P.er to return the figure of an unpublished, humanized Dantefar from academic formalizations, Pupi Avati has put – once again – all the soul he has, the pure and profound one of love. “The celebrations to remember him were devastating – he says about the celebrations for the 700th anniversary of his death last year. They pushed him away again. How can there be heat if we keep talking about it in codes?“. Sitting at the table of a Roman bar – after the screening of the film with Alessandro Sperduti in the role of Alighieri and Sergio Castellitto in those of Boccacciosinger of the poet – we then ask him how he subverted the approach.
His is a fragile Dante, no one had ever made us read him like this.
Vulnerability is a precious feeling. Ugo Tognazzi taught me the beauty of this state of mind when I met him. He confided in me all those things that are not usually said at the first meeting, but if the other has the key to being able to understand such delicate weaknesses, a deep connection of empathy is immediately triggered. And so it was between us. The love that passes through pain makes us wonderfully fragile, and is fundamental for the creation of the highest possible knowledge.
Boccaccio makes an arduous journey to deliver some florins to Dante’s daughter, as an apology from the Florentines for the evil done to their father.
Boccaccio was his greatest biographer and popularizer. He wanted to tell the essence of it with passion, moved by the gaze of those two lovers who had all the emotion of the world in their eyes. So many words put in the mouth of the protagonists are mine, inspired by my wife and the emotions of a lifetime.
Alessandro Sperduti in the role of Alighieri. (01 Distribution)
Those lines still stand up well after seven centuries.
They have lost nothing, they are current, their inner truth has remained alive. They know how to get where they should because we are no longer used to using them. There is almost fear in using poetry as an emotional tool, I put a good dose of courage into it. I hope that this love of looks and desires can thus speak better in our time. Maybe those before me felt inadequate to do it. But it is a mistake to always refer to the Comedy and never to New lifea text that marks the most sensitive and personal features of our poet.
Is it true that you don’t get tired of watching this film again?
It excites me, it is never enough. After all, they are as much inside, they are the protagonist as much as they are.
What is it that love is missing today?
The gradualness. The ceremonial of emotions has been lost. The “forever” seems to burn. Let’s use it! Once upon a time, one felt entitled to do so, it was a hope in which to believe without fear. The new generations tremble just to think of it.
Of course, idealized and never materialized stories, lifeblood for poets, never collide with reality. Easy that way.
To manage reality sometimes you have to lie, it’s a question of survival.
White lies.
Always and only those, but the pact is that you lie. Something came to mind, can I tell you?
Needs to.
There was a girl I liked very much. She walked behind her, at the time we did this, I followed her until she entered the front door. That looking at her fueled my dreams, it was the most beautiful vision of her, my Beatrice. She never said anything to me, just like her.
And then?
And then nothing, he didn’t even give me a glance, but I knew everything. Her name was Paola Zuccotti and she lived in via Andrea Costa at 22. A few months ago I told this story during a public meeting in Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna and, at one point, a boy raised his hand saying he was the grandson, to know that story well. How did he know if my aunt and I had never talked? Here you are. Paola Zuccotti has spent her life telling, with a certain pride, of that Pupi Avati who courted her and followed her right up to the house for months. Think of her.
Carlotta Gamba is Beatrice. (01 Distribution)
If I were you I would make a movie.
I have so many things in my head, and I will do them.
Stefania Sandrelli, whom we met in Venice, and directed in She still talks to mehe said that if you look back there is everything.
Blessed are you. I always feel the urge to do something else, to do more. I remain a curious boy, never satiated.
De Sica, on the other hand, said that the more affection you give to the actors, the more they make. For Alessandro Sperduti and Carlotta Gamba, Dante’s set was so human that it seemed like a family home. They talked about a unique and human experience. Apparently she literally took them by the hand.
I believe it is a fundamental condition. You have to make the actors swim well in a sea that only you know deep inside, the dive must be done together. And then you never get out of that water.
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