December 3, 2023
Showtime: 4:00 pm
@ Peace Theater at Nazareth University Arts Center
Synopsis
Italy’s biggest box office hit of 2022, this imaginative and irreverent comedy-drama, set in Sicily explores the inspiration behind one of modern Italian theatre’s greatest works. This lighthearted farce is a good counterpoint to some of the more serious films (Think “The First Day of My Life” and others) we’ve shown. And who couldn’t use a little subtle humor these days?
WHAT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM SAID: In this fictionalized biopic of Luigi Pirandello, Roberto Andò explores the addictive fascination that can lead a writer out of a creative crisis. It opens with the journey made by Pirandello – elegantly played by Toni Servillo – to Sicily. He’s attending the celebration of his mentor’s 80th birthday; however, the return trip is delayed when he has to deal with the funeral of his beloved nanny. Sebastiano and Onofrio, two gravediggers, happen to have an amateur theatre company that provides the comical counterpoint to the serious situations faced by the writer.
Watching the work of this unlikely group of actors, Pirandello lets his imagination loose and is visited by ideas, fantasies and apparitions. Little by little, he comes to find the inspiration for what will become a radical reinvention of the theatre: his magnum opus Six Characters in Search of an Author. La Stranezza manages to convey with affection and irony some themes dear to Pirandello – the mysteries of identity and agency, the pull of madness and the irrational, a ghostlike sense of absurdity, and the mixture of fantasy and memory – while offering an accessible, entertaining dive into the universe of one of the great 20th-century writers.
– Cristina Álvarez López
– International film Festival Rotterdam
WHAT USC CINEMATIC ARTS SAID: 1921, future Literature Nobel Prize Winner Luigi Pirandello returns to his beloved Sicily for the 80th birthday of his mentor, famous novelist and playwright Giovanni Verga. Upon his arrival in Agrigento, feral and unexpected news catapult him into a human universe populated by incredible personalities, ghostly visions, distant memories and melancholy apparitions. While at the height of his artistic growth, at the same time Pirandello finds himself still in the midst of his reflection on theater. This irrational and compelling journey will allow him to confront a nostalgic past, propelling him toward the creation of his masterpiece, “Six Characters in Search of an Author” an eternal work of art which will mark a worldwide revolution in twentieth-century theater.
Released: 2022
Length: 103 minutes
Directed By: Roberto Ando (Long Live Freedom, The Confessions, Il Bambino Nascosto)