THEL Dante by Pupi Avanti (in cinemas from 29 September) is a story on man and on the historical events that involved the great poet, and on the journey that Boccaccio he made from Florence to Ravenna to bring ten gold florins to Sister Beatrice, his daughter Alighierias late compensation. A journey back in time, in 1300among verses that have marked the literary world, pain and love.
The whole is observed and remembered by Boccaccio, who today we could define as Dante’s biographer. The viewer sees and recognizes the greatness of Alighieri through his eyes and his emotions. Pupi Avati he brings the most elusive of poets to a man’s height, making us know the stages of his life up close.
Dante: the plot
We are in 1350 Giovanni Boccaccio (Sergio Castellitto) is charged with bringing ten gold florins to Sister Beatrice, daughter of Dante Alighieri, as late compensation for exile. Along the way from Florence to Ravenna the author of the Decameron retraces the stages of the life of Dante (Alessandro Sperduti) until his death in 1321.
We know the Dante child witnessing her mother’s death, her first meeting with Beatrice (Carlotta Gamba) at 9, and the next, nine years later when she got married. From that moment Beatrice became her “fearful angelWhich soon passed away. Dante sinks into a strong depression. Pain enveloped him for the rest of his life. She got married as a makeshift. At 24 he enters the battle against the Ghibellines.
In the course of the story, the characters that Dante subsequently inserted in the Comedy how Paolo and Francescathe Count Ugolinothe friend Guido Cavalcanti, William of the Ubertini who died with his nephew in the battle of Campaldino. Dante, as a white Guelph, opposed the enslavement of the city of Florence to the Pope, and was exiled. Contrasts that he did not spare himself to write in his absolute masterpiece.
Alessandro Sperduti in the role of Dante.
Pupi Avanti brings Dante closer to people
“It’s a special film – says Avati – I’ve wanted to make it for twenty years. Dante deserved to be compensated and brought closer to people, I wanted to observe him as if he were a boy. We left it relegated to those who celebrated it in a way that was too militant and not very human, warm and affectionate. After the celebrations of the 700 years since death we have pushed him further away. This film humanizes him“. Dante is a travel poet and the Emilian director uses the journey to reconstruct his life.
Carlotta Gamba. (Photo by Federico Locchi)
Sergio Castellitto: “Only poetry can save us today”
“No one has ever made a movie about Divine Comedy because it is impossible, in Dante the power of the word is still disruptive – he is convinced Castellito – Pupi, through Boccaccio, told the boy, the exiled man, the soldier who probably on the field of battle killed some enemy, the man in love and his suffering. The greatness of a poet causes his fragility and suffering to be recomposed in his work. Therefore poets are the only ones who can save us and who are truly modern“.
Dante and Beatrice: impossible love
Dante and Beatrice are interpreted by Alessandro Sperduti and from the story of the entertainment world Carlotta Gamba. Their first meeting of glances happens as children. Nine years later Beatrice will address the first word to the only man who has truly loved her.
“I was scared to play such a character – says the actor of Doctors – Dante was too far, far away and he was enveloped by a boundless universe. Then I focused on the person: after all he was a boy who had the same difficulties as me. What I consider revolutionary in him is the ability to show his sensitivity ».
“Beatrice is ethereal, elusive, untouchable – says Carlotta, whom we had met in Latin America of the D’Innocenzo brothers – Pupi has given him the awareness of touching life and love with his hand ».
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