19/09/2023 - The Italian director is paying tribute to one of the world’s most widely performed Italian playwrights and writers, Luigi Pirandello, with Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Actor Fabrizio Bentivoglio and actress Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (© Fabrizio De Gennaro)

Shooting has kicked off in Rome on Michele Placido’s Eterno Visionario, which is based on a screenplay penned by the director alongside Matteo Collura and Toni Trupia, and which stars Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in lead roles.

Following the success of Caravaggio’s Shadow [+see also:
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Eterno Visionario depicts a lesser-known version of Pirandello, revealing the humanity, passions and obsessions of the great scholar, torn between his impossible love for Marta Abba and his turbulent relationship with his wife Antonietta Portulano who suffered from mental illness. The film explores Pirandello’s conflict-ridden relationship with his children, his controversial connection with Fascism, and the creation, courtesy of the Nobel Prize for Literature, of a form of theatre which was deemed too scandalous, subversive and modern for the so-called respectable classes. The story takes place in Rome, Stockholm with its associations with the Nobel Prize, Berlin with its cabarets and Kurt Weill, Sicily with its mines and archaic landscapes, Milan with its enchanting beauty at the beginning of the 20th century, and America where Pirandello’s genius was made legend in Hollywood and on Broadway.

In addition to Fabrizio Bentivoglio (awarded the David di Donatello Best Supporting Actor trophy for Rose Island [+see also:
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interview: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
film profile] at the event last year) stepping into the shoes of Antonietta Portulano, the film also stars actress-producer Federica Luna Vincenti as Marta Abba. As for the three sons, meanwhile Stefano is played by Giancarlo Commare (of the series SKAM Italia), Lietta by Aurora Giovinazzo (Freaks Out [+see also:
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In terms of the technical crew, photography is entrusted to Michele D’Attanasio and sets to Tonino Zera, while costumes are the work of Andrea Cavalletto and editing by Consuelo Catucci. The film’s original music comes courtesy of the duo Oragravity.

Eterno Visionario is produced by Federica Luna Vincenti on behalf of Goldenart Production together with RAI Cinema, in co-production with Belgium’s GapBusters. The film will be released in Italian cinemas via 01 Distribution and was made with the support of the Italian Ministry for Culture’s Film and Audiovisual Department alongside the Sicily Region, the Department for Tourism, Sport and Entertainment, and the Sicily Film Commission.

(Translated from Italian)