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Anthropologist and ethnologist Professor Mario Bolognari analyses Italian and German films to illustrate how images of Sicily are determined by history, political interests and great seats of power (on the island and through its neighbours). Sicily – its people, landscapes and traditions – have been an incredible generator of fantasy for the cinema. Bolognari will use frames from films such as Divorzio all’italiana (1961), Sedotta e abbandonata (1964), Der bunte Traum (1952), Wie ein Sturmwind (1956), and Gitarren klingen (1959) to make his points.

Bolognari is a professor of cultural anthropology and ethnology and head of the Department of Modern Civilisation Studies and Classic Tradition at the University of Messina. He has published more than 100 books, papers and essays and was awarded the Premio Cassano for anthropology by the Istituto di Ricerca e di Studi di Demologia e di Dialettologia di Cassano. He served as mayor of Taormina – a town which was a mecca for writers and artists in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Taormina Film Fest,  Italy’s oldest, began in 1955 and has hosted over the years many stars of international cinema: including Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Sophia Loren, Cary Grant, Robert De Niro, Colin Firth, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Tom Cruise,  and Antonio Banderas.

The talk will be in Italian with English interpretation and translation by Dante Ceruolo and Spencer Gray .

This event is part of Italian Day at the festival.