NOVITÀ
Film "Oh! Uomo"
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Both the Trento History Museum and the Italian
History Museum of War of Rovereto came into being immediately after the First World War and
have since then combined their exhibition programme with active research into twentieth
century history. It is not surprising, then, to find both these museums working
together, with the
support of several local authorities, to produce a documentary.
The war cycle by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi finds very vivid echo in the local
reality where the Great War still stirs very vibrant memories in the local population and where the
physical signs of the conflict are still to be seen in the local
territory.
The Trento History Museum houses a vast and original collection of archives “in progress” of
autobiographical writing (consisting of more than 600 texts) which describe the personal
experience of soldiers and refugees during the First World War, in a border area of highly
complex national identity.
Set up more than ten years ago at the Trento History Museum, the “Cinema and History
Archives” acquire and conserve audiovisual material related principally to the history of
Trentino from the Great War to the present day. It also organises events to study the relationship
between film and historical research and the use of documentary film in the teaching of
history. |
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Parallel to this research into the subjective
experience of war, the two museum have also promoted a census of the documentation relative
to the Great War to be found in other European archives. It is at this point that the creative
research of Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi's is grafted into the cycle. In the past they
have given proof of their extraordinary skill in working with images from history and writing in
an unmistakably eloquent style.
The long-term collaboration with Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi, supported by Diego
Leoni's historical consultancy, has resulted in the production of two film documentaries
Prigionieri
della Guerra (Prisoners of the war) in 1995 and Su tutte le vette è pace
(On the Heights all is Peace) in 1998, both of which have received public and critical acclaim at an international
level.
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After Prisoners of the
war and On the Heights all is Peace,
this film concludes Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi's trilogy
on the first world war. From the emblem of totalitarianism to individual
physical suffering, the directors use this representation of man's
rampaging violence to draw up an anatomical inventory of the damaged
body and examine the consequences of the conflict on children, from 1919
to 1921. From the deconstruction to the artificial reconstruction of the
human body, they try to understand how humanity can forget itself and
perpetuate these horrors.
Oh! Man
Script and direction: Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi
Original Music: Giovanna Marini, Luis Agudo
History consultant: Diego Leoni
Lenght: 71 minutes
Color / Black and white
2004
A co-production with:
Museo storico italiano della guerra di Rovereto
Provincia autonoma di Trento-Servizio attività culturali
Comune di Rovereto
Fondazione Opera campana dei caduti di Rovereto
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The directors:
Yervant Gianikian (born to Armenian parents) studied architecture in Venice; Angela Ricci-Lucchi
(born in Lugo di Romagna) studied painting in Austria with Oskar Kokoschka.
Setting in Milan, they have devoted their activities to the cinema since the mid-seventies, first with
their performance screening of scented films, then with their artisanal re-working of the old films of
their collection which they tinted, toned, step-printed and re-edited - as they did, for example, in
From the Pole to the Equator (Dal polo
all'equatore - 1986) with footage shot by pioneer Luca Comerio.
Working like archeologists with filmstock, ideologies and culture, they have developed a cinema which
is not only narrative and poetry but also critique and analysis of the recycled footage.
Among a long list of films, lets quote: From the Pole to the Equator (1986),
People, Years, Life (1990), Prisoners of the War (1995), On the Heights all is Peace (1998),
Balkan Inventory (2000), Images d’orient - Turisme vandale (2001).
Oh! Man
World premiere
at
36. Quinzaine des Réalisateurs
(36. Selection Directors' fortnight)
Cannes, May 21st 2004 |
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Further
informations:
info@museostorico.tn.it
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