Celluloid for Cinema Lessons

For Cinema Lessons “The story, the stories”, Sunday November 5th, at 5:00pm, at the Centro Artistico il Grattacielo, Via del Platano 6, the film “CELLULOID” by Carlo Lizzani (Italy, 1995, duration 114 min) will be screened. Introduce Paolo Cotza from the Centro Studi Commedia all’italiana.

Cinema Lessons, now in its seventh edition, is organized in synergy between 50&Più Università di Livorno, Centro Studi Commedia all’italiana, Erasmo Libri Editore, and Circolo del Cinema Kinoglaz, which have been promoting the culture of cinema in the local area for years.

Celluloid is a film from 1995 directed by Carlo Lizzani, based on the novel of the same name by Ugo Pirro. The film tells the fictionalized story of the genesis of the film “Rome Open City,” a masterpiece of neorealism, starting from the difficulties faced by its director Roberto Rossellini, his friend and screenwriter Sergio Amidei, and the entire crew before and during filming, and then moving on to the lukewarm reaction of the critics on the “premiere” night, until the success achieved through the providential intervention of an American soldier who brings a copy of the film to New York. The cast includes Giancarlo Giannini, Massimo Ghini, Anna Falchi, Lina Sastri, Christopher Walken, and Andrea Aureli. Among the awards: in 1996, David di Donatello for Best Actor to Giancarlo Giannini, Best Screenplay to Furio Scarpelli, Ugo Pirro, and Carlo Lizzani, Best Original Score to Manuel De Sica; Globo d’Oro for Best Screenplay to Furio Scarpelli, Ugo Pirro, and Carlo Lizzani.

Carlo Lizzani – Critic, screenwriter, and essayist (author, among other things, of a “History of Italian Cinema,” 1953, 1961, and 1979), he made his debut with the documentary “Something Has Changed in the South” (1950) and the film “Attention! Bandits!” (1951).

Among the films he directed, we should mention: “Chronicles of Poor Lovers” (1954), “The Verona Trial” (1963), “Bandits in Milan” (1968), “Crazy Joe” (1974), “Mussolini: The Last Act” (1974), “Stories of Life and Crime” (1975), “Fontamara” (1980), “The House with the Yellow Carpet” (1983), “Mamma Ebe” (1985), “Dear Gorbachev” (1988), “Bad” (1991), “Celluloid” (1995), and “Hotel Meina” (2007), as well as the TV series “Nucleo Zero” (1984), “An Island” (1986), and “The Trap” (1989). From 1979 to 1982, he directed the International Art Film Exhibition in Venice. In 1998, he published a collection of his writings of various genres, “Through the Twentieth Century,” which also includes anecdotes about the world of Italian neorealistic cinema, and in 2007, his autobiography “My Long Journey in the Short Century.”

Carlo Lizzani died on October 5th, 2013.

Paolo Cotza was born in Livorno, graduated in law in Pisa, and practices as a lawyer in a law firm in Cecina. He has always been passionate about cinema and for over ten years he has been a member of the Centro Studi Commedia all’italiana, where he is involved in organizing projects and research to enhance Italian comedy and spread film culture, curating exhibitions, with particular attention to students of all levels.

Coordination: Prof. Gianfranco Panariello (50&Più Università Livorno); Artistic direction: Prof. Massimo Ghirlanda (Centro Studi Commedia all’Italiana); Press Office: Maurizio Mini.

The cost of each individual lesson is € 7.00 full price; € 5.00 reduced (for members of 50&Più, Centro Studi Commedia all’Italiana, and Circolo Kinoglaz, young people up to 25 years old). The cost of the marathon lesson is € 7.00 for the afternoon session and € 5.00 for the evening session; cumulative for both sessions € 10.00.

Students participating in the series of meetings will receive a certification to take advantage of any school credit.