Written and directed by Firenza Guidi
A journey through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, our not-too-distant past, still etched on the walls and in the cracks.
‘Once upon a time, towns were villages and fairs and markets were held in the squares; goods were exchanged and men chatted about the honour of women, the wealth of the powerful, the miseries of their neighbours, and in the squares laughter mingled with tears and the echo of hypocrisy, love and swords.’
Piazza Montanelli, the nerve centre of Fucecchio, which has always brought together people and events, gossip and brawls; everyday life that becomes history, just as the most important and significant events for the community, become a way of speaking of the square in a universal sense.
Amidst the passing and lingering of the crowd, unusual, eccentric figures emerge, fuelling rumours and gossip, chatter and legends to be passed down: the submarine commander who went mad during the war, who, in the streets, continued to give orders to invisible soldiers; Pisano, the eccentric barber who used his razor like a sword, a rite of passage to which the brave submitted to become men; Sor Agostino, a fallen rich man turned tramp, a former libertine whose conduct shocked the self-righteous; the porters with their strong bodies and quick fists. And towering above them all is Romola, a beautiful and sensual girl, eccentric and extreme: ‘the American’, as they called her, who drew crowds of spellbound men who, as she passed, would come out of the shops and lean out of windows, an object of desire who made men dream as much as she aroused the envy of women: an over-the-top figure, who would glide through the streets of the town centre on roller skates or accompanied by her faithful little monkey, the undisputed queen of the Charleston and the split, a tireless and unruly lover: a woman shrouded in mystery, until her disappearance, from one day to the next, without a trace.
When
28 November 2009 – 29 November 2009
Where
‘La Tinaia’ Auditorium, Parco Corsini – Fucecchio
