Italo Calvino documentary premieres at Rome Film Fest

The documentary "Italo Calvino nelle città" debuted at the Festa del Cinema di Roma and was released in theaters on October 28, 2024, distributed by RS Productions in collaboration with Mirari Vos. Directed by Davide Ferrario, who previously made literary documentaries on Umberto Eco and Primo Levi, the film was co-written with Marco Belpoliti and adapts Calvino's own texts. Structured in three acts corresponding to periods of Calvino's life, it blends archival footage with fictional segments featuring actors Filippo Scotti, Alessio Vassallo, Valerio Mastandrea, and Violante Placido. The documentary traces Calvino's life through cities: visible ones like Sanremo, Turin, Paris, Rome, and New York, and invisible ones from his 1972 book "Le città invisibili" (Invisible Cities), published by Einaudi. A special feature reveals Calvino as a lyricist: a song he wrote for Luciano Berio in 1959, "Ora mi alzo" from the theatrical action "Allez-Hop," is performed by Raphael Gualazzi in a cover set in New York, thanks to collaboration with Sugar Music and Caterina Caselli.