The Truth, Please, About Love is the title of a book by the English poet Wystan Hugh Auden. Every now and then you have to steal someone’s words. Don’t borrow them, just steal them. Because if you borrow them you have to return them; by stealing them you can make them your own. And since they are just words, no one is hurt. The truth, said others in the branch (novelists, poets, philosophers, intellectuals) must be held tight, guarded, accompanied on the journey, otherwise it risks slipping away. And this would be enormous damage. For the individual, for memory, for history.
Tarantothanks to a film, “Laf building” shot by Michele Riondino and crowned with prizes (many Donatello’s David, the highest Italian recognition for cinematography) which are added to another medal of great importance (the months and months of programming in cinemas), suddenly and once again feels at the center of national attention. But this time thanks to some wonderful news. The most beautiful part of moviededicated to workersIlvaalmost reaches the end credits when the notes of a song ring together, “La mia terra”, which Antonio Diodato wrote for the opera of his friend Michele who was called to make his directorial debut on the big screen (he has already practiced theater time ago).
Sometimes in front of a song we let ourselves be seduced by the music more than by the words, this time it is Antonio’s words that count: “Land of fires and sea / land of blood and salt / red with mineral / between sirocco and mistral “. It is his Taranto and everyone’s Taranto. The anthem of the city and if it isn’t yet it must become one. Let yourself fall into the sea, equipped with a life jacket of course, Mario Costa’s tarantella, a 19th century piece when in these parts no blood flowed, no salt stinged even if there was misery and hunger for many and well-being for a few. While a fund of hope came to the surface: work, a state factory: the Military Arsenal, first; the steelworks, afterwards. Two giants arrived on the shores of the sea not alone but escorted by consensus; of those few, for those many. Things ended up as everyone knows “Taranto: wonderful city raped by the profit of others”, said Elio Germano who was also awarded the David as a supporting actor in “Palazzina Laf”. For its meaning, for its value, “My land” is a bit reminiscent of Modugno’s “Amara terra mia”. It is a song that is worth more than a book or a film and the ending is worth reporting: “Yet my love/It has never been broken/This fairy dream/that keeps us tied with all the love to the earth/that never we defended / and now it is a minefield / on which beautiful flowers grow.”
The future
And what if this were the true charter of intent, the Constitution of a new and free city where dominators and dominations have also left their mark but have not extinguished the rebellious spirit. Precisely from the rebellion of two young people from Taranto, Riondino and Diodato, very different in character, similar in commitment, a film was born that sheds new light on the city. He talks about the work, even if the work in Taranto, without saying it, is shown with more pride in “Comandante”, the film by Enrico De Angelis with Pierfrancesco Favino shot partly in the Arsenale. “We grew up with the idea that there was no other destiny than the factory”, paraphrasing Jannacci, added Riondino the other evening, during the awards ceremony, holding his statuette tightly in his hands. “Cinema is another great industry, it is not an alternative but it creates jobs. We can do without the factory if other prospects develop.” Cinema, art, craftsmanship, small industry and commerce, sea and land professions. There are signs. The navigation of the imagination has begun. It can be done, “let’s do it” a playful pontiff would say. We can come out of the dark days by cultivating the beautiful flowers that Diodato has already seen: reflections, intuitions, initiatives especially by young people which must be accepted, promoted and accompanied. Like the truth. Because, to tell this truth, other young people have already tried many years ago and have not had the same luck. Because, just to stay in the cinema, today there is David but yesterday the Oscar came close, because a director like Emidio Greco was more loved abroad than at home, because twenty-two years ago another director, Pasquale Pozzessere, opened the door “Southward” with his images. Why this city let the Taranto Prize vanish, why it lost its primacy in theater consumption (in the South second only to Naples) and why they could continue ad infinitum in the capital of carelessness. Exactly: other times. But it was all already written and everything was possible, it was enough to see it and it wasn’t the smoke from the chimneys that was to blame. Today, we can say again and with Antonio, “there is a destiny marked / I have found my land”. Holding onto it and being proud of it is the minimum you should do.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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