LEONORA ADDIO
O.V. in Italian, English and German subtitled in English and Spanish
Four years after Vittorio's death, Paolo Taviani presents his first solo film, winner of the Fipresci Award at the Berlin Film Festival and dedicated to his brother. The co-director of Padre Padrone pays tribute to Luigi Pirandello by following the vicissitudes of the playwright's remains from his death in Rome in 1936 to his final burial in his native Sicily fifteen years later. An inventive approach brimming with absurdist drama, neorealist poetics and commedia all'italiana, the film morphs as it goes along, from the initial archival footage to the clips of neorealist titles that illuminate the journey until it reaches the final dramatization where another captivating soundtrack by Nicola Piovani (Life is Beautiful) shines through. A cinematic "sic transit gloria mundi" about life as a journey to accompany the memory of the dead.
Direction: Paolo Taviani
Script: Paolo Taviani
Cinematography: Paolo Carnera, Simone Zampagni
Editing: Roberto Perpignani
Music: Nicola Piovani
Cast: Fabrizio Ferracane, Martina Catalfamo, Nathalie Rapti Gomez, Roberto Herlitzka
Production: Donatella Palermo
Production company: Stemal Entertainment, Cinemaundici, RAI Cinema
Distributor: 01 Distribution
World Sales: Fandango
Paolo Tavioni (Italy, 1931), one of the strongest, longest-lived and continuously regenerating voices in Italian cinema, now works alone after sharing a whole filmography of artistic direction with his brother Vittorio, who passed away in 2018. Having been influenced by Rosellini, they debuted in 1962 with A Man For Burning and, since the success in 1977 with the beautiful and blunt Father and Master (Palme d’Or at Cannes), they have made title after title, such as The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982), Fiorile (1993), Elective Affinities (1996) or Caesar Must Die (2012), Golden Bear winner in Berlin. Tavioni came to the SEFF and presented his last joint film, Rainbow: A Private Affair (2017), and we welcome him back this year with Leonora addio, which premiered at the Berlinale.
