After wowing Hot Docs audiences with his course Italy: From Top to Bottom, professor Franco Gallippi returns to lead us on a bold new cinematic journey. The iconic performances of Anna Magnani, Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren take us from the crowded laneways of Rome to the soaring heights of the Alps, capturing Italy’s intense beauty alongside its sometimes difficult realities. Meanwhile, the memorable roles of Alberto Sordi, Monica Bellucci and Roberto Benigni guide us into the present, revealing the joys and sorrows of their rapidly changing society. In six lively and thought-provoking lectures, Franco reveals how these unforgettable actors become larger than life, globe-spanning symbols of one of the world’s most fascinating countries.
This course is led by Professor Franco Gallippi, who completed his PhD thesis Calvino: Reader of Leopardi and Galileo at the University of Toronto in 2007. He was Assistant Professor of Italian at McMaster University for four years and currently teaches at the Italian Cultural Institute in Toronto. He is working on a book on Italo Calvino and has contributed to books and academic journals in Italy, Canada and the U.S.
Doors will open one hour before the first class. Registrants will receive supplementary materials in advance of their first class.
Co-presented by Italian Contemporary Film Festival and Istituto Italiano di Cultura.
Mondays: October 17–November 21, 10a.m. to noon
October 17: Anna Magnani: The Fragile Diva
The Neapolitan playwright Eduardo De Filippo said that Anna Magnani was a theatrical phenomenon that could not be repeated. With her searing intensity and emotional vulnerability, Magnani may just be the greatest Italian actress of all time.
October 24: Marcello Mastroianni: The Latin Lover
For Mastroianni, acting was a craft, and he played each character with elegant precision. Yet for all his masterful performances, he harbored fears that he had been typecast as a “Latin Lover,” and wondered if he should have been an architect.
October 31: Sophia Loren: The Italian Marilyn Monroe
Roberto Benigni calls her “Italy in motion.” In this lecture, Franco recounts her rise from rags to riches and pays homage to a diva who combined talent and beauty.
November 7: Alberto Sordi: Albertone
His nickname is “Albertone,” or “Fat Albert,” and his imposing presence in some of Italy’s greatest comedies had a sizeable influence on the direction of his art form.
November 14: Monica Bellucci: The Legacy of Sophia Loren
She impressed the world in Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malèna (2000), playing a character who embodied wartime Italy’s struggle for survival. Like Sophia Loren before her, this model-turned-actress combines beauty with a varied and subtle body of work.
November 21: Roberto Benigni: The Great Clown of Italy
He has been compared to Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Woody Allen, and his Oscar-winning film La vita è bella (1998) redefined how we look at one of history’s greatest tragedies. Whether he leaves you laughing or crying, Benigni's performances always capture what it means to be human.