In collaboration with:
Michelangelo Antonioni Association
Experimental Center of Cinematography – National Film Archive
Fondo Michelangelo Antonioni – Gallerie d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Ferrara
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Created last year on the occasion of the Festival in Treviso, the collaboration with the Antonioni Association continues to pay a tribute to Michelangelo Antonioni, one of the fathers of modern cinema, a director that, as few others, has been able to explore the human soul, showing concerns of the contemporary world, without giving up on elegance and seduction.
From an idea of his niece Elisabetta Antonioni we have developed a path concerning the relationship of the director with Sicily and his gaze on it. The film showcase opens with L’Avventura, the masterpiece of the director from Ferrara, shot between the Aeolian Islands and Sicily, which represented a real revolution in style in comparison with the movies of his time. The classic narrative models, temporality, the human presence on the screen are undermined: the film progresses through a sort of expansion of time, geographical changes where the characters are immersed into the space. In this sense, the Sicilian landscape becomes itself the protagonist of a feeling and architecture becomes a movie set of an existentialism.
The next work is Ritorno a Lisca Bianca, a short film shot on Lisca Bianca island twenty-three years after filming L’Avventura. Thanks to rarefied atmosphere of the rock and the sound of the scene of the disappearance of Lea (taken from L’Avventura), landscape and the presence of the director become enchanting.
Then, two short films shot in Sicily during the last years of Antonioni’s life are presented: Noto, Mandorli, Vulcano, Stromboli, Carnevale and the spot Sicilia made for the Regione Sicilia in 1997. In addition to the “Sicilian” movies we’ve inserted two short documentaries, cornerstones of Antonioni cinematography and of the history of Italian cinema: Gente del Po, first his production, and Lo sguardo di Michelangelo, which is considered the spiritual and cinematographic testament of the director. Finally, the documentary Tutto bianco by Morena Campani, a journey to discover the places of Michelangelo Antonioni in Italy, from Emilia Romagna to Sicily.
During the week of the festival we present also a small exhibition of stills taken, in various locations of Sicily, while filming L’Avventura and the short film Noto, Mandorli, Vulcano, Stromboli, Carnevale. These are unpublished photographs, by unknown authors, selected by the fund Antonioni left to the city of Ferrara: the director with his muse Monica Vitti, the roofs of the city of Noto, some stills taken in the Aeolian Islands, in Eastern Sicily and in some villas of Palermo.
We conclude our tribute with Gianni Massironi lecture on his film “Dear Antonioni…”, directed in 1997 on the occasion the eightieth birthday of the director, and with a roundtable entitled Antonioni and Sicily: a constant attention. Our guests – Alessandro Rais, the director of Sicily Film Commission of the Regione Sicilia, Morena Campani (director), Umberto De Paola (Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo), Giovanni Massa (director), Gianni Massironi (producer and director), Renato Tomasino (University of Palermo) – will discuss on the personality of Michelangelo Antonioni and his relationship with Sicily.
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PROGRAMME
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TRIBUTE TO MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI
Mostra Fotografica | Photographic Exhibition
Opening 6 luglio | July, h.19.00, Chiostro Sant’Anna
ANTONIONI E LA SICILIA: UN’ATTENZIONE COSTANTE
Tavola rotonda | Round Table
9 luglio | July, h. 17.30, Sala Conferenze | Conference hall
Alessandro Rais, Umberto De Paola, Morena Campani, Giovanni Massa, Gianni Massironi, Renato Tomasino
A seguire | Followed by
Gente del Po, Michelangelo Antonioni
Italia | Italy 1943-1947 – 9’ – Italiano | Italian
Ritorno a Lisca Bianca, Michelangelo Antonioni
Italia | Italy 1983 – 9’ – Italiano | Italian
Noto, Mandorli, Vulcano, Stromboli, Carnevale – Michelangelo Antonioni
Italia | Italy 1992 – 8’ – Italiano | Italian
Sicilia, Michelangelo Antonioni
Italia | Italy 1997 – 9’ – Italiano | Italian
Lo sguardo di Michelangelo, Michelangelo Antonioni
Italia / Italy, 2004, 15′, italiano / Italian
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10 luglio| July, h. 18.00, Sala Conferenze | Conference hall
Morena Campani, Giovanni Massa, Gianni Massironi
A seguire | Followed by
Tutto bianco, Morena Campani
Italia, Francia | Italy, France, 2015, 50’, v.o. sottotiloli italiano | o.v. Italian subtitles
Introduce l’Autrice | Introduction by the Authoress
The documentary is intended as a journey to discover the places of Michelangelo Antonioni, the shooting locations of his films, the emotional places, the places of the soul. Places where emptiness and silence powerfully dominate, where the visible and invisible blend in a gaze. One of the interpreters of the last film, Fanny Ardant, will take us to discover the perspectives between life and cinema, in a continuous parallel that will let half-view the depth of being a woman according to Antonioni.
