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Today, just the day after the loss of Carlo Lizzani we feel more than ever the desire to not to give in to the rhetoric of self-pity, preferring by far to celebrate the great contribution that he provided with his creativity and culture to the Italian and worldwide cinema. Few remember that Lizzani was first and foremost a writer and film critic and that his History of Italian Cinema began in 1953, is reprinted also nowaday. It seems a twist of fate but the last movie in which Carlo Lizzani worked was a real lesson of cinema: Neorealism. We were not just … Bicycles thieves.
Film Achtung Banditi
This documentary produced by Triworld Cinema and co-directed with his dear friend Giovanni Bozzacchi, inserted in the Venetian Classics section of the 70th Venice Film Festival will provide a tool for deepening regarding Neorealism of great importance for future generations, as evidenced by the acceptance given to it by the Presidency of the Italian Republic.
Neorealism. We were not just… Bicycle thieves. Highlights a series of anecdotes related to the backstages of the films in which Lizzani participated in many different roles: from the vice-screenwriter in Riso Amaro by Giuseppe De Santis, 1949, in which replaced Vittorio Gassman as a “stand-in” to a boogie woogie with the young Silvana Mangano.
From the documentary (Qualcosa nel Mezzogiorno è cambiato, 1950) to the director of the film (Achtung! Banditi! 1951. Cronache di Poveri Amanti, 1954.), until Screenwriter for directors such as Rossellini’s Germania Anno Zero, 1949.
Carlo Lizzani
With more than 80 films for the cinema, and the same for television, at age 91, the person who we had the honor o meeting a few months ago was an educated man, quiet and with a great humanity.
So we chose an anthology of images to remember his sobriety and discretion as a gentleman of another time.
Those men that you feel deeply the lack when they leave us.
