inaugurated Wednesday, November 10 and will continue until the end of January 2011. It is no doubt an occasion to give publicity to the history of a precious and boundless heritage such as the one preserved in the Vatican Library (founded in 1451); but it is primarily an opportunity to illustrate, with the help of technology, the immense cultural, religious and human value that it has for men and women of today and for future generations.

The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, which is a partner of the Vatican Library in this communications operation, has prepared a guided, multimedia tour which allows it to offer a view even of the otherwise inaccessible "internal" areas of the Library.

Here, for example, is the extraordinary Sistine Hall of the Library, painted in the late sixteenth century and rebuilt for the exhibition, complete with splendid frescoes and furnished with reading tables where visitors may don white gloves and consult the precious manuscripts (in facsimile). It is also possible to see the "laboratories" where the Library staff do their daily work. The last room, in fact, contains a laboratory for the restoration of ancient manuscripts, precious bindings and printed books. The Library's restoration experts work in front of the visitors and can interact with them by answering questions and providing general information on methods and techniques of restoration and preservation.

The exhibition is divided into seven sections (History of the Library; Manuscripts; Printed books; Prints and Drawings; Coins and Medals; Services Offered by the Library). Among the works exhibited are some of the most important manuscripts of Western history, dating from the early Christian era to the present day; precious incunabula and rare printed volumes from all periods; drawings by the greatest artists in Western art; art prints; and an extraordinary selection of coins and medals.

The synchronized audio guides are available in five languages (Italian, English, French, Spanish, German)."

"A Quiet Life" by Claudio Cupellini

2010-11-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

"Rosario Russo (Toni Servillo) hails from southern Italy, has a young family and is perfectly integrated in his new home near Frankfurt where he runs a restaurant and hotel business. He keeps a low profile, has hanged identities, speaks an impeccable German - finally, his past is behind him. Until one day, his son Diego (Marco D’Amore), long forgotten and on the run, shows up at his doorstep, and his past suddenly comes back to haunt him. Now Rosario’s orderly and prosperous life precipitates as past memories resurface and engulf him. He must settle the score: but will he remain true to his paternal duties in this final struggle for survival?" [Rome International Film Festival]

* website

Botticelli in the Lombard collections (Milan, 11/12/10-2/28/11)

2010-11-09T07:47:00.000-08:00

"A tribute to one of the greatest Renaissance masters will give the unique opportunity to admire, one next to the other, some of his “dispersed” masterpieces together with the most famous ones. The exhibition “Botticelli in the Lombard collections” will be held between the 12th November 2010 and the 28th February 2011 at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan. For the first time, the works of the Florentine painter kept in public collections of the city and region will be reunited. This exhibition is only one of the events to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Botticelli’s death." [CulturaItalia]

* Museum's website

Babel, a new channel for the new Italians

2010-11-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Babel is a new TV channel dedicated to the new Italian citizens.

"Babel è il primo canale televisivo dedicato all’Italia dei nuovi Italiani, in onda dal 8 novembre 2010 in esclusiva sul canale 141 di Sky.
Chi siamo
Babel è una guida per vivere bene in Italia, per conoscerne la lingua, le leggi e le modalità per lavorare e vivere al meglio. Al tempo stesso, Babel è una finestra aperta sulle storie, gli usi, i costumi e i volti delle persone che vivono in Italia. Babel offre una programmazione interessante per chiunque e diversa da ogni altro canale TV. Su Babel c’è qualcosa per tutti: chi in Italia è arrivato da poco, chi è già “nuovo italiano” e chi lo è sempre stato ma anche per coloro che desiderano conoscere i temi caldi del momento e vedere dei programmi diversi dai soliti. Babel è anche una community online di persone che condividono idee, riflessioni, proposte utili alla vita quotidiana e collaborano alla produzione televisiva del canale con i propri commenti e contributi video."

La Vespa e il Cinema (Pontedera, 11/5/10-1/15/11)

2010-11-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

La Vespa e il Cinema
Pontedera (PI), Piaggio Museum, Nov. 5, 2010 - Jan. 15, 2011

The 2010 Report on Immigrations by Caritas Migrantes

2010-10-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

The first Report on Immigration Caritas Migrantes was published in 1991. The 2010 edition is a special recurrence, after 20 years.

"Il primo Rapporto sull'Immigrazione Caritas-Migrantes, di cui quest'anno si ripropone la copertina, venne pubblicato nel 1991, e l'edizione 2010, vent'anni dopo, rappresenta una ricorrenza speciale riassumibile con il motto: "Dossier 1991-2010: per una cultura dell'altro".

I 50 capitoli, articolati a diversi livelli (internazionale, nazionale e regionale), con il supporto della più ampia documentazione statistica e delle indagini sul campo, affrontano gli aspetti più rilevanti deI fenomeno migratorio, da quelli socio-economici a quelli culturali e giuridici. La struttura del volume è quella da tempo consolidata.
Introduzione e scheda riepilogativi
II contesto internazionale ed europeo
Flussi migratori e stranieri soggiornanti
Il mondo del lavoro
I contesti regionali
I rifugiati e il sistema di accoglienza

Secondo il Comitato di Presidenza Caritas-Migrantes (mons. Vittoria Nozza per Caritas Italiana, mons. Giancarlo Perego per la Fondazione Migrantes e mons. Enrico Feroci per la Caritas diocesana di Roma), pregiudizi e chiusura sono di ostacolo alla convivenza ed è tempo di rendersi conto che integrazione e pari opportunità vanno di pari passo, in un intreccio di doveri ma anche di diritti.

L'auspicio è che vengano superate idee preconcette e si spiani la via ai nuovi cittadini con i quali l'Italia deve imparare a camminare verso il futuro: un orientamento, questo, suggerito sia dall'analisi sociale, sia da una cultura autenticamente evangelica."

Corruption Perceptions Index 2010

2010-10-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

"Transparency International (TI) defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. This definition encompasses corrupt practices in both the public and private sectors. The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranks countries according to the perception of corruption in the public sector. The CPI is an aggregate indicator that combines different sources of information about corruption, making it possible to compare countries."

"The 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that nearly three quarters of the 178 countries in the index score below five, on a scale from 10 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt). These results indicate a serious corruption problem. [...] Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore are tied at the top of the list with a score of 9.3, followed closely by Finland and Sweden at 9.2. Bringing up the rear is Somalia with a score of 1.1, slightly trailing Myanmar and Afghanistan at 1.4 and Iraq at 1.5."

And Italy? Its score is only 3,9!

Michelangelo: The Drawings of a Genius (Wien, 10/8/10-1/9/11)

2010-10-23T02:20:00.000-07:00

Michelangelo: Zeichnungen Eines Genies
Wien, The Albertina, October 8, 2010 - January 9, 2011

"In a major exhibition scheduled for autumn and winter 2010, the Albertina will present around one hundred of the most beautiful drawings by Michelangelo. Precious works from the Graphic Arts Collection of the Albertina, as well as important loans from museums and private collections in Europe and the United States, will offer a hitherto unparalleled overview of the great Florentine’s entire oeuvre.
The focus will be on the figural drawings by Michelangelo, who will be introduced here as the genius of a period of change, with his versatile talents as a draftsman, painter, architect, and sculptor.
The show traces Michelangelo’s career from the artist’s juvenile works and designs for The Battle of Cascina to the world-famous frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, the ingenious drawings he presented to Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, and the Crucifixion scenes dating from the artist’s late period, when he was almost eighty years old. At the same time, new clues as to the dating of individual works will be provided. Projections of the monumental ceiling frescoes, the incorporation of plaster casts of Michelangelo’s sculptures, as well as paintings by other artists based on the master’s designs are meant to illustrate the dimensions and impact of his art. New paths of didactic presentation will be forged through a documentation of contemporary history and the artist’s environment."

viaemili@docfest2010. Festival del documentario online

2010-10-22T02:02:00.000-07:00

* website

The Global Gender Gap Report 2010: Italy

2010-10-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2010, the Gender Gap Index 2010 places Italy at the 74th position out of 134 countries.

* Read more at the World Economic Forum's website.

Arrivederci, Italia: Why Young Italians Are Leaving

2010-10-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

* article by Stephan Faris [Time]

International Rome Film Festival 2010

2010-10-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

* website

The Geometry of Pasta?

2010-09-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

A site worth exploring on the wonders of pasta.

Una Conversazione con Simone Sarasso e Jadel Andretto (Wellesley, November 13)

2010-09-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

Una conversazione in Italiano con gli autori

SIMONE SARASSO & JADEL ANDREETTO

a COLLINS CINEMA

WELLESLEY COLLEGE

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 13TH

2.00-4.30

Introduzione: David Ward, Italian Studies, Wellesley College

Simone Sarasso, “Solve et coagula: Il futuro della letteratura italiana per come lo vedo io”

Jadel Andreetto, “La curva sinusoidale della narrativa italiana”

Sarasso & Andreetto, lettura di brani da nuove opere

Sarasso is author of Turkemar (Effequ, 2007), Confine di Stato (Marsilio, 2007), Settanta (Marsilio, 2009), as well as a graphic novel entitled United We Stand (Marsilio, 2009), J.A.S.T (Just another spy story) (Marislio, 2010), written with Lorenza Ghinelli and Daniele Rudoni, and Slittamenti progressivi della Rai (effequ, 2010). In addition, along with Daniele Rudoni, Sarasso has written the story for a TV police series Il cacciatore, which Canale5 will air in 2011.

Carlo Lucarelli has recently hailed Sarasso as “Il nuovo maestro italiano del noir.”
Andreetto is part of the Kai Zen writing collective that has published Spauracchi and La Potenza di Eymerich (both Bachilega Editore, 2005), La strategia dell’Ariete (Mondadori, 2007), and the forthcoming Delta Blues (Verdenero, 2010).

The web sites associated with the collective’s work are:

www.lastrategiadellariete.org/

www.kaizenlab.it

and

www.romanzototale.it

Salvator Rosa: Bandits, Wilderness and Magic (London, 9/15/10-11/28/10)

2010-09-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

"Dulwich Picture Gallery presents the first major UK Rosa exhibition since 1973.

Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) was one of the boldest and most powerfully inventive artists and personalities of the Italian 17th century. He invented new types of painting: allegorical pictures, distinguished by a haunting and melancholy poetry; fanciful portraits of romantic and enigmatic figures; macabre and horrific subjects; philosophical subjects, which bring into painting some of the major philosophical and scientific concerns of his age. His early works, particularly the landscapes, are bright and rich in picturesque motifs - crumbling towers, boats on the sea shore, colourful travellers crossing perilous bridges, bandits lying in wait in rocky ravines. But he moved towards a grander style, and his mature art is characterised by his dazzlingly free technique, and by his rich chiaroscuro and dark but strong colours which create a suggestive atmosphere. No other artist has created windswept landscapes of such expressive and emotional power, or figures of such dark and brooding intensity. Rosa invented an emphasis on freedom and sincerity. He aimed to intrigue powerful patrons by his mysterious and independent personality. Unlike Caravaggio, Rosa was truly a rebel, radical, anti-clerical, associated with libertine thought, and often in very real danger from the Inquisition."

From Canova to Modigliani. The face of the Nineteenth Century (Padua, 10/2/10-2/27/11)

2010-09-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

da Canova a Modigliani il volto dell'Ottocento
Padua, Palazzo Zabarella, October 2, 2010 - February 27, 2011

"This exhibition is the first to be dedicated to the extraordinary vicissitudes of the portrait, a painting genre that was traditionally considered to be minor but which, during the Nineteenth Century, was able to interpret the multiple aspects of that century with greater intensity than the more important genres such as historical and religious painting. It thus became the mirror of a history and humanity undergoing profound changes.
Canova and Modigliani, two internationally renowned protagonists but with absolutely different personalities, open and close this passionate tale in paintings in which both great names in history and the anonymous extras of a domestic epic appear. Painted and sculptured, of individuals and groups, with or without a setting, celebrative or introspective, these portraits all evoke the changes and restlessness of a society undergoing rapid transformation, interpreting the expectations of a country that was achieving political unity for the very first time. However, above all they also represent decisive changes in style, the artists’ efforts to become more modern, to testify reality in its incessant transformation from a new perspective."

Intercollegiate Italian Summit at Harvard (Cambridge, October 2)

2010-09-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

The Intercollegiate Italian Summit of Boston
Uniting Italian-American university students and recent graduates across the greater Boston area
The Intercollegiate Italian-American Summit of Boston (IIS) is a FREE annual conference organized by the Harvard College Italian American Association ( http://www.harvarditalianamerican.org/) to foster community among Italian-American university students and recent graduates across the Boston area.

Keynote Speaker
Mr. Stephen Pagliuca, Co-Owner of the Boston Celtics and Managing Director at Bain Capital
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Time: 11:30 am-5 pm
Location: Boylston Hall
Address: Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA

RSVP
MORE DETAILS AT: http://iisboston.weebly.com/

'La Pecora nera' by Ascanio Celestini

2010-09-24T00:30:00.000-07:00

SYNOPSIS
“The psychiatric hospital is an apartment block of saints. The poor crazy inmates tucked into their Chinese sheets – industrially manufactured shrouds – are saints, the nun lit up like an ex-voto by her bedside lamp is a saint. And the doctor is the saintliest of all, he is the head of the saints, he is Jesus Christ.” This is how Nicola describes his 35 years in the “electric asylum” and in his messed-up head reality and fantasy merge, producing unexpected illuminations. Nicola was born in the 1960s, “the fabulous sixties”, and the world he saw from the hospital is not so very different from the one passing by on the outside – an increasingly voracious world, in which the only thing there is no shortage of is fear."
[67th Venice Film Festival website]

* DVD Einaudi Stile Libero
* book

'20 sigarette' by Aureliano Amadei

2010-09-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

"November 2003: Aureliano, a twenty-eight-year old anarchist and anti-war activist without a regular job or love life, gets an offer to fly immediately to Iraq as assistant director for a film about the Italian military ”peace mission”. Despite the criticism from his mates and best friend Claudia, and the concerns of his family, in particular his mother with whom he lives, Aureliano heads off. He thus finds himself in the middle of a military world he doesn’t approve of and about which he is prejudiced. However, he discovers a great sense of humanity and brotherhood in the people he meets, values that he shares. Following Stefano Rolla, the director whose passion for film, work and life in general have swept him up, Aureliano does not have time to finish a packet of cigarettes before he finds himself caught up in the attack on the Nassirya army barracks on 12 November 2003. The only civilian to survive the attack that has killed nineteen Italians, Aureliano is seriously injured but manages to get himself to safety. A witness and victim of the event, he spends long periods in the American hospital at Nassirya and the Rome Celio hospital, receiving a constant stream of visits from politicians, the military and journalists because in the meantime he has become an accidental hero. With the help of Claudia, Aureliano undergoes the transformation from “boy” to “man”. " [67th Venice Film Festival website]

* interview with the filmmaker
* book Venti sigarette a Nassirya, Einaudi, 2005

'AmeriQua'

2010-09-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

AmeriQua is a movie about student life in Bologna.

Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals (London, 10/13/10-1/16/11)

2010-09-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

"This exhibition presents the finest assembly of Venetian views since the much-celebrated display in Venice in 1967. It features works by Canaletto and all the major practitioners of the genre.

Remarkably, considering the dominant role of British patronage in this art form, 'Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals' is the first exhibition of its kind to be organised in the UK.

Bringing together around 50 major loans from public and private collections across Europe and North America, the exhibition highlights the rich variety of Venetian view painting.

Works on display

In each room, major works by Canaletto are juxtaposed with those of his rivals and associates, to demonstrate different approaches to similar views of the city.

Major rivals on display include Luca Carlevarijs, Michele Marieschi, Bernardo Bellotto, and Francesco Guardi. Also represented are less well-known painters, each responding to the market driven largely by the British Grand Tour.

The exhibition includes many of Canaletto’s greatest masterpieces, including ‘The Riva degli Schiavoni, looking West’ (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London), The Stonemason’s Yard (The National Gallery, London), and four of the finest works from the Royal Collection."

---

Washington DC, National Gallery of Art - February 20–May 30, 2011

Bologna 2010 (September, 20-26)

2010-09-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

Bologna 2010 - The Best Place for Rare Books, Old Books, Antiquarian Books, Modern First Editions, Illustrated Books, Atlases, Manuscripts, Autographs

39th ILAB Congress

23rd International Antiquarian Book Fair

"For one week Bologna will be the World capital of the book. The Italian Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (ALAI) is honoured to unite the most important rare book dealers, collectors and experts from all over the world at the 39th ILAB Congress from September 20-26 in the beautiful medieval town of Bologna."

The End of an Italian Myth

2010-09-20T01:44:00.001-07:00

An interesting article by Benedetta Tobagi [repubblica.it], reviewing the book La scuola e' di tutti by Girolamo De Michele [minimum fax].

The Introduction of the book is downloadable at the publisher website.

The Vatican Library reopens

2010-09-20T00:53:00.000-07:00

On Sept. 20, 2010 the Vatican Library reopens.

* Newsletter from the Prefect (April 2009)

Prix Italia 2010

2010-09-19T00:57:00.000-07:00

* Website

'Niente paura' by Piergiorgio Gay

2010-09-18T08:47:00.000-07:00

* website

140^ Anniversary of Rome Capital of Italy

2010-09-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

"It was a gap of 30 meters, opened on September 20, 1870 near Porta Pia, that allowed access to Papal Rome by Cadorna’s troops. A few days later a plebiscite sanctioned the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, the first step towards its proclamation as the capital of Italy in February 1871.
140 years after the Capture of Rome (September 20, 1870), the City of Rome is organizing three days of events, conferences, talks, shows, openings and guided tours to celebrate a great moment in history, the eternal city and its role in the history of Italian unification.
In collaboration with the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministries of the Republic and the Vatican City, the celebrations will be held on the streets but also in historical buildings, churches and monuments, under the coordination and organization of Zètema Culture Project."

* list of events
* on Facebook

"Italy 150: A Different Interpretation" (Cambridge, September 26, 2010)

2010-09-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

Professor Spense Di Scala will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unity with a talk entitled "Italy 150: A Different Interpretation."

The talk will take place at the Dante Alighieri Society in Cambridge,
and is sponsored by La Federazione delle Associazioni Abruzzesi USA, in cooperation with
the Consolato Generale d'Italia in Boston and the Dante Alighieri Society

Sunday, Setember 26 at 3

Dante Alighieri Society, 41 Holland Street, Cambridge, MA

For more information please contact Romagnoli1@rcn.com

"La Commedia" by Amos Poe

2010-09-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

" La Commedia, the new film produced and directed by Amos Poe, one of the protagonists of the “No Wave Cinema” - the underground film movement based in New York, and father of the American Indie cinema, was concluded in time for the 67th Venice International Film Festival.

The film had its world premiere on Friday September 3rd, at Midnight in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema), Out of Competition. The readings of the verses by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri are by Roberto Benigni (Paradiso), Alfonso Santagata (Inferno), Sandro Lombardi (Purgatorio). Loretta Mugnai is the metaphorical Beatrice Portinari. Music by Debbie Harry, Decay of Angels, Hayley Moss, Peter Gordon, Muchael Duclos, Brenda Elthon, Paraphilia, Dave Mitchell, Riccardo Moretti, and Andres Nazrala. [...]

Amos Poe’s La Commedia is inspired by Dante Alighieri’s literary masterpiece The Divine Comedy and Eadweard Muybridge’s 19th century breakthrough The Horse in Motion, arguably the first “motion picture”. The key element of this film is the idea of a journey in motion, our life’s journey from hell, to purgatory to paradise - a pattern of events. Amos and Dante are two middle-aged “travellers” that have to confront themselves while undergoing a mid-life crisis. “Midway upon the journey of our life | I found myself within a forest dark...” so begins the Inferno. La Commedia is conceived as a cinema-verite document of Poe’s exile in Italy and France and especially Florence. It deals primarily with the perception of motion in a motion picture, whatever “narrative” we find is completely subjective. It’s composed of 20,000 animated still images divided into three cinematic sequences (100 minutes, like Dante’s 100 “canti”) that remind us of Dante Alighieri’s allegorical journey in search of Beatrice through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven - a kind of re-invention of the Commedia for the 21st Century, seven centuries after Alighieri’s revolutionary masterpiece. Poe carves a new “lingua vulgare” on the movie screen – a “dolce stil novo” of poetry.

The Directors said: “I was looking for a film to make and was looking for a good writer. Dante came to mind. La Commedia grew organically from my readings of The Divine Comedy, falling in love with a Florentine, my fascination with the roots of cinema as a movable poetic feast, and the help of thousands of fans on Facebook. My hope is that the viewer will be equally entertained by what is going on on the screen as by what’s happening in her or his head and heart. I believe that the magic of cinema lies in the interaction between the two narratives, the one that occurs in front of us and the one inside our soul”.

The film is an avant-garde production. While predicated on the prolific support of social networks such as YouTube, Facebook and Kickstarter - thus pushing the envelope of filmmaking today – it was produced by its author, in collaboration with producers Elena Santamaria, Ben Bindra, JR Skola and Victoria Bousis. " [source]

* teaser trailer [You Tube]
* trailer [Official website of filmmaker/screenwriter Amos Poe]

A picture of Italy in the movie 'Somewhere' by Sofia Coppola

2010-09-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

A sequence of the movie Somewhere by Sofia Coppola [awarded the Golden Lion] has been set in Milan: Johnny Marco, the main character, and his eleven-year-old daughter Cleo arrive in Italy to take part at the Telegatto Awards. Just landed, the American actor is interviewed by a TV journalist asking very stupid questions and repeating the truistic answers for a supposed not intelligent audience; during the ceremony, the actor cannot speak and he is surrounded by undressed dancers. Cleo is sitting in the audience and she looks very different from the people sitting around her.
The sequence depicts the low level of the Italian television and society, dominated by a subculture where intelligence is banned and appearance prevails.
The encounter between father and daughter encourage Johnny to face up to where he is in life and confront the question that we all must: which path in life will you take? Will Italians do the same?

The large Bronzes of the Baptistry. Leonardo and Rustici (Florence, 9/10/10-1/10/11)

2010-09-10T00:38:00.000-07:00

Bargello National Museum
September 10th, 2010 - January 10th, 2011

Introduction
"This is the first exhibition ever dedicated to Giovanfrancesco Rustici. Born in Florence in 1475, the sculptor trained in the celebrated Garden of San Marco under the protection of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and was the heir of the lesson of the workshops of Andrea del Verrocchio and Benedetto da Maiano. Close to Leonardo, whose student and assistant he was, Giovanfrancesco was also friend of Andrea del Sarto, Jacopo Sansovino, Domenico Puligo and Baccio Bandinelli, and preceded Rosso Fiorentino and Benvenuto Cellini in accepting the invitation of Francis I - king of France tied to the birth of the so-called Fontainebleau School - in 1528 moving to France, where he died in 1554. The focal point of the exhibition is Rustici's masterpiece, the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist. This group sculpture of three grandiose bronze figures, designed and executed with the participation of Leonardo da Vinci, was placed over the North Door of the Baptistery of Florence in 1511. The challenging restoration it was subjected to (completed in 2008) has restored the splendour of material and conception: an undertaking supported by the Opera del Duomo di Firenze and the generous contribution of the "Friends of Florence". The presence in the show of the monumental group sculpture constitutes an unmissable twofold opportunity: on one hand, to show Leonardo's contribution in its creation through the comparison with Leonardesque autographic works and, on the other hand, to reconstruct for the first time Rustici's artistic personality, which the latest studies have shed light on. The show will indeed present a practically complete review of his works (glazed ware, marbles, terracottas, paintings and other bronze sculptures of middle to small dimensions) which testify to his great technical versatility and the features of his style. Alongside Rustici's works from the Bargello - such as the monumental Della Robbian Noli me tangere altarpiece or the Struggle of Horses and Horsemen in terracotta, inspired by Leonardo's Battle of Anghiari - the exhibition will be completed by the most significant pieces attributed to his hand, and today divided among the major museums in Europe and the United States. The show will be hosted on the Museum's ground floor in the rooms that already hosted (in 2008) the other bronze group sculpture of the Baptistery of San Giovanni for the monographic exhibition dedicated to Vincenzo Danti, which confirms a meditated planning and scientific continuity between the administrations of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello and the Opera del Duomo of Florence. The scientific project of this exhibition directed by Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi is by Tommaso Mozzati and Philippe Sénéchal, authors of two recent monographs on the sculptor."

'Sorelle Mai' by Marco Bellocchio

2010-09-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

" SYNOPSIS
The film comprises six episodes of a single story filmed in Bobbio during six different years between 1999 and 2008 (with the participants in the “Fare Cinema” course of those years). It tells of a little girl, Elena (Elena Bellocchio), growing up between the age of 5 and 13, and of her mother, Sara (Donatella Finocchiaro), her uncle Giorgio (Pier Giorgio Bellocchio), and their difficult relationship… Elena lives with her aunts in Bobbio, because her mother, an actress, is always on the move but comes back whenever she can, as does her brother for other reasons… One day, Sara decides that Elena should live with her in Milan, leaving the village and her aunts, perhaps for ever… But in the fourth episode, Sara returns to Bobbio with Elena, to sign the sale of the house, and finds Giorgio increasingly restless about what he wants to do. The fifth episode tells of an exam in an imaginary school in the village: one of the teachers (Alba Rohrwacher) is a paying guest in the aunts’ house. Her problem arises from the decision to fail one pupil for presumed “inattention”. But she passes him: in truth, it was she who was “inattentive”… In the sixth episode, we find Giorgio again who, up to his eyeballs in debt, takes refuge in Bobbio; his sister will help him… The episode and the film end with a show on the Trebbia… Starring Gianni (Gianni Schicchi Gabrieli), a family friend"
[67th Venice Film Festival website]

'La prima notte a Venezia' by Antonello Sarno

2010-09-08T05:57:00.000-07:00

" SYNOPSIS
Eighty-eight memories and “secrets” about their first time at the Venice Film Festival: Quentin Tarantino confessed that “Being in Venice with the Italian B Movies was like being in heaven!” but there is also the enthusiasm of Martin Scorsese, who came to the Lido for the first time in the 1970s, or Robert De Niro, at the Festival as a director with A Bronx Tale, along with the secrets of an unknown (at the time) Hugh Grant looking for interviews, the enthusiasm of Al Pacino, enchanted by Venice during the filming of his The Merchant of Venice, or Charlize Theron, amazed at the festival goers’ love for cinema, or Penelope Cruz (at the Festival with Jamon, Jamon) who, when meeting Jack Lemmon, thinks: “That man worked with Marilyn Monroe!” "
[Venice Film Festival website]

'Noi credevamo' by Mario Martone

2010-09-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

* official blog
* Facebook
* scenario by Mario Martone and Carlo De Cataldo [the movie is based on a novel by Anna Banti, downloudable at Scribd]

The Life of Michelangelo. Autobiographical Papers, Poetry, Letters and Drawings (Siena, 9/4/10-11/14/10)

2010-09-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

La vita di Michelangelo. Carte, poesie, lettere e disegni autografi
Siena, Santa Maria della Scala, Sept. 4 - Nov. 14, 2010

'Gorbaciòf - The Cashier who Liked Gambling' by Stefano Incerti

2010-09-04T00:37:00.000-07:00

"Toni Servillo is fast becoming one of the finest screen actors of his generation. His extraordinary portrait of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti in Paulo Sorrentino’s Il divo, and his equally nuanced performance in Matteo Garrone’s Gommorah, alerted us to his impressive range. His multifaceted skills are again on display in Stefano Incerti’s remarkable portrait of a prison cashier, a role tailor-made for someone of Servillo’s dexterity. Incerti not only provides a structure in which a genius like Servillo can soar, he does so while displaying a total command of the medium.

Gorbaciòf has dialogue, but it is sparse and used only when necessary. Servillo plays a lonely but cocky prison official who banks bribes on behalf of the prison staff, money from prisoner’s families to secure extra perks for their relatives behind bars. His name is Pacileo, but he goes by the nickname Gorbachev due to a large birthmark that mars his forehead. He’s a habitual gambler and makes up his losses by dipping into the money in his charge. But when he befriends a lovely young Chinese waitress, his habit turns deadly as he struggles to give her gifts while still managing his debts.

Tough, unshaven, ill-mannered and almost mute, Gorbachev starts to bloom as his relationship with the girl grows and he allows himself to dream. Neither speaks each other’s language, a beautiful and realistic touch that forces Incenti to paint their relationship in gestures and innuendo, making for moments of sheer magic. As the film moves achingly towards its conclusion, we watch in wonder at the range of emotions that filmmaker and actor bring to the screen in this breathtaking piece of filmmaking bravado."

Piers Handling

Toronto International Film Festival 2010

'The Green Blood' by Andrea Segre

2010-09-03T10:23:00.000-07:00

" January 2010, Rosarno, Calabria. The immigrants' manifestations of rage reveal, for a short while, the conditions of deterioration and injustice thousands of African labourers live every day. Labourers who are exploited by an economy held by the 'Ndrangheta mafia power. For a moment Italians become aware of them, they are scared of them and react with violence. In a few hours the immigrants are “evacuated” from Rosarno and the problem is “solved”. But the faces and the stories of the protagonists of Rosarno's riot say things are not like that. Finding out these stories and giving them a voice are the only way to bring back to the country its own memory: the memory of those days of violence and the memory of a recent yet forgotten past of rural poverty. "

http://ilsangueverde.blogspot.com

The Complete Pier Paolo Pasolini at the Harvard Film Archive (September 3 to September 27)

2010-09-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

Celebrated the world over as one of the central figures of the postwar Italian cinema, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) is recognized in his native land as arguably the most important Italian artist and intellectual of the twentieth century. A gifted writer and penetrating thinker, Pasolini was already renowned as a poet, novelist, critic and screenwriter before he directed his first film, Accattone, in 1960. Pasolini remained prodigiously industrious as a writer and political activist throughout his career, even as his films brought him greater celebrity – and notoriety – during the last fifteen years of his life, often overshadowing other facets of his remarkably diverse accomplishments. An outspoken but unorthodox leftist, Pasolini attracted controversy from all sides of the political spectrum, with his often sexually explicit and willingly perverse films drawing the frequent ire of Italian censors. With his penchant for political critique and stylistic reinvention, Pasolini is in some ways the Italian counterpart to Jean-Luc Godard. Despite his obvious glee in shocking the bourgeoisie, Pasolini was also a thoughtful, even philosophical, filmmaker who bridged the gap between the post-neorealist group led by Fellini and Antonioni and the generation of Young Turks that included Bernardo Bertolucci and Marco Bellocchio.

Pasolini’s cinema is perhaps best remembered today for its unbridled sexual imagination and its often shocking depictions of violence and unorthodox sexuality. Equally important to his oeuvre, however, is Pasolini’s adamant rejection of the contemporary world. A profound nostalgia for a pre-modern way of life is expressed across Pasolini’s films, in which the magical and the pagan supersede rationality and religion, and an anarchic, polymorphous eroticism replaces what Pasolini regarded as the sharply alienated and alienating state of modern existence. Pasolini refined an extraordinary visual style to express this worldview, favoring static frontal shots evocative of pre- and early Renaissance painting. Most of all, however, Pasolini prized a mode of radical stylistic impurity, using Bach and Vivaldi, for example, as the unlikely yet profoundly fitting soundtrack to his visions of life in the Roman slums. This daring juxtaposition of “high” and “low,” a poetic version of the Marxist dialectic, remained one of Pasolini’s most influential stylistic touches.

During his career a major source of Pasolini’s notoriety was his open homosexuality, a then-rare position that he actually had little choice in establishing. In 1949, while living and teaching as a regional poet in northeast Italy, Pasolini was outed and promptly charged with corrupting a minor, resulting in the loss of both his teaching post and his membership in the Italian Communist Party. The subsequent scandal prompted Pasolini to flee to Rome and, in retrospect, may have inadvertently hastened his rise to prominence in Italian literature. Today Pasolini’s grisly and still unsolved murder, perhaps at the hands of a teenaged hustler, has permanently linked his homosexuality to his public profile.

Pasolini announced his unique style and approach to narrative with his first three works– Accattone, Mamma Roma and The Gospel According to Matthew – which each offer a reworking of the legacy of postwar Italian neo-realism. In the mid-1960s Pasolini made an abrupt turn by attempting to create his own version of a popular cinema, casting the comic star Totò in a group of films, most notably Hawks and Sparrows, using humor and allegory to critique the changes brought about by Italy’s economic and industrial boom. The tepid response to these unusual comedies inspired Pasolini to proclaim allegiance to “unpopular cinema,” and turn to the melding of myth and scathing political critique that resulted in Oedipus Rex, Medea and Pigsty. Pasolini changed course again with his “Trilogy of Life,” an unprecedentedly accessible series of literary adaptations – The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights – until finally rejecting these films with the savage Salò, the ultimate film maudit, which he finished just days before his premature death. This retrospective covers all of the many phases of Pasolini’s filmmaking by including each of his thirteen features and his most important shorts, as well as a reconstruction of La rabbia, a film long considered lost.

Special thanks: Cineteca di Bologna; Liborio Stellino, Consul General of Italy, Boston.

Teorema
Friday September 3 at 7pm
Sunday September 12 at 7pm
A radically streamlined and elliptically simple film, Teorema remains one of Pasolini’s most mysterious works. The story of a sexually magnetic stranger, played by a mesmerizing Terence Stamp, who methodically disrupts the well-ordered household of a wealthy Milanese industrialist, Teorema’s hidden tensions are brought to the surface with a shocking suddenness that remains as inexplicable as it is inevitable. Meant as a merciless savaging of the bourgeoisie, Teorema features a pair of well-known Italian actors as the subjects of its critique—Massimo Girotti and Silvana Mangano as husband and wife— as foils to the alluring stranger, who may be angel or demon, or something else entirely.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Terence Stamp, Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Anne Wiazemsky
Italy 1968, 35mm, color, 98 min. Italian with English subtitles

Oedipus Rex (Edipo Re)
Friday September 3 at 9pm
Pasolini turned to myth in the search for a “primal cinema” that occupied the late stage of his tragically shortened career, choosing Oedipus Rex to delve into perhaps the most primal myth of all. Yet Pasolini explicitly rejected any Freudian trappings of the myth, offering an Oedipus less a man scarred by his forbidden intimacy with his mother than a cautionary emblem of willful ignorance. Pasolini transforms the myth into a critique of innocence, not as an absence of guilt but rather as an avoidance of knowledge. Pasolini Oedipus is not a crusader for truth brought down by fate and hubris but rather a man who blunders into his fate precisely by refusing to confront it. Pasolini’s second film set in antiquity and his first in color, Oedipus Rex explores a noticeably more elaborate art direction and costumes than his previous evocations of a vanished ancient world.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Franco Citti, Silvana Mangano, Alida Valli, Carmelo Bene
Italy 1967, 35mm, color, 104 min. Italian with English subtitles

The Gospel According to Matthew (Il Vangelo secondo Matteo)
Saturday September 4 at 7pm
Pasolini’s disarmingly straightforward version of the life of Christ secured his reputation as a filmmaker, rather than simply a poet dabbling in cinema. Aiming to strip away the sanctimony typical of screen adaptations of the Gospels, Pasolini sought to recover the rough poetry of the original texts, pointedly omitting the “Saint” from his title to secularize Matthew. Pasolini’s Christ emerges as much a political revolutionary as a religious figure, addressing the problems of the poor and undermining the patriarchy of the traditional family. With a visual style heavily influenced by Rossellini’s The Flowers of St. Francis (1950), the film contains a number of frontal, static shots that reveal Pasolini’s love for early Renaissance painting and point toward the radical classicism of his late films.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini
Italy 1964, 35mm, b/w, 137 min. Italian with English subtitles

Love Meetings (Comizi d’amore)
Saturday September 4 at 9:30pm
The remarkable Love Meetings is nothing less than a cinema-vérité Kinsey Report – with occasional Godardian touches – on Italian sexual mores in the 1960s. Traveling across Italy, Pasolini and his camera interview people on the street, sunbathers at the beach and soccer players on the pitch about their attitudes towards marriage and divorce, homosexuality, prostitution, machismo and gender roles. While a notable consensus agrees that things are changing it remains less clear what, if anything, these changes mean. In one of his few essays on cinema, Michel Foucault wrote admiringly of the film’s ability to capture the complex ambiguity of reactions to the so-called “sexual revolution.”
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alberto Moravia, Cesare Musatti.
Italy 1964, 35mm, b/w, 92 min. Italian with English subtitles

Medea
Sunday September 5 at 7pm
In the figure of Medea, the sorceress seduced and abandoned by the adventurer Jason, Pasolini saw an allegorical emblem, both for the defeat of the irrational by the rational and for the colonization of the ancient world by an expansionist West. In a series of nearly wordless sequences, Pasolini brilliantly conjures the primal realm of magic and sacrifice which Medea naively leaves to follow Jason, only to realize that she has become a steppingstone for his worldly ambitions in a coldly rational milieu of political power plays. Pasolini drew his inspiration for his second adaptation of a Greek myth, not from the canonical theatrical dramatization of Medea, but from anthropological accounts of the history of religion. In her only dramatic onscreen appearance, the opera star Maria Callas is riveting in the title role.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Maria Callas, Laurent Terzieff, Massimo Girotti
Italy 1969, 35mm, color, 110 min. Italian with English subtitles

The Walls of Sana’a (Le mura di Sana)
Monday September 6 at 7pm
Pasolini’s rarely screened documentary short explores the incredible architecture of the almost 3,000 year old Yemenese city of Sana’a. With its direct appeal to the spectator to help save these fragile structures, The Walls of Sana’a is offers a moving testimony to Pasolini’s deep attachment to the ancient world.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Italy 1971, 35mm, color, 13 min. Italian with English subtitles

Followed by
Notes for an African Orestes (Appunti per un’Orestiade africana)
While shooting Medea, a film about the subjugation of the ancient world to an alienating modernity, Pasolini developed the idea to make a companion piece about another Greek myth – the story of Orestes. This story would end more happily, with the archaic making way for a different kind of modernity, built not on exploitation but on communalism. Encouraged by emerging socialist governments in post-colonial Africa, Pasolini hoped to shoot his film there, and so he went to Uganda and Tanzania to scout for locations and actors. That footage became the basis for this film, with Pasolini explaining his ideas on the soundtrack. A perfect example of leftist intellectual auto-critique, the film climaxes with Pasolini discussing his plans with a group of African students in Rome. The discussion hovers somewhere between tragedy and farce as one by one, the students calmly and kindly offer numerous reasonable objections to Pasolini’s idea, all of which he seems to take in stride. The Oresteia project was never made. Little-seen and little-discussed, the film is essential viewing for understanding Pasolini’s political thinking and his attachment to myth.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Italy 1970, 35mm, color, 63 min. Italian with English subtitles

Accattone
Friday September 10 at 7pm
Pasolini’s magnificent directorial debut, a chronicle of the life of a petty criminal and pimp, reveals the young director’s indebtedness to postwar Italian neo-realism with its episodic narrative, location shooting on city streets and use of nonprofessional actors. Much remarked at the time was Pasolini’s then-startling use of stately music by Bach on the soundtrack to accompany contemporary urban squalor and the static frontal shots that often evoke early Renaissance painting and immediately stamp Accattone with Pasolini’s distinctive style. In his first screen appearance, Franco Citti as the pimp establishes himself as the most important member of Pasolini’s ensemble of actors.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini
Italy 1961, 35mm, b/w, 116 min. Italian with English subtitles

Pigsty (Porcile)
Friday September 10 at 9:15pm
In both Theorem and Pigsty, Pasolini seeks to synthesize the mythic strain that surfaced in Oedipus Rex with the stridently political filmmaking emerging in Europe in the second half of the 1960s and epitomized by Godard’s film. In a nod to the French director, Pasolini reunites the lead couple from La Chinoise, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Anne Wiazemsky, who appear in one of Pigsty’s two parallel plots, this one set in the present, with Léaud as the son of a wealthy businessman whose lack of interest in his fiancée betrays an unorthodox sexual predilection. The other story takes place in an unspecified prehistoric past, where a brutish barbarian scrounges for food in an archaic landscape ravaged by primitive warfare. Pigsty acts as a crucial missing link between the critique of Theorem and the darker depictions of savagery to come.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Jean-Pierre Léaud, Pierre Clementi, Anne Wiazemsky
Italy 1969, 35mm, color, 98 min. Italian with English subtitles

The Rage of Pasolini (La Rabbia di Pasolini)
Saturday September 11 at 7pm
In 1962, Pasolini was invited by an Italian newsreel producer to create a feature-length film essay from his company’s library of footage. Inspired by diverse wealth of imagery, Pasolini set out to make a film as “a show of indignation against the unreality of the bourgeois world.” Assembling images from the Soviet bloc and various anti-colonial movements as complement and contrast to the newsreel footage, Pasolini crafted a remarkable tour de force of politically trenchant commentary on the modern world, climaxing in a moving meditation on the death of Marilyn Monroe. Fearing controversy and box-office failure, the producer ordered Pasolini to cut the original version to less than an hour and then promptly added a right-wing counterpart by the filmmaker Giovanni Guareschi, packaging the two parts as one film. Disowned by Pasolini, this version was indeed a failure. Although Pasolini’s original version remains lost, an ambitious reconstruction was recently completed by Giuseppe Bertolucci and the Cineteca di Bologna using the shot list and a dialogue transcript from the first version, as well as Pasolini’s notes on music for the film.
Directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Italy 1963/2008, 35mm, b/w and color, 83 min. Italian with English subtitles

The Decameron (Il Decameron)
Saturday September 11 at 9pm
In an attempt to turn away from the more experimental direction of his late 1960s work and create a “popular cinema,” Pasolini turned to the beloved collection of alternately bawdy and tender tales of star-crossed lovers, randy nuns and pedophile pickpockets written by Boccaccio in the fourteenth-century. The result is one of the director’s most accessible films, filled with early Renaissance imagery, plentiful nudity and earthy eroticism. While Boccaccio used a range of different narrators to tell each story of romantic attachments and ribald misadventures, Pasolini replaces this framing device with a series of brief interludes featuring himself as a Giottoesque painter. To Pasolini’s dismay, the film’s international popularity inspired a number of soft-core imitations.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Franco Citti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ninetto Davoli
Italy 1971, 35mm, color, 110 min. Italian with English subtitles

La Ricotta
Monday September 13 at 7pm
For his contribution to the omnibus film RoGoPaG – comprised of episodes by himself, Rossellini, Godard and Ugo Gregoretti – Pasolini fashioned an ingenious fable that is both a satire on filmmaking and a tribute to Italian Mannerist painting. Although Orson Welles stars as a director filming the crucifixion, the real protagonist is an unassuming middle-aged man working as an extra to feed his family. The extraordinary meeting of three worlds—high art, moviemaking and all-too-real poverty—leads to a collision with tragicomic consequences, a “collage,” as Pasolini called it, that allows him to effectively critique the distance between ethics and aesthetics.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Orson Welles, Mario Cipriani, Laura Betti
Italy 1963, 35mm, b/w and color, 35 min. Italian with English subtitles

Followed by

Seeking Locations in Palestine for the Film “The Gospel According to Matthew” (Sopralluoghi in Palestina per il film “Il Vangelo secondo Matteo”)
Pasolini had originally planned to shoot The Gospel According to Matthew in the approximate locations referred to in the Bible: Nazareth, Jerusalem, Bethlehem. With this in mind he visited the area—including other parts of Israel, Jordan and Syria—with a newsreel photographer, filming both the landscape and its inhabitants. Edited by The Gospel’s producer for potential funders and distributors, Pasolini added a semi-improvised commentary as the only soundtrack to his footage, including his musings on Jesus and his teachings and on the difficulty of finding suitable locations for his project, while avoiding the subject of Israel and Palestine. An evocative behind-the-scenes glimpse into Pasolini’s creative project, the film serves as testimony to his idiosyncratic views of Jesus as a historical figure and his distinctions between the ancient and modern worlds.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Italy 1965, 35mm, b/w, 52 min. Italian with English subtitles

Arabian Nights (Il fiore delle mille e una notte)
Sunday September 19 at 7pm
In his version of the Middle and Near Eastern tales called the Arabian Nights, Pasolini revels in the sheer joy of storytelling, elaborately intertwining a series of meandering episodes that lend the film a rich narrative complexity. Eliminating the storyteller Scheherazade, Pasolini instead embeds the nested stories within a framing narrative about a poor young man searching for the escaped slave girl who is his lost love. Like The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales, the film abounds in nudity and scenes of sexuality, although cast now in a far sunnier mood than those two films, perhaps an expression of Pasolini’s declaration to have “liberated” himself by shooting for the first time in distant non-European disparate locales, from Ethiopia to Nepal, and using a cast combining Pasolini regulars with nonprofessional actors found on location.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Franco Merli, Ines Pellegrini, Tessa Bouché, Ninetto Davoli
Italy 1974, 35mm, color, 129 min. Italian with English subtitles

Hawks and Sparrows (Uccellacci e uccellini)
Monday September 20 at 7pm
Pasolini regarded il Boom – the massive economic and industrial development of postwar Italy and the wave of rapid social change that followed – as a tragic catastrophe, a sweeping away of Italy’s last vestiges of pre-modern culture by replacing them with the depredations of consumer capitalism. Alternately caustic and gently comic, this melancholy film offers a parable of those changes, tracing the odyssey of a father and son through a landscape of degradation and exploitation as they follow a talking crow that delivers a Marxist critique of the situation. A homage to silent comedy, Hawks and Sparrows proved to be Pasolini’s parting shot at contemporary Italy before he turned to his cycle of mythic films.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Totò, Ninetto Davoli, Femi Benussi
Italy 1966, 35mm, b/w, 86 min. Italian with English subtitles

Mamma Roma
Friday September 24 at 7pm
Monday September 27 at 7pm
Inspired by his work on the screenplay for The Nights of Cabiria, Fellini’s spirited fable about a Chaplinesque prostitute, Pasolini offered his own portrait of a Roman streetwalker, replacing Fellini’s whimsy with a clear-eyed and unflinching look at the lives of the urban poor. In one of her signature roles, the indomitable Anna Magnani captures the stubborn pride and vulnerability of the title character, a woman fiercely protective of her son, who is himself a classic version of the Pasolinian ragazzo, living large on the streets and drifting inevitably toward a life of crime. Pasolini’s juxtaposition of the Fascist-era housing block that is home to mother and son against the nearby ruins of an ancient aqueduct reveals his lifelong attraction to the archaic and his lasting distrust of the modern.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofalo, Silvana Corsini
Italy 1962, 35mm, b/w, 105 min. Italian with English subtitles

The Canterbury Tales
Friday September 24 at 9pm
For his follow-up to The Decameron, Pasolini selected Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the other great fourteenth century collection of stories. If the world of Pasolini’s Decameron is that of the dawning of the Renaissance, the world here is decidedly medieval, with a concomitant emphasis on the vulgar and the grotesque. Although the “Trilogy of Life” was conceived as a celebration of the body, this middle piece marks a palpably darkening mood. Returning to the episodic structure so central to Pasolini’s cinema, the film recounts a series of amorous misadventures with a sharp emphasis placed more on sex than on love, lust or desire. Climaxing with a wildly scatological vision of Hell, The Canterbury Tales is propelled by notably cruel humor, a violence more pointed than The Decameron and an even more raw sexuality.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Franco Citti, Laura Betti, Ninetto Davoli, Josephine Chaplin
Italy 1972, 35mm, color, 110 min.

Salò
Sunday September 26 at 7pm
Disillusioned by the sexual revolution, which he felt had only entrenched sexuality in consumerism and bourgeois rationalism, Pasolini disowned his “Trilogy of Life,” the three early 1970s films intended as erotic celebrations of the body, and responded with his most notorious and final film, Salò. Set in northern Italy during the last days of Mussolini’s reign, the film liberally adapts Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom, using the tale of amoral libertines who kidnap young victims for a sacrificial orgy to launch a ruthless and wide-ranging attack on modernity as a whole. Setting up equivalences between Sadean sexual license, Italian fascism and consumerist alienation, Salò delivers a trenchant political allegory that tends to be overshadowed by its explicit nudity and images of sexual sadism. The film’s ultimately extreme violence and deviant sexuality have earned it the reputation as arguably the first “artsploitation” movies, a precursor to the likes of Funny Games (1997, 2007) and Irreversible (2002).
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Paolo Bonicelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Franco Merli
Italy 1975, 35mm, color, 116 min. Italian with English subtitles

The Harvard Film Archive is located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
24 Quincy Street, Cambridge
617-495-4700
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
Tickets are $9 for the General Public, $7 for Non-Harvard Students, Seniors, Harvard Faculty and Staff
Harvard students free
The HFA does not sell advance tickets. Tickets go on sale 45 minutes prior to show time at the HFA box office.

'Vittorio racconta Gassman - Una vita da Mattatore' [A tribute to Vittorio Gassman] by Giancarlo Scarchilli

2010-09-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

SYNOPSIS
" As the title of this film-documentary suggests, Vittorio racconta Gassman depicts the professional and personal life of Vittorio Gassman, reconstructed using mainly Gassman himself and his confessional tales. In the film a special relevance has been given to Gassman’s son, Alessandro who, like Virgil, guides us through the passionate, funny, spectacular and problematic world of his father Vittorio, one of the greatest actors of the Italian stage and screen. The film-documentary is composed of documents and interviews never seen before, excerpts from popular and forgotten films, as well as clips from the RAI film libraries (such as the rediscovered rare autobiographical material). In order to bring together significant stories about Vittorio Gassman, a series of interviews were made with colleagues and friends of the actor, including: Dino De Laurentiis, Ettore Scola, Paolo Villaggio, Marco Risi, Gigi Proietti, Giancarlo Giannini, Carlo Verdone, Paolo Virzì, Gian Luigi Rondi, Jacques Perrin, Jean Gili, Anna Galiena, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Enrico Lucherini, Ornella Muti, Anna Proclemer, Franco Giacobini, Roberto Herlitzka, Daniele Luchetti, Giuseppe Piccioni, Nicola Piovani, Carlo Lizzani, Giovanni Veronesi, Giovanna Ralli, Francesco Rosi, Mario Monicelli, Agostina Belli, Ricky Tognazzi, Sergio Castellitto, etc. "
[Venice Film Festival website]

The Renaissance in the lands of Ticino (Rancate, 10/10/10-1/9/11)

2010-08-31T02:29:00.000-07:00

Il Rinascimento nelle terre ticinesi. Da Bramantino a Bernardo Luini
Rancate (Mendrisio), Canton Ticino, Switzerland, Pinacoteca Cantonale Giovanni Züst
Oct. 10, 2010 - Jan. 9, 2011

* Museum website

Festival della Mente 7th edition (Sarzana, Sept. 3-5, 2010)

2010-08-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

"After last year’s successful edition, with 40,000 people attending, the Festival della Mente, directed by Giulia Cogoli, will be holding its 7th edition in Sarzana, from Sept. 3-5, 2010.
The first European event to be entirely devoted to creativity and its processes will bring together scientists, writers, artists, musicians, psychoanalysts, neuroscientists, philosophers, historians and actors from Italy and abroad—all with an original contribution to offer regarding the nature of creativity, this most valued human ability."

Bronzino. Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici (Florence, 9/27/10-1//11)

2010-08-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

Bronzino. Pittore e poeta alla corte dei Medici
Florence. Palazzo Strozzi, Sept. 23, 2010 - Jan. 24, 2011

"One of the greatest painters of the sixteenth century, Agnolo di Cosimo Tori, known as Bronzino (1503-1572), embodied the fullness of the ‘modern manner’ in the years of the government of Cosimo I de’ Medici.
Florence is clearly the preferential location for a monographic exhibition on Bronzino, since the majority of his paintings are still conserved here, above all in the Uffizi, but also in other city museums and in the churches. This exhibition, the first devoted to Agnolo’s pictorial work, will also avail of loans from the most important museums all over the world.

Design and planning carried out well in advance will make it possible to offer visitors not only the latest critical and philological novelties, but also everything else that emerges from the constant commitment of the curators and the scientific committee in the three years prior to the opening of the exhibition in 2010.

However, this is not an exhibition conceived solely for the specialists. It will comprise a selection of only works of the very highest level: autograph works by Bronzino and other artists connected with him – such as Pontormo and Alessandro Allori. The idea is, through direct comparisons made possible for the first time, to enable a broad public to admire and comprehend the unrivalled poetic heights achieved by the artist.
Finally, it will be possible to study and compare several works, most of them attributed with certainty to Bronzino, that are being displayed to the public for the first time. The exhibition will be divided into chapters devoted to crucial phases, episodes or genres in Bronzino’s work.
The show will bring together a wide variety of Bronzino’s masterpieces, some of them displayed together for the first time, in addition to a selection of drawings originating from the greatest museums in the world. Alongside the works conserved in the Uffizi, the exhibition will present works such as Venus, Cupid and Jealousy from the Szépmuvészeti Múzeum in Budapest, the Portrait of young man with a book from the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Holy Family and Saint John, in the version of the Louvre (Paris) and of the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna.

The Scientific Committee will be composed of the major experts on the period, who will contribute to the exhibition catalogue with essays of elevated scientific importance.
The exhibtion project will be by Cristina Acidini, Superintendent of Florentine Museums, Carlo Falciani, one of the major experts of the artist, and Antonio Natali, Director of the Uffizi Gallery. The curators of the exhibition and editors of the catalogue will be Carlo Falciani and Antonio Natali.
The show is designed to play a central role within the ambit of celebrations for the “Bronzino Year”, together with the major exhibition Drawings of Bronzino (January 20-April 18 2010) held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, dedicated to the artist’s graphic production."

The Arts of Giambattista Piranesi. Architect, etcher, antiquarian, vedutista, designer (Venice, 8/28/10-11/21/10)

2010-08-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

"The exhibition [...] is an all-round exploration of the protean activities of Giambattista Piranesi (Venice 1720 - Rome 1778), one of the most fascinating, complex and multifaceted artists in 18th-century Europe.
Thirty years after the two exhibitions held by the Institute of Art History to mark the bicentennial of the artist’s death, the Giorgio Cini Foundation has organised another striking show to celebrate his inventiveness and imagination.

In addition to around 300 prints selected from the complete works held in the Cini Foundation graphic collections, the exhibition also features a series of ad hoc creations embodying Piranesi’s language, style and natural fl air for “crossing over” – in some cases in an almost frenzied way – ancient and modern formal repertories in ingenious combinations. Visitors will thus be able to enter Piranesi’s “dark mind” after Marguerite Yourcenar’s description and explore his feverish imagination, at times verging on paranoia, by going into a tower with a 3D projection of the Carceri d’Invenzione (“Imaginary Prisons”): mental and visionary architecture stripped of any possible real building capacity, somewhere between Baroque stage designs and fanciful caprices. On show there will also be “re-workings” constructed ad hoc and exclusively for the exhibition by Adam Lowe and Factum Arte. They will enable visitors to comprehend the artist’s original ideas and decorative language close up in three-dimensional renderings made of rare materials of some of Piranesi’s inventions in the series Diverse Maniere di adornare i Cammini (“Various Ways of Adorning Fireplaces”). These works will give the public an idea of Piranesi’s prolific forge-workshop as an architect and designer, caught between Venetian caprice and Roman imperial splendour. The “recreations” of some pieces from his collection of antiques, which he gathered to be sold on the antiquarian market, on the other hand, reveal the iconographic background to his role as a forerunner of a new taste for the antique and the consequent attraction his style exercised over a whole generation of artists, architects and decorators in the age of Neoclassicism. The last section of the exhibition is devoted to the celebrated series of views of Rome. This is an exhibition within the exhibition featuring a section of Piranesi prints accompanied by the same number of photographs by Gabriele Basilico, a fine art and documentary photographer. Inspired by the celebrated pages that the novelist Marguerite Yourcenar dedicated to Giambattista Piranesi in the early 1970s, Basilico photographed the places featured in Piranesi’s views."

'Photofinish Figures' by Paolo Gioli

2010-08-21T00:59:00.000-07:00

"With exhilirating rhythms and flashing sideways motion, the latest by celebrated Italian artist Paolo Gioli is a 16mm, black and white ode to faces and the city. Il Finish delle Figure reminds one of Muybridge but relays a sense of the conteporary, sensory overload of living in a metropolis."

Official description: "Early cinema confronted the spectator like no other art, beckoning a reciprocal engagement and curiosity as both spectacle and document. Paolo Gioli returns to a tabula rasa with his handmade cameras and masks, which allow him to exploit and fashion film’s reproductive means. The exhilarating Il Finish delle figure updates Muybridge and relays a sense of the contemporary, photo-finished experience using a 35mm still camera."

"Paolo Gioli is an Italian photographer and filmmaker who has been making films since the sixties."

[Toronto International Film Festival 2010]

'Passione' by John Turturro

2010-08-20T02:54:00.000-07:00

"As much a love poem to Naples as a tribute to the popular music that bubbles up in the streets and neighbourhoods of this fascinating and complex city, John Turturro’s effervescent Passione combines archival footage with stunning musical numbers to explore a deep cultural heritage. Naples has seen it all: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, foreign invasions, crime, poverty, corruption and neglect, but it is also a hotbed of music that explores ideas of love, loss, sex, jealousy, emigration, social protest, birth and death. The songs themselves are drenched in contradiction and irony but they carry a robust vitality that reflects the energy of the metropolis.

Beginning by visiting with a trio of grizzled record veterans who muse on the characteristics of Neapolitan music, Turturro proceeds to take us on a musical journey through the back alleys and public squares, beaches and studios of the city to record young and old, amateurs and professionals, performing a divergent and eclectic group of songs. Footage of past masters Sergio Bruni, Massimo Ranieri and Renata Carasonni rub shoulders with contemporary artists like the M’Barka Ben Taleb and James Senese.

Turturro’s Italian roots and love of the country give the film added poignancy. The film journeys from nostalgic memories to reconstructions using the bedrooms, parapets and castles of the city, placing musicians in streets and piazzas, whilst exploring the full range of populist folk music from Neapolitan melodramas to contemporary video clips. Each song carries its own narrative associations, and one of the most fascinating aspects of the film is the contemporary American influence on the music. Children fathered during the war by Yankee soldiers have grown up in Naples and are now adding their distinct sound to a city that has seen many cultures come and go, leaving their legacies in this amazing city."

Piers Handling

[Toronto International Film festival 2010]

'The House by the Medlar Tree' by Pasquale Scimeca

2010-08-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

"Based on the novel by Giovanni Verga – which also provided the source material for Luchino Visconti’s seminal film, La terra trema – The House by the Medlar Tree sees director Pasquale Scimeca returning to his Sicilian birthplace. The story of a fisherman and his family is set against the cruel vagaries of the ocean from which they eke out a living, but which is also the source of continual tragedies and challenges. Magnificently photographed, the film captures the shifting moods of the stunning seascapes and the interior chiaroscuro of the family house.
The House by the Medlar Tree is a study in contrasts. In a culture deeply embedded in tradition, the old and the new juggle for ascendancy as the younger generation resists the ways of the past. Scimeca lovingly portrays the inner dynamics at the core of this family, headed by the magisterial and dignified patriarch who is beholden to the sea as the place where he and his forefathers have made their living. For his daughter, the ocean is a place of dread and tragedy and she constantly fears for the safety of her husband. The children see the fishery as a fading source of income and look elsewhere for work, travelling north as migrant workers. And then there are the daughters and girlfriends, each with their own singular relationship to the sea. The family boat is named Providenza – Providence – and although it is the family’s main provider, it is also a symbol of their unspoken despair. Old and creaky, its fate provides much of the film’s drama.
The House by the Medlar Tree expertly portrays the indefatigable nature of the fishermen. The line between survival and disaster is often just a storm away; inured to hard times, they remain dignified in the face of impending disaster. Borrowing against their house to rebuild their boat is only the first in a series of challenges that this Sicilian family must overcome to remain together. The House by the Medlar is a timeless story that resonates profoundly in today’s world."
Piers Handling
[Toronto International Film Festival 2010]

The Italian filmmakers at the 67th Venice Film Festival

2010-08-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

* Article ["L'Unita'"]

Aureliano AMADEI, 20 sigarette (Controcampo Italiano)
Yuri ANCARANI, Il Capo (Orizzonti)
Marco BELLOCCHIO, Sorelle Mai (Out of competition)
Giorgia CECERE, Il primo incarico (Controcampo Italiano)
Ascanio CELESTINI, La pecora nera (Venezia 67)
Michela CESCON, Come un soffio (Controcampo Italiano)
Giada COLAGRANDE, A Woman (Controcampo Italiano)
Andrea COSTANTINO, Sposerò Nichi Vendola (Controcampo Italiano)
Saverio COSTANZO, La solitudine dei numeri primi (Venezia 67)
Marco DE ANGELIS, Antonio DI TRAPANI, Tarda estate (Controcampo Italiano Out of competition)
Roberto DE PAOLIS, Bassa Marea (Controcampo Italiano)
Gaetano DI VAIO, Il loro Natale (Controcampo Italiano Out of competition)
Giorgia FARINA, Achille (Controcampo Italiano)
FLATFORM, Non si può nulla contro il vento (Orizzonti)
Giuseppe GAUDINO, Isabella SANDRI, Per questi stretti morire (ovvero cartografia di una passione) (Orizzonti)
Piergiorgio GAY, Niente Paura – Come siamo come eravamo e le canzoni di Ligabue (Out of competition)
Gianfranco GIAGNI, Dante Ferretti: Scenografo italiano – Production Designer (Out of competition)
Giuseppe GIANNOTTI, Enrico SALVATORI, Dai nostri inviati - La Rai racconta la Mostra del Cinema 1954-1967 (Out of Competition)
Anna GIGANTE, Linea Nigra (Controcampo Italiano)
Simone GODANO, Leonardo GODANO, Niente Orchidee (Controcampo Italiano)
Emidio GRECO, Notizie degli scavi (Out of competition)
Stefano INCERTI, Gorbaciof (Out of competition)
Carlo LIBERATORE, Matteo DI BERNARDINO, Antonio IACOBONE, Stefano IANNI, Marco CASTELLANI e altri, Un anno dopo – Progetto Memory Hunters (Orizzonti Out of competition)
Armin LINKE, Francesco MATTUZZI, Future Archaeology (Orizzonti)
Monica MAGGIONI, Ward 54 (Controcampo Italiano Out of competition)
Mario MARTONE, Noi credevamo (Venezia 67)
Carlo MAZZACURATI, La Passione (Venezia 67)
Carlo MAZZACURATI, Sei Venezia (Out of competition)
Gianfranco PANNONE, Ma che storia (Controcampo Italiano)
Michele PLACIDO, Vallanzasca - Gli angeli del male (Out of competition)
Amos POE, La Commedia (Out of competition)
Paola RANDI, Into Paraiso (Controcampo Italiano)
Nadia RANOCCHI, David ZAMAGNI, All Inclusive 3D (Out of competition)
Gabriele SALVATORES, 1960 (Out of competition)
Antonello SARNO, La prima volta a Venezia (Out of competition)
Giancarlo Scarchilli, Vittorio racconta Gassman - Una vita da Mattatore (Out of competition)
Pasquale SCIMECA, Malavoglia (Orizzonti)
Gianfranco ROLANDI, Steve DELLA CASA, Flaiano: il meglio è passato (Controcampo Italiano Out of competition)
Elisabetta SGARBI, Se hai una montagna di neve, tienila all’ombra (Controcampo Italiano Out of competition)
Giovanna TAVIANI, Fughe e approdi (Controcampo Italiano Out of competition)
Giuseppe TORNATORE, L’ultimo Gattopardo: Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo (Out of competition)
Roberta TORRE, I baci mai dati (Controcampo Italiano)
John TURTURRO, Passione (Out of competition)

A month dedicated to Dante (Ravenna, 9/4/10-9/28/10)

2010-08-18T01:03:00.000-07:00

"September is the month when Ravenna displays the Dantesque side of its identity by means of various events of cultural entertainment, among them Dante 09 with meetings dedicated to the importance of having a maestro in our lives, the Dantesque September programme that reflects on the theme of time that flies, the international readings of The Divine Comedy in the World, and the ceremonies that commemorate the death of the Master Poet."

* Programme

i-Mibac - Top 40

2010-08-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

"Dossiers and maps for museums and monuments, videos and photograph galleries, music clips, restoration “morphs”, news about events, thematic itineraries, booking services and much more: culture and art direct to your smartphone with i-Mibac – Top 40, the new application by the Ministry for Cultural Activities and Heritage.

The software, the first of its kind created by a Ministry in Italy, can be downloaded free from July 1st on designated institutional websites, and at the AppStore. Initially it will work on Apple iPhone devices, iPod Touch and iPad, and later it will be available for other multimedia mobile phones as well. Also in the works is a version in English." [source]

'L'egemonia sottoculturale' by Massimiliano Panarari

2010-08-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

Massimiliano Panarari, L'egemonia sottoculturale: L'Italia da Gramsci al gossip, Torino: Einaudi, 2010

This book helps to understand what Italy is nowadays. After the end of the so-called cultural hegemony of the Left, Italians are now confronted with a sub-cultural hegemony where gossip, vulgarity, voyeurism, and "sex-politics" prevail. The author analyzes some well known [maybe only in italy!] people or "personage" such as Alfonso Signorini, Antonio Ricci, Maria De Filippi, Simona Ventura and Bruno Vespa, and their TV hit shows such as "Drive In", "Le Iene" [Hyenas], "Amici" [Friends], "Il Grande Fratello" [Big Brother], "L'isola dei famosi" [Celebrity Survivor], "Porta a porta" [Door to Door]. Quoting -among dozen of others- Michel Foucault, Jean-Francois Lyothard, Zigmunt Bauman, Guy Debord, Jean Braudillard, and of course Antonio Gramsci, this book is a deep reflection by a true intellectual, a category at this point despised in Italy.

Is Italy Too Italian?

2010-08-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

New York Times
July 31, 2010

Is Italy Too Italian?
By DAVID SEGAL
“THIS tradition is finita,” says Luciano Barbera, as he opens the door to an underground warehouse. Dozens of large wooden boxes are stacked to the ceiling, containing nearly 80 tons of colorful thread, wound in spools and idling like sunbathers at a beach, absorbing moisture in a cavernous room kept naturally cool and humid by a creek that burbles under the floor.

“I call it a spa for yarn,” explains Mr. Barbera, a lean and regal 72-year-old, who is dressed in a style that could be described as aristo-casual: white linen button-down shirt, brown herringbone pants and brown leather shoes. He is giving a quick tour of the Carlo Barbera mill, named for his 99-year-old father, and destined to be run by two or three of Luciano’s sons.

Mr. Barbera calls wool a living fiber, and he does not mean this metaphorically. After yarn is dyed here, it rests in the spa for as long as six months, recuperating until 20 percent of its weight is water. Then the material undergoes a 15-step process, which Mr. Barbera will not detail, other than to magisterially summarize it as “the nobilization of the fabric.”

Any shortcuts, he says, would harm the fabric’s “performance.”

Wait, performance?

“Yes, performance,” he says in an accent both purring and professorial. “If your suit is not performing well, it’s like being in a car where you can feel every little bump in the road. If a suit is performing well, it’s as though you drive right over the bumps and you feel nothing.”

And thus the paradox.

As insiders of the fashion world will confirm, the bolts of wool and cashmere produced at this mill can indeed be described as high performance, among the finest in the world, sold to dozens of luxury brands like Armani, Zegna and Ralph Lauren.

The financial performance of the mill that creates this fabric, on the other hand, is far from stellar.

Like much of the Italian economy, the Carlo Barbera factory is struggling and for reasons, according to academics, that say just about everything you need to know about what ails Italy.

Since the economic crisis began, this country has regularly turned up on the informal list of Nations That Worry Europe. While its finances are not as precarious as those of Greece, Portugal or Ireland, because it is far larger — the Italian economy is the seventh largest in the world — its troubles are more frightening. As a recent report by UniCredit, a European banking group, put it, Italy is “the swing factor” in the crisis, “the largest of the vulnerable countries, and most vulnerable of the large.”

Study the numbers and you will find symptoms of distress that look a lot like those of Greece. Public sector debt amounts to roughly 118 percent of the gross domestic product, nearly identical to Greece. And like Greece, Italy is trying to ease fears in the euro zone and elsewhere with an austerity package, one intended to cut the deficit in half, to 2.7 percent of G.D.P., by 2012.

But dig a little deeper and the similarities end. The Italians, unlike the Greeks, are born savers, and much of the Italian debt is owned by the Italians. That means that unlike Greece, which will be sending a sizable percentage of its G.D.P. to foreign creditors for a generation to come, Italy is basically in hock to its own citizens.

“I know that in the States, all Mediterranean countries get lumped together,” says Carlo Altomonte, an economist with Bocconi University in Milan. “But Italy’s problem isn’t that we have a lot of debt. It’s that we don’t grow.”

Like Italy, Mr. Barbera has debt woes — he owes his creditors roughly $5.8 million and says that if his country’s financial system offered the protections of Chapter 11-style bankruptcy, he would have sought it several years ago. But he could also solve his debt problem if more orders were coming in.

Instead, orders are drying up. The Barberas have long been small, niche players, the family that high-end designers turn to when assembling their most fabulous collections. And since 1971, Luciano Barbera has also sold clothing under his own name, made with his own fabric. Today the line is sold in stores like Barney’s and Neiman Marcus, handmade suits that sell for $4,000 and a line of upmarket women’s wear, some of which you can see on Angelina Jolie in the recent film “Salt.”

But sales for Luciano Barbera clothing and Carlo Barbera fabric have drastically slowed in recent years. In the late ’90s, the mill enjoyed record annual sales of what amounts to about $15.5 million, Mr. Barbera says. Last year, the figure was half that sum.

WHEN describing the ills of his businesses, Mr. Barbera tends to focus on one issue: the “Made in Italy” label. For the last decade, he says, a growing number of clothing designers have been buying cheaper fabric in China, Bulgaria and elsewhere and slapping “Made in Italy” on garments, even if those garments are merely sewn here.

Until recently, there weren’t any rules about what “Made in Italy” actually meant, but that will change when a new law goes into effect in October. It states that if at least two stages of production — there are four stages altogether — occur in Italy, a garment is made in Italy.

To Mr. Barbera, this is an outrage, though somehow the word “outrage” doesn’t quite capture the depth of his feelings. He says the law will wreck the national brand, which has long been built on the skill of its craftspeople.

In op-ed articles and an assortment of meetings, he has crusaded against the law, clashing with a nemesis with a familiar last name: Santo Versace, the chairman of the Versace house of fashion. Mr. Versace is also a member of Italy’s Parliament and a co-sponsor of what is officially called the Reguzzoni-Versace Law.

“It’s a truffa,” says Mr. Barbera one recent afternoon, using the Italian word for scam. “And I am fighting with all my strength to make people understand that this country is destroying itself in order to advance the interests of just a few people who are unfortunately members of the most powerful caste of this country.”

But labeling is just one of many obstacles standing between Mr. Barbera and profitability. To understand why his factory, and so much of Italy, is stagnant or worse, requires a bit of geopolitical history and a look at the highly idiosyncratic business culture here. It is defined, to a large degree, by deep-seated mistrust — not just of the government, but of anyone who isn’t part of the immediate family — as well as a widespread aversion to risk and to growth that to American eyes looks almost quaint.

It has economists here worried not about a looming fiasco so much as a gradual, grinding decline.

“There is no sense of what a market economy is in this country,” says Professor Altomonte. “What you see here is an incredible fear of competition.”

THE Carlo Barbera factory is a series of glass and brick buildings beside a stream about 55 miles west of Milan. Luciano Barbera grew up here, learning the craft from his father, before heading to the University of Leeds in England.

He brought home know-how in textile engineering as well as admiration for British finery, to which he added a flair for color and pattern and which he has turned into a personal trademark. A fashion director at Neiman Marcus once called Mr. Barbera “the most elegant man in the world.” It is not uncommon for strangers to introduce themselves and ask, “How can I look like you?”

“I don’t want to generate people who all look the same,” he says, sitting in his office one recent afternoon. “I am a soloist. You can be a soloist and play in an orchestra.”

His career as a designer began, he says, almost by accident. In 1962, a photographer from Vogue snapped a photo of him in a suit made of fabric he had designed. (In the image, he is leaning against a fence, a cigar in hand, gazing at his horse, Edwan.) Several years later, a man named Murray Pearlstein, who owned LouisBoston, a menswear store, knocked at the Carlo Barbera factory, introduced himself to Luciano and told him that he wanted to sell his line of clothing to the American market.

“I said: ‘Mr. Pearlstein, I have no collection. I have only my own suits.’ He said: ‘You have talent. You should design your own collection.’ ”

At roughly 41 euros a meter ($48.75 a yard), the average price of the fabric that the Carlo Barbera factory produces today is almost double that of competitors in Biella, a town in the foothills of the Alps that has been renowned for centuries as a textiles hub. The problem is that fewer designers have been willing to pay this premium, and factories in other countries have been copying the Barberas’ methods, with results that may not be as good but that cost a small fraction of the price.

There’s a demand-side problem, too: the number of men buying bespoke suits has plunged in recent years, as the workplace becomes more casual. LouisBoston doesn’t carry Luciano Barbera any longer.

“At a certain point, he could have gone to China and opened factories there,” says Mr. Pearlstein, who is now retired. “But mentally, I don’t think there was any way he could do that because he has always been so committed to his hands-on methods.”

Mr. Barbera says he has no qualms about globalization. In his opinion, Italy can’t compete when it comes to low-skill labor and shouldn’t try.

“But I say that Italy, with its 20 million workers, can be the boutique of the world,” he says. That will never happen, he adds, if designers can buy fabric outside Italy and tag it “Made in Italy.”

While his vehemence on this subject is easy to understand, economists here say that Mr. Barbera’s small empire would be teetering even if he could rewrite the “Made in Italy” law tomorrow.

In a list of what is crushing Mr. Barbera’s balance sheet, they say, the provenance of labels is not at the top.

FIVE years ago, Francesco Giavazzi needed a taxi. Cabs are relatively scarce in Milan, especially at 5 a.m., when he wanted to head to the airport, so he called a company at 4:30 to schedule a pickup. But when he climbed into the cab half an hour later, he discovered that the meter had been running for more than 20 minutes, because the taxi driver had arrived soon after the call and started charging for his time. Allowed by the rules, but to Mr. Giavazzi, utterly unfair.

“So it was 20 euros before we started the trip to the airport,” recalls Mr. Giavazzi, who is an economics professor at Bocconi University. “I said, ‘This is impossible.’ ”

Professor Giavazzi later wrote an op-ed article denouncing this episode as another example of the toll exacted by Italy’s innumerable guilds, known by several names here, including “associazioni di categoria.” (These are different from unions, another force here, in that guilds are made up of independent players in a trade or profession who have joined to keep outsiders out and maintain standards, as opposed to representing employees in negotiations with management, as a union might.) Even baby sitters have associations in Italy.

The op-ed did not endear Professor Giavazzi to the city’s cab drivers. They pinned leaflets with his name and address at taxi stands around Milan and for the next five nights, cabs drove around his home, honking their horns.

“This is a country with a lot of rents,” says Professor Giavazzi, sitting in his office one recent afternoon, using the economists’ term for excess profits that flow to a business because of a lack of competition. “You need a notary public, it’s like 1,000 euros before you even open your mouth. If you’re a notary public in this country, you live like a king.”

For Mr. Barbera, as is true with every entrepreneur here, the prevalence and power of Italy’s guilds explains much of what is driving up costs. He says he must overspend for accountants, lawyers, truckers and other members of guilds on a list that goes on and on: “Everything has a tariff, and you have to pay.”

THE protectionist impulses of the guilds are mimicked throughout the Italian labor market. The rules are different for small companies, but in effect, people with a full-time job in a company with more than 18 workers have what amounts to tenure, even if they don’t belong to a union. This makes managers reluctant to hire, especially in a downturn. You are stuck with new employees in perpetuity, whether they’re good or not.

A sclerotic job market is a major reason that the Italian economy has been all but dormant for the past decade, growing far more slowly than its European peers. And this is a country that never had a housing bust or a major bank crisis.

So how does Italy keep going? Given the numbers, you expect it to be flat on its back. But when you visit, there are hardly any signs of despair, even in Biella, where hundreds of factories and warehouses have closed in the last decade. Why?

One answer is the black economy, say economists. Roughly one-quarter of Italy’s G.D.P. is off the books. When you inquire about the cause and persistence of this longstanding fact of life, people here say that most Italians have little sense of national identity, an obstacle to a system of national taxation. The country didn’t really begin to transcend its clannish roots and regional dialects until after World War II; even today, displays of national pride are reserved for World Cup victories and little else.

Italians, notes Professor Altomonte, are among the world’s heaviest consumers of bottled water. “Do you know why? Because the water in the tap comes from the government.”

The suspicion of Italians when it comes to extra-familial institutions explains why many here care more about protecting what they have than enhancing their wealth. Most Italians live less than a mile or two from their parents and stay there, often for financial benefits like cash and in-kind services like day care. It’s an insularity that runs all the way up to the corporate suites. The first goal of many entrepreneurs here isn’t growth, so much as keeping the business in the family. For a company to really expand, it needs capital, but that means giving up at least some control. So thousands of companies here remain stubbornly small — all of which means Italy is a haven for artisans but is in a lousy position to play the global domination game.

“The prevailing management style in this country is built around loyalty, not performance,” says Tito Boeri, scientific director at Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti, who has written about Italy’s dynastic capitalism.

In the eternal contest between the meticulously honed and the nationally franchised, Italy knows where it stands. As a matter of profit and loss, it doesn’t make sense to store wool in a spa and let it convalesce for six months, but the methods of Luciano Barbera were never destined for a get-rich-quick guide to manufacturing. His business will make sense only to customers, and for them, quality has a logic of its own.

And of course, the worship of growth has its limitations. The American economy is vastly more robust, but instead of family-owned bakeries, which seem to dot every hectare of Italy, we’ve got Quiznos. And for all the efficiency and horsepower in Germany, no character in a movie has ever welled up and sighed, “We’ll always have Stuttgart.”

Despite his cash flow woes, Mr. Barbera is sticking to his plan, even the plan to hand his business to his sons, which according to a national maxim is likely to end in tears.

“We say in this country that the first generation builds, the second generation maintains and the third generation destroys,” Mr. Barbera says. “But my father and I worked together, so I think we were the first generation. My sons are the second generation. So at least they will maintain.”

MR. Barbera can discuss all the quirks and pathologies of the Italian economy, but there is rarely more than five minutes between his monologues about “Made in Italy.” He is reluctant to name the fashion houses he thinks are snookering consumers, in part because they are his customers, and in part because they are acting legally.

“I’m criticizing the law,” he says. “I am not criticizing the people who buy my fabric.”

One name he is happy to mention is Santo Versace, whose purchases — his brand buys a “very small” amount of fabric, says Mr. Barbera — are eclipsed by his role in pushing the new law.

In a phone interview, Mr. Versace noted that there was no “Made in Italy” rule before the law he co-wrote, which means his rule is a huge improvement on the free-for-all that had existed. Yes, his company makes less expensive products, like jeans, in countries like Croatia and Turkey, but he said every luxury brand does the same.

“Never our top stuff,” he said, through an interpreter. “All of that is made in Italy.”

He sounded skeptical about one of Mr. Barbera’s ideas: a label that simply lays out the origins of a garment, stating where its fabric was made, where it was constructed, and so on.

“You can’t make a label too complicated,” said Mr. Versace. “You need a simplified label. Otherwise you can’t sell things.”

For now, Mr. Barbera is hoping that the European Commission will overturn the law, which it can do. Meanwhile, garments in the collection that bears his name are labeled “Entirely manufactured in Italy.”

Economists said that Mr. Barbera had a point, but they also said that worrying about this issue was like fretting about the head cold of a patient with Stage 3 cancer. They see a country with a service sector dominated by guilds, which don’t just overcharge but also raise the barriers to entry for the millions in ill-fated manufacturing jobs who might otherwise find work as, for instance, taxi drivers. They see a timid entrepreneur class. They see a political system in the thrall of the older voters who want to keep what they have, even if it dooms the nation to years of stasis.

They see a society whose best and brightest are leaving and not being replaced by immigrants, because Italy has so little upward mobility to offer.

To Professor Giavazzi, the future here doesn’t look like Greece. It looks like Argentina.

“Before World War II, Argentina was rich,” he says. “Even in 1960, the country was twice as rich as Italy.” Today, he says, you can compare the per capita income of Argentina to that of Romania. “Because it didn’t grow. A country could get rich in 1900 just by producing corn and meat, but that is not true today. But it took them 100 years to realize they were becoming poor. And that is what worries me about Italy. We’re not going to starve next week. We are just going to decline, slowly, slowly, and I’m not sure what will turn that around.”

Mr. Barbera is optimistic. He is working with a bank to allow him to pay off creditors. After lengthy negotiations with the government and workers’ representatives, he has reduced his payroll to 90 employees from 120.

Best of all, he says he thinks he has found a large group of new customers in an improbable place: China, where he has been talking to a number of distributors. Given that he has been undersold by the Chinese for years, it would be a surprising twist if Chinese consumers became fans of Mr. Barbera’s fabric and his painstaking methods.

“Water from the creek,” he says, as we leave the yarn spa. “Listen. It is the sound of music.”

The sentiment seems so sincere and romantic that it sounds as if he could be kidding. But when the line elicits a laugh, Mr. Barbera’s gentle rebuke makes it plain that he is not.

“You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”

Line-up of the 67th Venice Film Festival Announced

2010-08-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

* website

Festivaletteratura 2010 (Mantua, Sept. 8-10, 2010)

2010-07-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

* website

The Capitoline Museums Virtual Tour

2010-07-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

"la Repubblica" anticipates the Virtual Tour of Musei Capitolini with an article and link. Here some numbers: 71 observation points, 45 rooms, with explanatory photogalleries and videos, plus the interactive map to navigate.

The Leonardo Museum of Vinci re-opening

2010-07-27T02:49:00.000-07:00

"New rooms, new exhibits, new models. The renovated Museo Leonardiano in Vinci is reopening, housing one of the largest and most original collections of machines and models designed by Leonardo the inventor, the technologist and the engineer."

* article [Cultura Italia]

11th edition of the European Day Of Jewish Culture (9/5/10)

2010-07-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

2010 Theme : Art and Judaism

* Program

Sandow Birk: Dante’s Inferno (Salem, 10/10/10-12/23/10)

2010-07-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

Sandow Birk: Dante’s Inferno
Salem (Oregon), Willamette University, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Study Gallery
October 16-December 23, 2010

"Sandow Birk is a Los Angeles, California painter and printmaker who, since the early 2000s, has re-imagined Dante’s Divine Comedy. Organized by director John Olbrantz, the exhibition features 36 prints and 20 drawings from Dante’s Inferno that the artist sets in contemporary Los Angeles, with Dante as a Southern Californian led by a mullet-sporting Virgil."

Dante's Divine Comedy "is a five year project which involved adapting the text of the entire "Divine Comedy" into contemporary slang and setting the action in contemporary urban America. The project resulted in three, limited edition books, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Each book contained more than 60 original lithographs and was published by Trillium Press in San Francisco."

Dante Today: Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

2010-07-19T00:58:00.000-07:00

"This experimental website, inspired by students of Arielle Saiber’s “Dante’s Divine Comedy” course, has been built to archive occurrences of Dante and his works in popular and contemporary culture of the twentieth century and beyond. The site catalogs a wide range of Dante "sightings": from the cursory to the extensive, and from a place of superficial knowledge of Dante and his works to deep familiarity with them. We leave to the readers the opportunity to judge the nature of each citing, and note the frequency of certain themes over others. The goals are twofold: 1) to provide a central access point for said references; and 2) to offer data that students and scholars of Dante can use to think about the Nachleben (“afterlife”) of Dante’s works in relation to reception theory, resonance, and cultural studies."

A new Caravaggio may have been found

2010-07-18T00:18:00.000-07:00

* article by Lydia Salviucci Insolera [L'Osservatore Romano, Jul. 18]

Leonard-Romorantin: The Forgotten Project (Romorantin-Lanthenay, 6/9/10-1/30/11)

2010-07-17T00:37:00.000-07:00

Léonard de Vinci : Romorantin, le projet oublié
Romorantin-Lanthenay (France)
From June 9, 2010 through January 30, 2011

In 1516 François I commissioned the Renaissance Master, the illustrious Leonardo da Vinci, with the design of a grandiose palace and aristocratic district intended to accommodate the Court in Romorantin.

* article [Ansa.it]
* Carlo Pedretti, Leonardo da Vinci: The Royal Palace at Romorantin (1972)

Rigoletto in Mantua Worldwide Broadcasting

2010-07-17T00:05:00.000-07:00

Rigoletto will be broadcast live by RAI Uno on Sept. 4 at 8:30PM and Sept. 5 at 2:00PM and 11:15PM. Placido Domingo will be Rigoletto; Vittorio Grigolo will be the Duke; Olga Peretyatko will be Gilda; Zubin Mehta will conduct Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai; Vittorio Storaro will be the cinematographer; filmmaker Marco Bellocchio will direct.

* video [Corriere TV, Jul. 16]

Previous opera productions filmed using real locations were Traviata in Paris and Tosca in Rome. A Cenerentola in Turin is scheduled for 2011.

Baroque Wonders in The Marche (San Severino Marche, 7/24/10-12/12/10)

2010-07-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

Meraviglie del Barocco nelle Marche
San Severino Marche
July 24 - December 12, 2010

'Italy has awoken (a local catalogue)' by Stefano Massini

2010-07-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

Written by Stefano Massini for Bassanoperaestate 2009, L'Italia s'e' desta (catalogo no-strano) is scheduled this summer in a version with Daniele Bonaiuti, Luisa Cattaneo and Ciro Masella. [The title refers to the Italian national anthem; the adjective nostrano = local is a joke connecting no/not and strano/strange]

July 9 L’EMILIA E UNA NOTTE 2010 Rubiera (RE)
July 10 FESTIVAL IL GRANDE FIUME 2010 Polesine Parmense (PR)
July 19 CALENZANO ESTATE 2010 Calenzano (FI)
July 28 VOLTERRATEATRO 2010 Volterra (PI)
August 2 FESTIVAL ESTATE A RADICONDOLI 2010 Radicondoli (SI)

" For the 150° anniversary of Italy’s unification.
Attention: the stories told in this show are completely real, being extracted from everyday chronicle in the newspapers. Every reference to event and people is absolutely wanted. Not fit for people without critical spirit. Chinese immigrants crammed in Milan’s sewer. Un-intelligent rockets bombing mountains. Bunkers fit to repel any invasion found in the Nord-East villas. Hyper- technological slaughterhouses in the Emilia Romagna so famous for ham. A cloaked superhero which flies in a Neapolitan Gotham city. This collection represents a small catalogue and an investigation in the contemporary geography of our beautiful country. It’s a strange, irreverent and cruel travel across the “peninsula’s inferi”. Our “boot” being watched through the x-ray. Up to you to draw out your conclusions! "

* video [Il Tamburo di Kattrin]

New Italian Landscape (Suvereto, 7/11/10-10/30/10)

2010-07-11T02:42:00.000-07:00

A photographic exhibition with pictures sent by Italian citizens to Oliviero Toscani and Salvatore Settis.

Today, a dossier by Valentina Corti [la Repubblica] informs about imminent banditry and speculations that will soon destroy Italian landscape.

* slideshow [la Repubblica]
* Nuovo Paesaggio Italiano on Facebook

1861 (Rome, 10/10-1/11)

2010-07-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

Scuderie del Quirinale - upcoming exhibition
October 2010 - January 2011

"To tie in with the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Unity of Italy, the Scuderie del Quirinale is to host a major exhibition designed to show how Italian painters depicted the events that led our country to the achievement of independence and national unity between 1859 and 1861.
The exhibition, comprising work by the leading artists of the day (including Francesco Hayez, Giuseppe Molteni, Domenico and Gerolamo Induno, Eleuterio Pagliano, Federico Faruffini, Giovanni Fattori, Silvestro Lega, Odoardo Borrani, Michele Cammarano and Giuseppe Sciuti), will endeavor to show how their interpretation of events tended to afford priority to the heartfelt grassroots support that the movement enjoyed while shunning a more obvious, celebratory rhetoric. For the very first time, the monumental pictures of Giovanni Fattori and Gerolamo Induno will be set alongside one another to highlight an identity of purpose that was achieved through the use of differing artistic vocabularies. Their aim was to depict the crucial battles in the conquest of our country's unity while shifting the viewer's attention from the military aspect to their ideal and human content.
One of the works on display will be the celebrated Battle of the Cernaia by Gerolamo Induno, who fought both in the Crimean War and in the famous battle which he then immortalized on canvas in a painting that was to become a model for subsequent works. Giovanni Fattori, who was one of the best known artists of the era, failed to take part in the Second War of Independence himself yet he proved capable of portraying the Risorgimento's epic nature better than any other painter, reaching heights worthy of the finest passages in Tolstoy's War and Peace. The paintings of Eleuterio Pagliano, Federico Faruffini and Michele Cammarano, on the other hand, evince the kind of shocking, revolutionary realism that was to inspire the film work of such movie directors as Blasetti and Visconti, who devoted some of their best work to the Risorgimento period.
The exhibition tells the story of one of the most important periods in our national history, the revolutionary events of 1848 -- a necessary premise for understanding what was to take place between 1859 and 1861, the legendary "Five Days of Milan" and "Rome Wounded to the Heart". It highlights both the grassroots participation and the epic undertaking as seen through the eyes of Hayez, Molteni and Induno, while focusing at the same time on the popular adventure of the Mille, the legend of the Red Shirts and the figure of Garibaldi as interpreted by Fattori, Gerolamo Induno, Filippo Liardo and Umberto Coromaldi.
The exhibition ends with the dashed hopes of Villafranca and of Aspromonte, two dramatic moments captured in masterpieces by Domenico and Gerolamo Induno and personified by Fattori's tragic painting Lo Staffato [The Fallen Rider], the iconic symbol of the thoughts and concerns that beset those years. Indeed many now hold the picture up as the most authentic and anti-rhetorical monument to those who fell in the wars of the Risorgimento."

Raphael: Cartoons and Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel (London, 9/8/10-10/17/10)

2010-07-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

Raphael: Cartoons and Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel
Victoria & Albert Museum
September 8 - October 17, 2010

"Four of Raphael's tapestries for the Sistine Chapel will be shown for the first time alongside the full-size designs for them - the Raphael Cartoons, which have been on display at the V&A since 1865. Made almost 500 years ago, these are the only surviving tapestries designed by Raphael, and are comparable to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling as masterpieces of High Renaissance art. The exhibition will coincide with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the V&A and the Vatican Museums and is generously supported by Michael and Dorothy Hintze and The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation, with further support from the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums."

Ghirlandaio and Renaissance Florence (Madrid, 6/23/10-10/10/10)

2010-07-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

Ghirlandaio and Renaissance Florence
Museo Tyssen-Bornemisza
From June 23 to October 10, 2010

"The exhibition offer the visitor a unique survey of Quattrocento Florentine art whose starting-point is one of the great paintings in the Museum’s collection, the Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni. Within this context the exhibition analyse portraiture in Florence through works by Botticelli and Pollaiuolo as well as Ghirlandaio himself and will focus on masterpieces associated with the marriage between Giovanna degli Albizzi and Lorenzo Tornabuoni. Finally, it include an important section on religious art made for private devotional purposes, bringing together not just panel paintings but also sculptures, manuscripts and other objects of the highest artistic quality."