documentary > Mario Verdone: il critico viaggiatore @ NYU DC

The Italian Cultural Institute of Washington and New York University DC, in collaboration with the European-American Cultural Foundation, present the screening of the documentary “Mario Verdone: il critico viaggiatore” directed by Luca Verdone.

In the family home in Cantalupo, the Verdone siblings—Carlo, Luca, and Silvia—together with her husband, Christian De Sica, gather to sort through the archive. Among paintings, photographs, and books, they begin to reminisce. As the narrative builds emotionally and intellectually, a portrait emerges of a beloved man and a multifaceted scholar, an expert on the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, particularly Futurism.

Through a dialogic narrative, the full arc of Mario Verdone’s life is retraced: his childhood and adolescence in Siena; his passion for the circus; the Venice Biennale, where he served as a selector; Rome and his work at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Finally, there is his connection to that ancestral place in the Sabina region, which becomes a repository of memories—from Christian De Sica’s declaration of love to his future wife Silvia, to Carlo’s close encounter with a female elephant.

What emerges is both the rediscovery of a key figure in film criticism and a portrait of an era that brought Italy international fame through its cinema.

Italy 2024, 67 minutes
Language: Italian, with English subtitles

 

LOCATION
NYU DC – Brademas Center
1307 L Street NW, DC 20005