Year: 2024

Pages: 191

Publisher: Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia; Sabinae

ISBN: 9791280023834

Description

This issue of “Bianco e Nero” wraps up a journey that began more than one year ago, which focused on shining a spotlight on two actresses and two actors: Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, Carmelo Bene and Gian Maria Volonté – a quartet who shares a common thread: all of them are professionals who are so much more than simple actresses and simple actors. And as such we have portrayed and celebrated them. With Anna Magnani, we identified a crucial player in the emancipation of Italian women, in their transition – during the postwar period – from the dominion of fascism and patriarchy to modernity and self-determination. Sophia Loren’s filmography has allowed us to explore how a diva and an unmatched mass media phenomenon in the history of world cinema is born. Carmelo Bene is an all-round artist, and his popularity in the age of Internet and social media is a testament to his modernity. Finally, through his artistic and political choices, Gian Maria Volonté molded himself into an author, while guiding the choices for his own filmography: his films tell the story of Italy.

Volonté passed away thirty years ago, on December 6th, 1994. We came up with the idea for this issue because we wanted to work on a companion piece to the documentary Volonté – L’uomo dai mille volti, directed by Francesco Zippel, which premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. We shared some of the interviews that appear in the volume with Zippel, who was working on Volonté especially for the anniversary. Others were conducted specifically for the issue, along with essays that explore the actor’s entire career and two touching memoirs, mixing critique and personal anecdotes, by Felice Laudadio and Fabio Ferzetti.