Francesco Casetti on Screens as Shelters: From Phantasmagoria to AI

In an interview with Annette Cantalupi on Artribune, Francesco Casetti, Sterling Professor of Cinema and Media at Yale University, discusses his latest book "Schermare le paure" (Screening Fears). Casetti argues that screens have historically served as protective devices mediating humanity's relationship with a threatening world. He traces this function from 19th-century phantasmagoria—which during the French Revolution showed ghosts of guillotined figures in a safe theater—to 1920s-30s cinemas offering clean air and comfort amid urban squalor, to Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Casetti warns against overprotection, which he calls anesthetizing, and criticizes augmented and virtual reality as "the scam of the century" that isolates rather than immerses. He also reflects on AI's role in contemporary care and data appropriation. The interview took place in Salerno, Italy, where Casetti was visiting.