Festivals:
1949 BAFTA Nominada a Mejor Documental
The first episode of this programme is devoted to the different ways of approaching paradise. In this black and white gem, Luciano Emmer shows how to reach the islands in what may be considered the smoothest and least invasive way: roaming. A total of six islands in the Venice lagoon are touched by his boat, which is the same as saying captured on his camera and with a small mention in the tale. A moment is enough to define the whole island. Sometimes, it is the song of a maniac coming from the window of the sanatorium on the island of San Clemente, other ties, a door, the portrait of four Madonnas or the glass figures made on Murano Island. Not a minute longer. The country is the boat and the vessel is leaving.
Luciano Emmer, Enrico Gras
LUCIANO EMMER
(Milán, 1918 – Roma, 2009)
Considered as one of the fathers of neo-realism, this director, scriptwriter and producer began his film career under the guidance of Enrico Gras. With his first film, Racconto da un affresco (1938), based on frescoes by Giotto, he began a series of art documentaries, inspired by El Bosco, Botticelli, Michael Angelo or Jean Cocteau. His first fiction feature film, Sunday in August (1950), opened the doors to a decade marked by commercial success with films, such as Paris is always Paris (1951), The Girls of the Spanish Steps (1952), Third Grade (1954) or The Girl in the Window (1961). He later worked in advertising and television, as the director of Carousel, for the RAI. He returned to filmmaking in 1990, with the film Enough! Now It's Our Turn, and directed fiction films until 2003.
Selected filmografía:
La sua terra (1941)
Racconto da un affresco (1941)
Guerrieri (1942)
Il paradiso terrestre (1942)
La leggenda di Sant'Orsola (1948)
Isole nella laguna (1948)
Romantici a Venezia (1948)
Domenica d'agosto (1950)
Goya (1951)
Matrimonio alla moda (1951)
Parigi è sempre Parigi (1951)
Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna (1952)
Leonardo da Vinci (1952)
Camilla (1954)
Picasso (1954)
Terza liceo (1954)
Il bigamo (1956)
Il momento più bello (1957)
La ragazza in vetrina (1961)
La distrazione (1965)
La sublime fatica (1966)
Terra dei naïfs jugoslavi (1975)
La bellezza del diavolo - viaggio nei castelli Trentini (1988)
Bella di notte (1997)
Incontrare Picasso (2000)
Nostalgia (2001)
Una lunga lunga lunga notte d'amore (2001)
L'acqua... il fuoco (2003)
Con aura... senz'aura: Viaggio ai confini dell'arte (Luciano Emmer, Enrico Ghezzi, 2003)
Trilogia - Il pensiero, lo sguardo, la parola (2008)
ENRICO GRAS
(Génova, 1919 – Roma, 1981)
Director and scriptwriter. After studying Engineering in Milan, he made his first short film in 1938, an animation entitled Il Giuseppe which was taken from him close to the Pantheon when his coat was stolen. In the same year, he founded a small production company with his friend, Luciano Emmer, in Rome, with which they filmed artistic documentaries during the Second World War. Captured by the Nazis during his military service and sent to a concentration camp, on his return, he worked alongside his sister with directors, such as Vittorio Carpignano. Two years later, he immigrated to Argentina, where his father lived. In 1950, he directed Eye upon the Wind, a poetic work with the text by Rafael Alberti. In 1954, he filmed Lost Continent alongside Giorgio Moser and Leonardo Bonzi, a prize-winner in Cannes and Berlin. A year later, he received acclaim in Venice with Empire in the Sun, a documentary made in Peru. At the beginning of the 1960’s, he started working for the RAI, set up a production company with Mario Craven and together, they made documentaries on Italian cities, the Nordic social democracy or education in diverse counties.
Selected filmography:
Il Giuseppe (1938)
Pupila al viento (1950)
Turay, enigma de las llanuras (1950)
José Antigas, Protector de los Pueblos Libres (1951)
Macchu Picchu (1953)
Castilla, soldado de la ley (1953)
El solitario de Sayan (1954)
Continente perduto (codirigida con Mario Craveri, Leonardo Bonzi, Giorgio Moser (1954)
L’impero del sole (codirigida con Mario Craveri) (1955)
Soledad (codirigida con Mario Craveri) (1958)
I sogni muoiono all'alba (codirigida con Mario Craveri, Indro Montanelli) (1961)