Carlo Lizzani: history and stories

 Cinecittà News

April 1, 2022

On April 3, 1922, exactly a century ago, Carlo Lizzani, one of the most important figures in the history of Italian cinema, was born in Rome. Lizzani was perhaps the Italian director, like Rainer Werner Fassbinder for Germany, who mostly narrated, in his rich and varied filmography, varying in genres, the evolution of Italy in the twentieth century in sixty years of history.

On April 3 a special project of the CSC - National Film Archive kicks off at the Casa del Cinema in collaboration with AAMOD (Audiovisual Archive of the Labor and Democratic Movement) and Casa del Cinema with the support of the MIC Cinema Directorate General. On the occasion of the centenary of the Roman director, exceptional witness and storyteller of Italy in the twentieth century, the collective story of the "short century" is told through the gaze of a filmmaker with the vocation of the historian.

Introducing the first appointment (Sunday 3 April at 5 pm, Sala Deluxe) will be two of the authors of the project - Francesca Del Sette and Giorgio Gosetti - in the company of Domenico Monetti (CSC - Cineteca Nazionale) and Vito Zagarrio (Roma3 University), together with Flaminia and Francesco Lizzani, the director's children. Following will be screened L'oro di Roma (1961) with Anna Maria Ferrero, Jean Sorel, Gérard Blain, Paola Borboni. The film is based on the real facts of the roundup of the ghetto of Rome, which took place during the Second World War, in October 1943.

The project will continue at the Casa del Cinema for the entire month of April with a round table coordinated by Giovanni Spagnoletti and the participation of critics, historians, conservators (on April 13) followed by the documentary by Francesca Del Sette, Viaggio in corso nel cinema di Carlo Lizzani. In the following weeks, another three evenings will be dedicated to the great strands of Lizzani's cinema in relation to the Italian stories of the century will propose as many films as possible from his long career. But this is only the first part of a wide-ranging national initiative that will line up appointments, meetings, screenings and restorations throughout 2022.

Lizzani was the director of the Euro-westerns: “Hills Run Red” – 1968 [as Lee W. Beaver], “Kill and Pray” – 1967, “Burning Daylight” – 1973 [film was never made], He was also the co-writer of “Kill and Pray” – 1967.