People believe that the difficulties of a prodigy originate in the pressure placed on him by those around him, in the terrible expectations they have of him.
That's nonsense. The real problem is within, and others have nothing to do with it. The real problem is talent. Talent is like a cell gone mad, it grows uncontrollably and under no compulsion. It's as if someone had built a bowling alley in your house. It ruins you completely, yet it's also beautiful, and maybe in time you learn to bowl, brilliantly, and you become the greatest bowler in the world, but your house, how in the world can you put it right, how can you save it, how do you manage to hold on to something so that eventually, at the right moment, you can say This is my house, get out, you pigs, it's my house. You can't do it.
Talent is destructive, it's objectively destructive, and what happens around it doesn't count. It works from the inside, and destroys. You have to be very strong, to save something. And that is a boy. Can you imagine a bowling alley in the middle of a boy's house? Just the noise it makes, every blessed day, a constant uproar, and the certainty that silence, true silence-you can forget about it. Houses without silence. What sort of houses are they? Who can restore that boy's house to him?
Attenzione: questi sono solo appunti riguardanti un interessante esame del professor Mazzarella che intende valutare il film Eyes Wide Shut di Kubrick in relazione alla novella da cui è tratto, Traumnovelle di Schnitzler. Spero di aver colmato le mancanze di questi appunti attraverso i link extratestuali
Doppio sogno (Giuseppe Fanese) Traumnovelle, scritta tra il 1921 e il 1925, era già una bozza nel 1907. In una lettera, Freud scrisse a Schnitzler “ Credo lei sia un ricercatore della psicologia del profondo.”Secondo Schnitzler c’è una sfera psichica importante trascurata dagli psicoanalisti: il medioconscio o semiconscio.
Con la definizione “inspired by” Kubrick non ha dato al suo film una collocazione precisa. Sicuramente, si discosta nel tempo e nel luogo dalla novella. La pellicola non ha nulla del film in costume.
Il personaggio femminile della Traumnovelle ha maggior spessore esistenziale e sapienzale; quello maschile brilla per grettezza morale e una certa ottusità. Il protagonista di Doppio Sogno scopre che dietro alla civiltà borghese c’è l’abisso: “tutto quell’ordine, quell’armonia, quella sicurezza della sua esistenza non erano che apparenza e menzogna”. L’unione dei contrari nella novella si profila innanzi tutto nel binomio di eros e thanatos (esemplare è il sogno di Albertine). La carrozza che porta Nachtigall alla villa in cui si svolge l’orgia sembra una carrozza funebre. La rispettabilità del medico, una figura considerata nell’Ottocento ancora “redentore dell’umanità” è messa in dubbio nelle opere di Schnitzler. Questo emerge anche in Eyes Wide Shut. La Traumnovelle è una vicenda paradigmatica. E’ il suo carattere esemplare e astratto a essere colto da Kubrick. Scienza medica, riconoscimento sociale, conoscenza e famiglia sono le istituzioni ricamate nella storia di Fridolin (e Bill). Il desiderio di essere qualcosa, qualcosa che garantisca la sua identità, le chiama in campo, ma allo stesso desiderio d’identità e riconoscimento trova il modo di bruciarle e dissolverle. Altra differenza sta che la vicenda non si svolge più a Carnevale ma a Natale. La famiglia di Bill, Alice e Elena sembra una variante della Sacra Famiglia. Nell’America del 1999 il natale non è più una festa religiosa ma un’orgia di consumismo (Parole di Tim Kreider).
Mentre vaga per New York di notte, Bill è ossessionato dalle potenti fantasie erotiche di sua moglie che fa l’amore con l’ufficiale di marina. Le immagini sono visualizzate nettamente, non sono nebulose e sfumate. Il tempo narrativo della novella è veloce; allo stesso modo il regista dà alla vicenda un carattere poliziesco. Ciò che in Schnitzler è la forza della parola, che sa stimolare la fantasia del lettore, in Kubrick diviene capacità di rapire lo spettatore in un’odissea visuale. La prostituta ai cui servizi rinuncia Fridolin è malata di sifilide nella Traumnovelle, mentre si scopre infetta dall’Hiv nel film. A partire dalla situazione della festa in maschera, Fridolin inizia la sua discesa nell’inferno dei senza volto, discesa che lo porterà a strapparsi le carni di dosso. Insieme alla carne di “marito”, “medico” e “maschio” fino a ridursi a una maschera, vuoto simulacro di sé stesso adagiato sul letto matrimoniale (Luigi Cimmino) Nell’orgia ogni maschera è diversa dall’altra. I colori dominanti sono il blu legato alla coscienza e il rosso, legato all’inconscio, al pericolo, all’istinto. Dualismo tra apollineo e dionisiaco. La festa che ha vissuto Bill si mescola con le immagini interiori di Alice, al punto che le identità sembrano in certo modo dissolversi. Victor Ziegler è un personaggio totalmente aggiunto da Kubrick. La bellezza della scena finale di Eyes Wide Shut, la “spiegazione” di Ziegler a Bill, <<>>, dall’affabile al sinistro (Larry Gross). L’impiegato dell’hotel, che dà notizie a Bill in merito alla sparizione dell’amico Nick, ridacchia e ammicca. E’ un ulteriore personaggio alla ricerca di incontri sessuali. Mentre nella novella entrambi raccontano le proprie fantasie sessuali e di tradimento, nel film solo Alice parla dell’ufficiale di marina, con l’intento di affermare la sua emancipazione in campo sessuale. Opera di Straniamento: la scelta di Tom Cruise da parte del regista è singolare, perché sceglie un divo del cinema per rappresentare un uomo senza qualità, molto debole psicologicamente. Il film è preciso, caratterizzato da perfetta teatralità. Baudry rilegge il mito platonico della caverna mettendolo in relazione alla teoria freudiana dei sogni: immobili, tutti assumono per reale ciò che dovrebbero riconoscere come inganno e irrealtà. Eyes Wide Shut: film, musica, struttura (Luigi Ceccarelli) Musica extradiegetica: musica che deve coinvolgere, commentare le scene senza farsi notare. Kubrick era cosciente che la musica classica avesse una sua vita autonoma, una storia e un significato intrinseco. Ogni brano scelto doveva essere spogliato di questo bagaglio culturale ( né è l’esempio la colonna sonora di “Arancia Meccanica”) La struttura del film è lineare, gli eventi si susseguono senza salti nel tempo. L’unico rimando al passato è un racconto, un’evocazione verbale. Nel film ci sono molti esempi di Musica diegetica, come lo stereo nella prima scena, la musica nei locali e la musica suonata dal vivo, come quella suonata da Nick, l’amico di Bill, durante il misterioso festivo orgiastico.
Struttura della novella La novella è divisa in 7 parti che scandiscono le alterne e tormentate fasi della crisi di una coppia; la coppia riassume le crisi dell’individuo di fronte alla enigmatica e instabile realtà dell’esistenza. In Traumnovelle la crisi dei protagonisti si struttura secondo un diagramma di turbamenti paralleli. La conclusione porta alla coscienza che non c’è una verità univoca; la verità esiste solo nel tentativo della reciproca comprensione. La maschera è simbolo della perdita d’identità che connota la crisi di Alberatine e Fridolin. Nel finale i protagonisti escono dal medioconscio e raggiungono il conscio.
La tematica del destino è accennata all’inizio e alla fine del racconto. Il sogno di Albertine (la crocifissione di Fridolin) è catartico: si è scaricata dall’odio verso il marito mentre al marito è data la possibilità di riflettere che solo “un gioco del destino” gli ha permesso di non tradire. Nella debolezza di Fridolin e nel suo discorso iniziale con la moglie c’è il pregiudizio borghese che concede agli uomini il diritto a una morale e relega la donna in una degradante posizione subalterna
Alcune recensioni e commenti a un libro che è stato tradotto in più di 25 lingue: Gomorra di Roberto Saviano.
Gomorrah, A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System A groundbreaking major bestseller in Italy, Gomorrah is Roberto Saviano’s gripping (avvincente) nonfiction account of the decline of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network with a large international reach and stakes (interessi) in construction, high fashion, illicit drugs, and toxic-waste disposal (eliminazione di rifiuti tossici).
Known by insiders as “the System,” the Camorra affects cities and villages along the Neapolitan coast, and is the deciding factor in why Campania, for instance, has the highest murder rate in all of Europe and why cancer levels there have skyrocketed (sono saliti alle stelle, sono aumentati a dismisura) in recent years.
Saviano tells of huge cargoes of Chinese goods that are shipped to Naples and then quickly distributed unchecked (senza essere controllati) across Europe. He investigates the Camorra’s control of thousands of Chinese factories contracted to manufacture fashion goods, legally and illegally, for distribution around the world, and relates the chilling details of how the abusive handling of toxic waste is causing devastating pollution not only for Naples but also China and Somalia. In pursuit of his subject, Saviano worked as an assistant at a Chinese textile manufacturer, a waiter at a Camorra wedding, and on a construction site.
A native of the region, he recalls seeing his first murder at the age of fourteen, and how his own father, a doctor, suffered a brutal beating for trying to aid an eighteen-year-old victim who had been left for dead in the street.
Gomorrah is a bold (audace) and important work of investigative writing that holds global significance, one heroic young man's impassioned story of a place under the rule of a murderous organization. More Information: As of January 2008, Gomorrah has sold 750,000 copies in Italy alone - earning 28-year-old Roberto Saviano death threats and a round-the-clock police escort.
The great value of Gomorrah is to highlight two points: the power and wealth that southern Italy's Mafias have accumulated in recent years, and the fact that their globalisation makes them an issue of concern for us all.
His description of the effects of gang war on ordinary people (“Women stop wearing high heels—too hard to run in them”) is masterly. His final chapter, set in the apocalyptic wilderness of the Camorra's smouldering waste dumps, is inspired—and prescient, as the garbage crisis in Naples unfolds.
The painting depicts (rappresenta,descrive) the martyrdom of St Lawrence and belongs to the Jesuits in Rome. It will now be examined in detail by art historians to find out if it really is the work of the famous Baroque painter. Italy celebrated the life of the great master over the weekend on the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio's death. A gallery housing (che ospitano) his work and several churches stayed open overnight to mark the anniversary. An image of the work was published on the front page of the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano on Saturday. It shows a semi-naked man, with one arm outstretched as he leans over leaping (guizzanti) flames beneath him.
But while the Vatican newspaper article points out that the painting is typical of Caravaggio's style - such as the perspective from which the subject is seen - it conceded that no known document mentions St Lawrence in relation to Caravaggio. A leading Caravaggio scholar, Maurizio Marini, expressed scepticism about the painting's authenticity. "In certain moments, such as Caravaggio's anniversaries, it's no surprise that a lot of paintings come out that are supposedly Caravaggio's work," Marini told the AP news agency. Caravaggio was born in either 1571 or 1573, according to varying scholars, and spent the last few years of his life fleeing (sfuggendo a) justice in southern Italy. Caravaggio was famed for his wild lifestyle - he was often involved in street violence, culminating in him stabbing and killing a man before going on the run in 1606. He fled to Naples and died four years later in the town of Porto Ecole. His works include Bacchus, The Supper at Emmaus and Sacrifice of Isaac. A group of Italian researchers recently revealed they had found human remains found in a church in Tuscany almost certainly belong to Caravaggio.
The year the Globe was inaugurated, 1599, when anxiety for Queen Elizabeth’s impending death and uncertainty about her succession were spreading through the population of London, W. Shakespeare looked to ancient history for inspiration, choosing to put on stage an exemplary crissi from the past: the end of the Roman republic. The contradictory relationship between Elizabethan culture and ancient Rome is epitomized (riassunto) in Shakespeare’s controversial way of presenting Caesar’s character: his heroic status, in fact, comes to be deeply questioned in the play that bears (porta) his name. Caesar male virtus having already been turned into feminine weakness. But if the manly, glorious republican past is “shamed” by a debased feminized present who will be able to restore it, reviving its greatness and prestige? The question affects people both on and off stage: it is the core (nocciolo, essenza) of the narrative drive and it is the implicit query (domanda, riserva) of the Elizabeth audience. Shakespeare not only finds a parallel to the historical situation of England, a kingdom whose boundaries (confini) were fast expanding throughout the globe, but brings to the fore the search for both new models of political leaders and new forms of public persuasion in an enlarging communication circuit. The crucial conflict between Brutus and Antony is therefore seen as the enactment of a complex relationship of incorporation and distancing played between an older, authoritativeness, appealing both to the ear and the eye (theatre). The fact (Caesar’s murder) can be questioned but it cannot be objectively and finally interpreted. Antony dramatically performs his grief for Caesar’s death, arguing that he is no orator. Thus negating his masterful command of rhetoric, he erases the medium he is using. Brutus and Antony speaks from the “pulpit” in the “market-place”. (Antony asks the consprators’ permission to produce Caesar’s body to the market-place, as becomes a friend, speak in the order of his funeral”). We can infer (dedurre) that in the performance at the Globe, the pulpit may have been set in the gallery, that multi-purpose space above the stage used sometimes by musicians, sometimes by spectators and often by the actors. Brutus speech is like a syllogism. Antony turns each man in the market-place into an eyewitness (testimone oculare) for his cause. Antony makes his audience believe him for what they saw with their own eyes. “tis certain he was not ambitious” is an undeniable sign that truth can no longer be granted
Rome’s Wooden “O”, from Maria Del Sapio Garbero Identity, Otherness and Empire in Shakespeare’s Rome In the post-war years, Shakespeare and his opus became a fixed part of modern Italian culture. There is a reciprocal long-standing tradition that also links Shakespeare to Italian culture. It started in the eighteenth century when the first complete translation of the Bard’s works began to appear. Pagliaro’s project: by flanking (accostando) Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra with Titus Andronicus, Pagliaro’ s project gave Titus Andronicus comparable stature as a Roman play, no as a revenge play. The project took on the structure of a tryptich, each segment constituting its own evening-long event, each bringing centre-stage a particular theme reflected in its title: 1 The lacerated Cloak (J.Caesar), 2 The Egyptian puppet (Antony and Cleopatra), 3 The performance of Madness (T.Andronicus) 1) It resolves around concepts of Roman identity that are defined here in terms of “Liberty” and “Freedom”. The discourses of the conspirators among themselves and exchanged with Mark Antony and then those of Brutus and Mark Antony delivered in the Forum all address the question, “What does it mean to be a Roman?” 2) It shifts (trasferisce) the historical, political and geographic landscape of the question of Roman identity, as it gives prominence to the substance of Empire. Expansionism, challenge self-identity in the face of cultural otherness. Can a Roman maintain his identity abroad? The Egyptian queen must in the end defend herself from the conqueror who wants to violate her cultural, political and gender identity. 3) Titus Andronicus’s others are a far cry from Antony and Cleopatra’s civilized Egyptians. Here Romanness is suffering a severe identity crisis, much more severe that the one registered in Caesar’s Rome. Who is responsible for the utter falling apart of dialogue, of cross-cultural exchange?
1) Caesar’s assassination was mimed on a dimly lit stage (palcoscenico appena illuminato). The dominant signifier of the event was the music which rose in an anguishing crescendo. 2) Antony and his wound were figured onstage metonymically by his bloodied sword being taken by his friend. 3) The Titus episode opens with the verbal determining of the ritual murder of Tamora’s son. And these wounds (ferite) continue to haunt (tormentare) the stage in the blood red drapes that completed some of the costumes in each of the episodes.
Leggi anche gli appunti su Titus Andronicus, edizione di Jonathan Bate, qui
Rome was an Elizabethan obsession. The classical Rome was split (lacerato) into two Romes, republican and imperial Rome. English humanists avidly (avidamente) studied and translated the classical historians of Rome, Suetonius, Tacitus, Livius or Plutarch. Elizabethan England in particular came to consider itself as a second Roman Empire and its capital London is the “new Rome”. Moral philosophers recommended Roman republicanism and Stoicism as norms for civic discipline and responsibility, patriotic pride. Coriolanus is the most Roman of Shalespeare’sRoman plays. Shakespare in this play preserve Roman manners and customs and allusions. Coriolanus is the creature of his mother. It was she who had instilled in him from earliest childhood the masculinist Roman codes of civic honour. She taught him to exorcise all unmanly, effeminate motions and emotions. There lurks a fatal double-bind in the Coriolanus complex: on the one hand, this kind of grooming or identity formation makes sure that Coriolanus remains “the perennial mama’s boy”, incapable of liberating himself from the umbilical cord and achieving an adult autonomy of character; on the other, it is precisely autonomy of character that is at the centre of the code of romanitas instilled by his mother (virtus, pietas, constantia, fortitudo). In Ancient Rome, one cannot not perform. The world in which its characters move is primarily a political, a public world focused on public spaces, the market-place, the Capitol, the battle field or theatre of war, and their mode of speaking is primarily the rhetoric of public address. Patricians constantly act in front of, and to, and for, an audience. His self is primarily a public self, a self enacted in public, constantly aware of the image it is projecting. One has to act the Roman. Coriolanus, as a man, his masculine control over his desires and emotions. As a politician, hiding his personal interests under a fine, discreetly calibrated show of disinterested virtus and constant service to Rome. Only at moments of crisis, when Coriolanus’ internalized scripts clash with each other, he demonstrates an awareness (consapevolezza) of acting and articulates this awareness in metatheatrical metaphors. At such moments he appears as a man playing a part. “Like a dull actor” Volumnia performs the role of Roman matron in language and gesture to perfection, narcissistically identifying with Rome’s tutelary goddess Juno. Coriolanus needs constant briefing in his performance, by Menenius, by Cominius and above all by his mother. She tries to make him aware of how over-acting can spoil a performance “ You might have been enough the man you are with striving less to be so” Coriolanus, finally, feels he is an actor without his script: “like a dull actor now I have forgot my part and Ial out even to a full disgrace” Shakespeare took Coriolanus for a historical character, fascinated like them by the paradox of the patriot turned traitor for his very patriotism and by the concomitant Ciceronean paradox of summum ius being summa iuria or summa virtus summum vitium.
