Canadian Premiere
Veteran filmmaker Paolo Taviani, whose accolades include both a Grand Jury Prize and Palme d’Or from Cannes, returns with his surrealistic exploration of the legacy of one of Italy’s most celebrated writers, Luigi Pirandello. Rather than a biopic, Leonora Addio explores Pirandello after death in his immaterial form as a collection of ashes in a Greek vase, and its delicate transportation from Rome to Sicily. This takes place after the defeat of Italy’s fascist government, with which Pirandello had a conflicting relationship. With stark black-and-white cinematography that portrays a post-war Italy with frank verisimilitude, the film calmly depicts various aspects of Italian culture and institutions, such as the church, superstition, the working class, and loyalty to one’s hometown.
The last act of the film sees an adaptation of one of Pirandello’s short stories, featuring scenes of brutality and coming face-to-face with senseless violence. The two stories fit together as a fantastical consideration of an artist, both through his life (or rather, his remains), work, and complex influence on a nation’s literature.
FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin 2022
Presented by
Fabrizio Ferracane, Matteo Pittiruti, Dania Marino, Dora Becker, Claudio Bigagli
Italy/France
2022
In Italian with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Giant
This was the Yellowstone of its time: a big, sweeping modern Western built around an imposing ranch and family dynamics -- except Giant is much more subversive. James Dean strikes it rich as Jett Rink, much to the disgust of his former boss, Rock Hudson.
Familiar Touch
A loving portrait of an octogenarian transitioning into an assisted living facility, this award-winning first feature by choreographer Sarah Friedland has a simplicity and warmth that's exceptionally poignant.
Super Happy Forever
This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.
A Streetcar Named Desire
"I don't want realism. I want magic!" declares Blanche du Bois, the tragic heroine who meets her nemesis in her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, in Tennessee Williams' great play. Brando's performance as Stanley is a turning point in American acting.
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
Drawing on her copious correspondence and the world's leading scholars, this is a definitive documentary on the life and work of "the mother of American Modernism."
Credits
Producer
Donatella Palermo
Screenwriter
Paolo Taviani
Cinematography
Paolo Carnera, Simone Zampagni
Editor
Roberto Perpignani
Original Music
Nicola Piovani
Director
Photo by Gerald Bruneau
Paolo Taviani
Paolo Taviani co-directed films with his brother Vittorio from the early 1960s. They dedicated themselves to evoking the past and to adapting literary works to film in the second phase of their career. Their film Caesar Must Die (2012) won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the David di Donatello award for Best Film and Best Director from the Accademia del Cinema Italiano. With this work, Paolo, at 86 years of age, filmed for the first time on his own for his highly personal farewell to Vittorio and to the moviemaking they did together.
Filmography: Good Morning Babylon (1987); You Laugh (1998); Caesar Must Die (2012); Rainbow: A Private Affair (2017)