The Volonté Affair
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The Italian cinema of the 1970s was confronted with a reality of unprecedented gravity and complexity. The 1970s in Italy were the so-called ‘Years of the Bullet’. Bombings, assassinations, secret masonic lodges plotting to subvert the democratic order, neo-fascist groups executing civil servants – policemen, magistrates – in the streets, planting bombs in public spaces with the aid of powerful officers of the secret services, and communist terrorists kidnapping and murdering servants of the state, like the Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978. The Italian cinema of those years was brave in its attempt to explain and reconstruct the shocking events that terrorized the country; events that politicians always refused to speak about, and that long trials mined by cover-up operations never managed to unravel.
Gian Maria Volonté is the symbol of the Italian political cinema of those years, and his films paint an accurate historical portrayal. Volonté was openly involved in political activism, his affiliation to the Italian Communist Party (PCI) was known to all; he always spoke in favour of the working class and encouraged the general public to engage in political discussions through street performances and debates. He actively participated in the writing and directing of his highly political films. Because of his open commitment, the Italian public came to interpret his presence in films as a guarantee of truth and civil courage. As for those who did not agree with his beliefs, they still admired his great acting skills, and praised his international reputation, that was bringing such a good name to Italian cinema. In a time of extremisms, Volonté managed to unite the two major political factions in Italy at the time – the conservatives and the left-wing intellectuals – thanks to his double status: talented actor/film star and icon of civil courage.
The exhibition proposes to illustrate the ‘Years of the Bullet’ through examples of the political cinema of the time; the films are placed in a rich historical background, consisting of photographic material and archival television footage. The historical information and the films are intrinsically bound, and they cannot be understood separately; however, the historical context must precede the films, in order to make them intelligible to a non-Italian audience. The historical material should ideally be placed in the hall that leads to the screening room. The amount of information, presented on different media, both verbally and visually, should literally ‘assault’ the spectator, just as Italians were assaulted from all sides by constant news of disaster and violence in those years. The spectator will return to the hall after viewing the films with a more vivid and personal view of the historical facts. A guiding principle of the retrospective is that the films in the programme are an essential vehicle for historical research and reconstruction of those years. Lastly, the exhibition aims at promoting these films also for their great aesthetic and entertainment value, and at Gian Maria Volonté’s recognition worldwide for his unique talent and contribution to cinema.
Programme
(for further information on the programme click here)
Indagine su un Cittadino al di Sopra di Ogni Sospetto (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, directed by Elio Petri, 1970)
La Classe Operaia Va in Paradiso (The Working Class Goes to Heaven, directed by Elio Petri, 1971)
Todo Modo (directed by Elio Petri, 1976)
Banditi a Milano (Bandits in Milan, directed by Carlo Lizzani, 1968)
Il Caso Moro (The Moro Affair, directed by Giuseppe Ferrara, 1986)
Io Ho Paura (I am Afraid, directed by Damiano Damiani, 1977)
Il Caso Mattei (directed by Francesco Rosi, 1972)
Sacco e Vanzetti (directed by Giuliano Montaldo, 1971)
Sbatti il Mostro in Prima Pagina (Slap the Monster on Page One, directed by Marco Bellocchio, 1972)
Gian Maria Volonté: Un Attore Contro (Gian Maria Volonté: An Actor in Revolt, directed by Ferruccio Marotti, 2005)
Resources
Ginsborg, Paul. A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics 1943 – 1988. Palgrave MacMillan, 2003.
Lawton, Harry. “Enrico Mattei: The Man That Fell to Earth.” in Poet of Civic Courage: The Films of Francesco Rosi, edited by Carlo Testa, 60-86. Greendwood Press, 1996.
Uva, Christian. Schermi di Piombo: il Terrorismo nel Cinema Italiano. Rubbettino, 2007.
The 35mm prints for these films can be found at Cineteca Nazionale in Rome (except for Il Caso Moro, its whereabouts are still unknown).
There are 2 Comments to "The Volonté Affair"
The research presented in the blog “The Volonté Affair” is rather illuminating, for its theme, style, and structure. The author proposes to shed light, through Gian Maria Volonté’s career, on the most crucial events of the Italy of the 1970s, and shows confidence in exploring one of the most grim and least discussed moments of the history of our country. Volonté’s profile, certainly of the most controversial and socially committed figures of Italian cinema, is situated in the context of a nation divided in monolithic political blocks and deeply torn by terrorism. A situation that, even today, the media rarely tackle with due care and attention, and that the Italian political world is undoubtedly trying to archive as a taboo. As an Italian I feel relieved and refreshed to see such examples of renewed interested for these matters, which are the basis and cause of the current, undeniable social-political problems of our country.
The idea behind the proposed exhibition “The Volonté Affair” is in my opinion an excellent one. At a time when Italian politics and society are mired in stagnation, scandal and inertia, a look back to the extraordinary epoch of the 1970s, where the forces of idealism and reaction came face to face, is both timely and educational. Michela’s proposal rightly presents the period as an historical crossroads where the importance of cinema as both document and catalyst has never been greater, and where one of cinema’s forgotten idealists came to light. The project gathers together a potent mix of sources and artefacts to generate a sense of the high stakes of the time. It is, of course, in the films and film archive material that the exhibition comes alive. Michela uses Gian Maria Volonté – an ‘actor’ in both senses of the word – as a lens through which the contradictions of the period can perhaps be better understood, and also to remind us of the power of the film actor to carry a conviction which seems all too bizarrely alien to us today. As Michela says, to rediscover Volonté is also to challenge the historical amnesia of the current generations and, of course, the trivialising function of today’s media machine, especially as it exists in Berlusconi’s Italy.
Ricardo Domizio
Course Director, Film Studies
London South Bank University