Documentary, fiction, theater, TV. Marco Bellocchio’s is a long and stratified path, driven in all its twists by an undoubted originality and an obstinate passion for research. Both in the models of staging (the documentary, operatic direction, the fictional film) and in the subjects chosen for his cinematic adventures (the family dynamics of the lower middle class, the psyche, the Years of Lead, Italian history), his cinema bears witness to an irreducible tension that pushes one to dig into one’s own mirror to find the images of the world reflected there. Among the most refined directors in the history of Italian cinema, Bellocchio is undoubtedly one of the authors in whom the mediation between reality and fiction, between restitution and (re)invention of reality is conducted with greater awareness. Much of his cinema seems to inhabit a world suspended between dream and reality: his characters, even the most historically connoted ones like Moro and Mussolini, live a double life, the one handed down to them by history and the one relived on the screen. Not to mention, sticking to the latest very successful project of the Piacenza director, Verdi's Rigoletto, which in the "live TV film" sewn by Bellocchio with incredible elegance has overcome the narrow limits of the stage and has become cinema. Capitalized cinema.
Born and raised in Bobbio, Marco Bellocchio attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome at a young age. His first film, I pugni in tasca (1965), is one of the most mature and bold debuts in the history of Italian cinema. After La Cina è vicina (1967), a slogan film about the Italian bourgeoisie, he directed, among others, Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina (1972), a bitter reflection on journalism. One of the most politically committed directors, he denounced the abuses of institutions (Nel nome del padre, 1972, Matti da slegare, 1975, Marcia trionfale, 1976) alternating documentary with fiction cinema. With the psychoanalyst Massimo Fagioli, he directed Il diavolo in corpo (1986), inaugurating a prolonged cinematic journey along the routes of the unconscious. In 1997 he brought to the screen a text by Heinrich von Kleist, The Prince of Homburg, which achieved great success among critics and audiences, confirming himself as a lucid, rigorous and passionate director. Having confirmed his success with a film adaptation of Pirandello's novel (La balia, 1999), he turned his attention to the dilemmas of the present and recent history (L’ora di religione, 2002, Buongiorno, notte, 2003, Il regista di matrimoni, 2006). The only Italian in competition, in 2009 he participated in the Cannes Film Festival with Vincere, obtaining great acclaim from international critics. At the last Venice Film Festival he presented Sorelle mai, a film in six episodes set in a family setting.
Enrico Magrelli, journalist and film critic, is one of the authors and hosts of the daily radio program on Raitre Hollywood Party (his voice is the warmest and most calm). He was director of cinema news on Tele+, then author and host of Ciakpoint, a program on Raisat Cinema. From 1979 to 1982 he was part of Carlo Lizzani's creative and organizational staff at the Venice Film Festival. From 1988 to 1990 he was Director of the Critics' Week at the Venice Film Festival. In 1991 he was Guglielmo Biraghi's right-hand man at the Film Festival. His monographs dedicated to Robert Altman, Roman Polanski, Nanni Moretti. He edited a dozen volumes including: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Marilyn Monroe, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Satyajt Ray. Since 2004, he has been part of the Selection Committee of the Venice International Film Festival, an event where he works side by side with the director Marco Müller. As a television author, he has signed numerous programs, including “Domenica in”, “Festival di Sanremo”, “Telegatti”, seven editions of the “Concerto di Natale in Vaticano” and various specials dedicated to cinema. Since 2009, he has been the Curator of the Cineteca Nazionale.