20° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
Tribute to Gianni Amico

Lo specchio rovesciato. Un'esperienza di autogestione operaia

The Inverted Mirror - An Experience in Workers' Self-Management

Country: Italy
Year: 1981
Duration: in tre pun


The story of the C.U.L.M.V. (Sole Company of Workers of Various Goods) of the port of Genoa, from the 1300's to today. Divided into three parts (Caravana e Camalli, Compagnia Unica Lavoratori Merci Varie, Il Sacco e il Container) which were broadcast on Rai on January 19, January 26 and February 2, 1981. Scenic reconstructions (like the birth of the company in the 1300's or the resistance and sabotage during the second World War) alternate with the television reportage.

Biography

film director

Gianni Amico

Gianni Amico was born in Loano in 1933 and began his cinematographic career in 1960, organizing cultural activities, creating and directing the Rassegna Internazionale del Cinema Latinoamericano as a part of the cultural association Columbianum, which ?as founded in Genoa by Father Angelo Arpa, a Jesuit priest. He directed the manifestation for five years (the first two years it was held at Santa Margherita Ligure, the third and fourth years at Sestri Levante and the fifth at Genoa) and introduced ´´taly to a type of cinema (Latin American) that at the time was almost unknown. It gave European and Latin American filmmakers and critics the opportunity to meet and debate amongst themselves, something difficult to organize in the American subcontinent.
In this way, many filmmakers, some of whom were just getting their start at the time, were able to show their extraordinary works: from Glauber Rocha to Nelson Pereira dos Santos, from Leopoldo Torre Nilson to Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, from Paulo Cezar Saraceni to Tomas GutiÈrrez Alea and more.
After moving to Rome, Amico continued briefly to work as a cultural organizer, working with the Mostra Internazionale del Cinema Libero at Porretta Terme (in 1964 he organized a monographic section dedicated to the Nouvelle Vague) and the Mostra Internazionale del Nuovo Cinema at Pesaro (he was on the selection committees in 1966 and 1967). He then put his experience to work in more practical fields, as a screenwriter and director of films and television programs. Already in 1960 he had participated in the production of
Escape by Night by Roberto Rossellini, and in 1964 he and Bernardo Bertolucci wrote the screenplay of Before the Revolution. In 1965 he made his first short film Noi Insistiamo. Suite per la Libertà Subito based on the musical work We Insist! by Max Roach.
A big fan of jazz (in 1965 he made
Appunti per un Film sul Jazz, a documentary about the jazz festival in Bologna) and Brazilian music, Amico began traveling to South America in this period to discover a culture and a country which fascinated him. The result was the 1968 full-length film Tropics, which he shot in Brazil. The film echoes the Brazilian Cinema Novo and the break of the "new cinema" of the 1960's, from its linguistic research to the search for new themes.
He also worked as a screenwriter for Bertolucci (
Partner, 1968) and Glauber Rocha (Der Leone Have Sept CabeÁas, 1970), as assistant director for Godard in Vent d'Est (1969, Godard will dedicate the chapter about Italian cinema to him in his Histoire(s) du Cinema) and continued making documentaries and fiction for Rai. Two of his most important documentaries are Lo Specchio Rovesciato. Un'esperienza di un'Autogestione Operaia and Le Mani Svelte. Giovani, Donne, Fabbrica. Some of his best fiction works are The Investigation, Return, Le Cinque Stagioni and The Elective Affinities.
His organizing talents and his love of Brazilian music were manifested in the summer of 1983, when he organized
Bahia de Todos os Sambas at the Circus Maximus, an important musical event featuring all the greatest Brazilian singers, from Caetano Veloso to Gilberto Gil, from Nan· Vasconcelos to Jo„o Gilberto, from Gal Costa to Moraes Moreira. The concert was filmed, under Amico's supervision, by two of his good friends, the directors Leon Hirszman and Paulo Cezar Saraceni. Saraceni finished the film in 1996, after the deaths of Hirszman and Amico, who died of a terminal illness in 1990, while working on a film about the Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhartd.

FILMOGRAFIA

Noi insistiamo! Suite per la libertà subito (1964), Appunti per un film sul jazz (1965), Le rabbie dell'anima (1965, film al momento perduto), Una storia banale (1965), Paola (1966), Giovani brasiliani (1967), (19688), Ah! Vem o Samba (1968, al momento perduto, solo visibile attraverso gli ampi brani utilizzati per la trasmissione televisiva Ritmo do Brasil), Cinema della realtà (1969), Le grandi epoche del teatro (1970), L'inchiesta (1971), ntro-duzione alla psicologia (1972), Ritorno (1973), Vita in Gran Bretagna (1973), Città e territorio: Bologna (1974), Moda e società (1974), Il registratore (1975), Sardegna, una voce (1975), Le cinque stagioni (1976), Your Love Is Like the Sea - Per una generazione di americani (1976), Dedicato ai genitori (1977), Le affinità elettive (1979), ?o specchio rovesciato - Un'esperienza di autogestione opearia (1981), *e mani svelte - Giovani, donne, fabbrica (1981), Io con te non ci sto più (1983), Diario di Manarola - Appunti per un film sull'esperienza di Telemaco Signorini alle Cinque Terre (1985), Morandi e il suo tempo (1986), Amici (1987), Andrea del Sarto (1987), MosÈ Bianchi e il suo tempo (1987), Futurismo & Futurismi (1988), Gramsci l'ho visto così (1988), Un amore sconosciuto (1989).

Cast

& Credits

Director: Gianni Amico, Marco Melani.
Screenplay: Gianni Amico, Marco Melani, Vico Faggio.
Director of photography: Leopoldo Piccinelli.
Scenografia e costumi: Paolo Bernardi.
Music: Alvin Curran, pezzi tradizionali liguri
Editor: Romano Trina.
Production company: Rai Sede Regionale per la Liguria.
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