Cinematography “Il Giardino che non c’é “
“A documentary in search of the gardens of the Finzi-Continis.”
By Ra Di Martino
Script: Noa Karavan Cohen.
CAST: Dominique Sanda, Simonetta Della Seta, Ariela Piattelli, Lino Capolicchio, Marco giusti, Raffaele Curi, Gigliola Mariani, Portya Prebis, Gianni Venturi, Andrea Pesaro, Sergio Parussa, Ferigo Foscari,Chiara Valerio,Alessandro D’Alatri, Anna Dolfi, Anna Quarzi, Fabio Testi, Paola Bassani, Lorenzo Benedetti, I giovani attori della scuola di cinema Vancini.
Producers: Agostino Osio, Matteo Frittelli, Yaël Fogiel, Laetitia Gonzalez.
Production: Alto Piano, Les films du poisson.
How much does our way of seeing the world influence and condition a work of art? What are the consequences of this? How can something created by a writer, director, or artist become real in the collective imagination? Where is the boundary between fiction and reality? Starting from Giorgio Bassani’s masterpiece, “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” (1962), the movie seeks to uncover how a novel has influenced the way of imagining a city, Ferrara, a dramatic historical period, a Jewish family, and ultimately a garden. Through a blend of history, the media power of cinema and literature, the characters of the novel, De Sica’s film, the scandals of the time, and the greatness of a work that has never been forgotten, a film within a film is born: actors, extras, and interviewees alternate with clips from historical films, amidst continuous temporal references and walks along the paths of a garden that does not exist…
“As a long and uninterrupted sequence, the documentary is a biographical journey into the life of the writer Giorgio Bassani, into the novel of his life, the historical period in which it takes place, and the multiple relationships with the numerous characters, which alternate between past and present in the narration. Formally, it is constructed as a long uninterrupted walk through what seems like a single garden, but in reality, it is composed of multiple natural environments. The film is designed as an imaginary tour through the paths and natural elements of this ideal garden: the fountains, the shrubs, the flower beds, the trees. At the center of the investigation are the function and value of a literary work that has involved and influenced the existence of many people, and the garden will be the metaphor for the space that allows us to undertake this journey.”