Last appointment with “Lezioni di Cinema”

Last appointment, Sunday, January 19th, with Cinema Lessons , eighth edition titled REALITY, VISIONS, AND INTERPRETATIONS , organized in synergy between 50&Plus Livorno, Centro Studi Commedia all’italiana, Erasmo Libri Editore and Circolo del Cinema Kinoglaz, which for years have been promoting the culture of Cinema in the local area. The Lessons are under the patronage of the Province of Livorno, the Municipality of Livorno and ConfCommercio Livorno.

At the Centro Artistico il Grattacielo , at 5.30 pm , the film WITTGENSTEIN by Derek Jarman (GB, 1993, 75′) will be screened. Introduction by Lamberto Giannini.

Ludwig Wittgenstein is still a young boy when he begins to tell about himself and his family and then moves on to his studies and all the personalities who have known him and appreciated him starting with Bertrand Russell and Maynard Keynes. The film follows him in his complex philosophical and existential journey.

A film light years away from the biopics we know but that, at the same time, doesn’t tell us much about the philosopher but rather about the way Jarman saw the world. Wittgenstein, as is known, devoted particular attention, among the various disciplines that interested him, to the philosophy of language and it is on this aspect that Jarman’s work focuses. With a budget of 300,000 pounds and 12 days of shooting, he creates a series of moving tableau vivant on a strictly black background that follow the stages of the life of the philosopher defined by his friend (up to a certain point) Bertrand Russell, the most important philosopher of the 20th century.

The director in some way identifies with the character appreciating the complexity of his thinking and trying to present it without any pretense, neither to explain it nor to recount his life. He wants the viewer to grasp the multifaceted nature of Wittgenstein while constantly bringing us back to the roots of his existence. The young Wittgenstein acts as an interlude in the narrative almost as if to remind us that family imprinting leaves indelible marks.

The choice of the black background allows the colors of the clothes of those surrounding a protagonist thought of in muted colors to stand out more. Just as, more than muted, the figure of a great rebellious thinker like the aforementioned Russell appears as not very incisive and almost dandy.

Derek Jarman From a pronounced taste for outrage, linked to the explosive seasons of British punk and gay provocation, to an almost Olympian and composed poetic style, this is the path of a filmmaker abruptly stopped by A.I.D.S., among the most representative of the English scene. He started as a set designer for K. Russell in feature films like The Devils (1971) and Savage Messiah (1976), debuting in 1976 with Sebastiane (1976), a film entirely spoken in Latin. With Jubilee (1978) he gave the punk movement an ideological-musical-visual manifesto to recognize, but already in The Tempest (1982), he showed his connections and his passion for Shakespeare. Among some documentaries and an extraordinary and devastating “philosophical” accusation towards his country, The Last of England (1987), in Caravaggio (1986) he revealed what would be one of his most fertile artistic dimensions from then on, the biographies reconstructed and crossed by contemporary and inevitably alienating decontextualizations. Applying the same method in Wittgenstein (1993), dedicated to the great philosopher, resulted in an extraordinary film. However, his previous works such as The Garden (1990), Edward II (1991), and Blue (1993) should also be noted. In the same year of his death, 1994, he made Memorial Tribute, an extreme example of absolute and total dedication to the cinematic art, while in 1995 posthumously published Derek Jarman’s Garden.

Lamberto Giannini was born in Livorno in 1962. A pedagogue and teacher of history and philosophy at the Liceo Classico Niccolini Palli in Livorno, he is also a screenwriter and director of the theatrical company Mayor Von Frinzius. He has published with Edizioni Erasmo: Genitori in ascolto (2010), Mettiti il giacchetto (2012), La sfida educativa (2013), Adolescenza. Età delle esplosioni (2017), Attimi di Champions (2019). With Edizioni del Boccale: In Fondo a destra (2014), Quel qualcosa che non trovo (2016), La Smania (2020).