Luigi Di Gianni believes in the power of cinema. It is this spirit, tragic and rogue, that has always possessed him. And that makes his films an experience difficult to forget in any hurry. It is an insinuating spirit, which ends up delighting and even tormenting the spectator, at first alien to her. It has multiform and unpredictable tentacles, which evade the safety of easy classification. Every time one tries to venture a definition, one has the suspicion of falling into reductionism, as if something is always missing.
Starting with an inevitable question, however tedious it may seem: can we be content to speak, in his case, about documentary cinema? If asked, Di Gianni would certainly answer with a peremptory no, and for good reason. His is a decidedly authorial cinema. It is crossed by cultural and intellectual tensions that embrace literature, music, philosophy and great cinema. It is sustained by a sometimes unsatisfied desire to control rhythms, atmospheres, sounds, lights, movements… Above all, it is driven by the conviction that cinema is an expressive instrument that offers us a vision (turned black) of man and the world. And yet it is clear that few filmmakers have been able to document in such depth some of the most surprising, heartbreaking and disturbing aspects of our society, especially those rooted in the atavistic miseries of the South, as if tracing the deep folds of an Italian “anti-miracle.” Let’s take a guess. Di Gianni brings to light what elsewhere we tend to sweep under the carpet of rationality and respectability, but which, inexorably, is there underneath, applying pressure: his cinema is the documentation of social repression.
Let’s follow with the thread of apparent contradictions. Di Gianni is an apolitical director, he does not believe in progress (he prefers the infinite labyrinth), he tends to be on the side of history. But, at the same time, one senses in his films a cry of rebellion, a love for the last; in short, an ethical and civil tension that is often lacking in those directors whose primary aim is to change the world. Once again: the characters in his films seem inexorably shrouded in cloaks of tragedy, and yet we are surprised, at certain moments, by the mockery of an unexpectedly grotesque twist. Armed with civic presumption, we are tempted to be indignant at manifestations that seem to plunge into the abysses of ignorance and backwardness, but at the same time, it is difficult to find filmmakers who place themselves before the world they choose to represent with more respect, avoiding the temptation to judge. And do we want to call his cinema “ethnographic”? Of course, he is one of its undisputed masters. It’s a pity that he is the first to strongly deny it, claiming instead that his films are about something else.
It is not surprising that Di Gianni’s cinema is a magnificently isolated object, not only in Italy (this is unmistakably demonstrated by his only feature film, Il tempo dell’inizio, a kind of slow-motion nightmare, alien and elusive). Perhaps this is also one of the reasons for its charm, unalterable with the passage of time. The revival of his films seems to us, quite simply, necessary.
Andrea Meneghelli
MAGIA LUCANA
Edit: Maria Rosada
Production: Documento Film
Between the rugged terrain and the relentless sun, a Lucan peasant speaks to the clouds, to the sky, to the sun. Everyday life is impregnated with ancient rites and magic formulas. Illness is also a sign of the supernatural. When a child is born, seven fairies will come and touch his forehead under a moonbeam.
NASCITA E MORTE NEL MERIDIONE (S. CATALDO)
Edit: Franca Gabrini
Music: Daniele Paris
Production: S.E.D.I.
“This is San Cataldo, a village in southern Italy. A country of peasants. Here, more than anywhere else, something happens if someone is born or someone dies. And between birth and death, survival is difficult. When someone is born, they have to be magically protected from the risks of life. No one can say whether their life will be long or short, but everyone knows it will be hard and precarious. In San Cataldo you come into the world in silence.”
FRANA IN LUCANIA
Edit: Renato May
Music: Daniele Paris
Production: S.E.D.I.
The life of the Lucan peasant faces not only atavistic poverty, but also the ferocity of nature. When bad weather rages, the hard-won shelters are at risk of being destroyed by landslides. The only thing to do is to leave homw, hoping to find it intact on the way back.
GRAZIA E NUMERI
Edit: Renato May
Music: Domenico Guaccero
Production: S.E.D.I.
Ancient beliefs, magic and superstitions wind through the alleys of Naples. The sacred and the profane, Catholic and pagan, are all part of the same culture, where you can find souls in purgatory, skulls in shop windows, evil spells, premonitory dreams and more or less infallible methods for winning the lottery.
L’ANNUNZIATA
Edit: Renato May
Music: Domenico Guaccero
Production: S.E.D.I.
La Annunziata is a former Neapolitan orphanage. Although the door at which to leave babies no longer exists, being an orphan is still considered a sin. Within the walls of the Annunziata live children who cultivate hope, and older people who have spent their whole lives there.
VAJONT (NATALE 1963)
Production: Corona Cinematográfica
Christmas 1963, the Longarone section of the Fortogna cemetery, where the victims of the Vajont disaster (October 9th 1963) are buried. The survivors spent Christmas here, holding vigil and praying for their dead. A Christmas tree was brought to the graves. One certainty emerges from the interviews: it is the people that matter, not the money.
UN PAESE CHE FRANA
Edit: Renato May
Music: Egisto Macchi
Production: L.C.R.
Succiso is a town in the province of Reggio Emilia. As if the agricultural crisis in the Apennines were not enough, the locals have to face a geological tragedy: landslides. Disturbing cracks open up in the houses. Many have already fled.
IL MALE DI SAN DONATO
Edit: Giuliana Bettoja
Music: Egisto Macchi
Production: Nexus Film
In Montesano Salentino, province of Lecce, San Donato is celebrated every year, on 6th and 7th August. It is not just an occasion for prayer: the saint frees the mentally ill and epileptics, and the cult becomes a collective mystical delirium. But the healing does not last forever: every year they must return. The saint keeps them bound for life.
LA MADONNA DI PIERNO
Edit: Giuliana Bettoja
Music: Aldo De Blanc
Production: Nexus Film
In the sanctuary of the Madonna di Pierno, in the province of Potenza, a thousand metres above sea level, the celebrations of August 15th reveal archaic origins, which graft onto Catholicism the cult of the feminine divinities linked to the earth, the sowing and the harvest. The peasants, who come from far and wide, await this day by sleeping in the open.
TEMPO DI RACCOLTA
Edit: Renato May
Music: Egisto Macchi
Production: Egle Cinematografica
In Reggio Calabria province, women who work in olive harvesting are forced to do back-breaking work. Osteoarthritis and anaemia (caused by a parasite) are common illnesses. Labour protections are an illusion. The husbands have almost all migrated overseas, and the weight of the family rests entirely on their shoulders.
IL CULTO DELLE PIETRE
Edit: Giuliana Bettoia
Music: Egisto Macchi
Production: Egle Cinematografica
Near Raiano, in Abruzzo, there is an isolated sanctuary: tradition says that Saint Venanzio lived in the caves in the surrounding area. Every year, on the occasion of the saint’s feast, devotees enter the caves and rub themselves on the stones, in order to obtain a cure for the ailments that afflict them.
LA TANA
Edit: Giuliana Bettoia
Music: Vittorio Gelmetti
Production: Egle Cinematografica
A man lives locked up in an old house, seeking refuge from the outside world. With him is a maid. Between waking and sleeping, he helplessly witnesses his own disintegration, trying in vain to resist the devouring threat of his own ghosts.
NASCITA DI UN CULTO
Music: Egisto Macchi
Production: Egle Cinematografica
In Serradarce, in the province of Salerno, pilgrims arrive from all across the south to celebrate the cult of Alberto Gonnella, a young seminarian who died in an accident in 1957. Alberto manifests himself through his aunt Giuseppina, who is possessed every day by the spirit of her nephew.
L’APPARIZIONE
Music: Egisto Macchi
Production: Egle Cinematografica
In Pontecorvo, in the province of Frosinone, an annual ritual recalls the legend of a peasant tempted by the devil, Camele, who was rescued by San Giovanni. The event is recreated by puppets thrown into the river and stoned.
LA POTENZA DEGLI SPIRITI
Edit: Rossana Coppola
Music: E. Cavaliere
Production: Documento Film
© Videa – C.D.E.
In the miserable countryside of Avellino, Giuseppe Cipriani practices magic and exorcisms. We listen as he explains his arts. We attend a session in which a possessed girl is freed from ‘the evil one.’
L’ATTACCATURA
Edit: Carla Simoncelli
Music: Egisto Macchi
Production: Nexus Film
A woman, originally from Foggia, works as a sorceress in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples. She inherited her vocation and wisdom from her mother. Among the tools of the trade, mysterious formulas, goat-kid’s heads and chicken feet. Archaic practices of peasant origins survive in the heart of the city.
