Page 595 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

FILMS

Though Sicily doesn’t have its own motion picture industry, the island’s stunning
scenery has served as a backdrop to a number of very successful films. The
Aeolian and Pelagie islands, in particular, have proved popular settings for some

interesting films, a few of them now classics of Italian cinema.

Michelangelo Antonioni L’Avventura (1960). Shot on the barren rocks of Panarea’s
Lisca Bianca, this film notes the beginning of a marked change in postwar Italian
social mores. When a group of friends get together for a day out in the islands, one
gets lost, and the relationships between those remaining begin to fracture. Here,

Antonioni focuses ingeniously on the internal responses of those affected.

Emanuele Crispalese II Respiro (2002). Filmed on the southern island of
Lampedusa, this is a timeless, well-constructed look at how an eccentric mother is
misunderstood by other islanders. Crispalese’s second film, it addresses the
overwhelming patriarchy of Italian families and the sexual tension latent between
family members.

Francis Ford Coppola The Godfather (1971). Mario Puzo’s brilliant screenplay tells
the story of how Don Vito Corleone, capo of the New York Sicilian Mafia, tries to
maintain his hold on the family business and his old-world values, despite his
renegade son Michael. Since the town of Corleone itself was far too developed for the
period filming, much of it was shot in Savoca and Forza d’Agro, outside Taormina.

Pietro Giermi Divorzio alla Siciliana (1961). Proof that not all Sicilian films need

be deep or cinematic, this is a hilarious and pointed satire of Italian marital
conventions. Marcello Mastroianni plays a Sicilian nobleman trying to prove his wife
unfaithful so he can kill her and marry his younger cousin. Known as Divorce Italian
Style in English, it was filmed in Ispica near Ragusa, and got Giermi nominated for a
Best Director Oscar.

Nanni Moretti Dear Diary (1994). Moretti plays himself as he tours Italy on a Vespa,

visiting all the Aeolian Islands, showing how the inhabitants of each differ in mentality
and lifestyle. Mostly comic, but a real downer at the end.

Michael Radford II Postino (1994). An international favourite, featuring a postman
on a small island who learns to love poetry after befriending the exiled poet Pablo
Neruda. The film was shot in the town of Pollara on Salina, leading to a dramatic
increase in tourism to the island.

Roberto Rossellini Stromboli: Terra di Dio (1949). Starring Ingrid Bergman as a

tormented young refugee who marries an Italian to escape the war, this is a sad story