Thursday April 25th, the Anniversary of Italy’s Liberation will be celebrated with the screening of two films. At 5 pm, the feature will be The Terrorist (Il terrorista), a film directed by the former resistance fighter Gianfranco de Bosio, one of the forgotten gems of Italian cinema, a synthesis of the many souls of the armed resistance. The film – screened in the version restored by the Société Cinématographique Lyre in Paris – will be introduced by Stefano de Bosio, Gianfranco’s son and the Secretary for the National Committee for the Centennial of the Birth of Gianfranco de Bosio, Fabrizio Pompei, filmmaker and professor of the History of Performing Arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, and Patricia Barsanti, for the Société Cinématographique Lyre. The screening will be preceded by the video “Gianfranco de Bosio: una vita per Ruzante” by Fabrizio Pompei. The event, curated by the National Committee for the Centennial of the Birth of Gianfranco de Bosio, will be held in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Titanus and the Istituto Cinematografico dell’Aquila.
At 8 pm, there will be a screening of Roma città aperta by Roberto Rossellini, filmed in January 1945 (a few months after the liberation of Rome) in haphazard conditions, around the city and the periphery shooting with film that was sometimes past its expiration date: a film stubbornly carried forward by the director and his collaborators (Consiglio, Amidei, Negarville and Fellini) which is both a masterpiece and a cry of indignation. The film will be shown with English subtitles to involve the Capital city’s international audience in the celebrations.