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Author: Giancarlo Mancini (edited by)
Year: 2024
Pages: 147
Publisher: Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia; Sabinae
ISBN: 9791280023759
Description
Borrowing from a previous number of the magazine, published over half a century ago (11-12, November-December 1973) and curated by Maurizio Grande, this issue of «Bianco e Nero» aims at providing an overview of Carmelo Bene’s career that extends beyond cinema, theatre and any other of his fields of interest. This issue’s essays, curated by Giancarlo Mancini, address only briefly his contribution to film-making and almost totally bypass Bene’s work in theatre, while focusing instead on the television author and, more importantly, on his public persona, whose TV appearances can still surprise and astonish a modern viewer, whether he was addressing the audience on the Maurizio Costanzo Show or talking about football on Il processo del lunedì. In order to properly understand Bene, it is necessary to consider his whole persona, including both the ‘provocateur’ that transpires from his TV appearances and the refined artist who relied more on absence than presence: the director behind Nostra Signora dei Turchi as well as the man who would give up Gassman just to see Marco Van Basten (who is not an obscure Belgian director but a wonderful and unlucky Dutch centre forward) in action again. This analysis can only culminate with a look at Carmelo Bene’s presence on social media today. On Facebook, he gets as many ‘likes’ as Taylor Swift. Many users share content about him, tag him, turn him into gifs and memes: if we do some quick math, they are mostly people who probably have never seen him on stage and may never have watched one of his films. On the net, Bene is more alive and present than ever. This issue is dedicated to Adriano Aprà, who passed away on 15 April 2024. Adriano was a long-time associate of the Centro Sperimentale (he was curator of the Cineteca Nazionale from 1998 to 2002) and was a friend and admirer of Carmelo Bene. We believe he would have shared our idea of Bene as a ‘total’, multimedia artist and – long before films and shows – a creator of a work of art that matched him as a person.
Author notes:
Giancarlo Mancini, nato nel 1977, è un giornalista e critico cinematografico italiano che, da anni, opera con successo tra il mondo della televisione e della radio. È noto per i suoi interventi in programmi culturali e di approfondimento come Fahrenheit (Rai Radio 3), Il tempo e la storia (Rai Storia), Hollywood Party (Rai Radio 3) e Wikiradio (Rai Radio 3). Ha collaborato con importanti testate giornalistiche italiane, tra cui Il Riformista, Corriere della Sera e Il Manifesto. Mancini ha scritto diversi libri e saggi sul cinema, tra questi: Colpi roventi. I film di Longanesi, Malaparte, Montanelli e Guareschi (Bompiani, 2017), un'analisi sui film realizzati da importanti figure del panorama intellettuale italiano. Ha inoltre dedicato testi a registi di fama internazionale, come Michael Cimino (Le mani, 2007) e Steven Soderbergh (Le Mani, 2014).
