17TH ITALIAN LANGUAGE WEEK IN THE WORLD
Under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic
Since its beginnings, cinema has sought inspiration and legitimation in literature. Italian literature, in particular, has given cinema precious ideas, themes and stories. But cinema, in turn, has repaid its debt by disseminating the knowledge of canonical literary masterpieces amongst a wider popular audience. Thus, it is possible to outline a cinematic history of Italian literature. We are going to explore this history through great movies based on great literary classics: from Dante’s Divine Comedy to Boccaccio’s Decameron, from Collodi’s Pinocchio to Verga’s I Malavoglia; we are going to see how such books have been reread and renewed by filmmakers such as Woody Allen, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, Steven Spielberg and others.
LOCATION
Embassy of Italy
3000 Whitehaven Street NW
Washington, DC 20008
Edoardo Ripari (University of Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum) is author of many papers about Italian literary culture from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. He has edited the works of Torquato Accetto, Virgilio Malvezzi, Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Alessandro Manzoni and Giosuè Carducci. Among his books are L’accetta e il fuoco. Cultura storiografica, politica e poesia in Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (Roma, Bulzoni, 2010), Storia cinematografica della letteratura italiana (Roma, Carocci, 2015), and L’onesta operosità. Vita di Tommaso Casini (Bologna, Pendragon, 2016).