A threefold adaptation: Mario Martone's Leopardi | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 8, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2047-7368
  • E-ISSN: 2047-7376

Abstract

Abstract

This article explores how Martone's seemingly traditional period biopic of nineteenth-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi challenges the conventions of the genre, and could be read, instead, as an interesting case of cinematic adaptation on at least three different levels. I propose that is a film that, as a biopic, can be understood as an adaptation of a life experience – an adaptation that, in its cinematic construction, expresses an awareness of the biopic as a film genre that can only perform a representational version of a life. Secondarily, is a film that engages with an array of cinematic strategies to 'give body' to Leopardi's lyrical texts, turning his lines into a sensorial experience. Finally, it is a film that not only 'translates' specific literary texts in images but also expresses the overall development of Leopardi's poetics into a distinctly cinematic syntax.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00006_1
2020-01-01
2024-04-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Andrew, Dudley. (1984), Concepts in Film Theory, New York:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bingham, Dennis. (2010), Whose Lives Are They Anyway? The Biopic as Contemporary Film Genre, New Brunswick:: Rutgers University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bini, Daniela. (2018);, 'Neapolitan Leopardi and the Naples of Mario Martone'. , Forum Italicum, 52:2, pp. 552-65.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Binni, Walter. (1947), La nuova poetica leopardiana, Florence:: Sansoni;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Binni, Walter. (1973), La protesta di Leopardi, Florence:: Sansoni;.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Binni, Walter. ([1993] 1994);, 'Lezione sulla Ginestra'. , in N. Bellucci. (ed.) Lezioni leopardiane, Florence:: La Nuova Italia;, pp. 557-72.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Blasucci, Luigi. (2002);, 'Sui Canti fiorentini'. , in L. Melosi. (ed.), Leopardi a Firenze: Atti del Convegno di studi, Florence:: Olschki;, pp. 251-69.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Brown, Tom, and Vidal, Belén. (eds) (2014), The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture, New York and London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Burgoyne, Robert. (2008);, 'The biographical film: Schindler's List'. , in T he Hollywood Historical Film, Malden:: Blackwell;, pp. 100-24.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Cardullo, Bert. ([1948] 1997), Bazin at Work, New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Coen, Carlo. (2018);, 'La rappresentazione di Napoli in Rossellini e Martone'. , Forum Italicum, 52:2, pp. 566-81.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Corrigan, Timothy. (forthcoming 2019);, 'Biopics and the trembling ethics of the real'. , in D. Cartmell. (ed.), A Companion to the Biopic, Malden, MA:: Wiley-Blackwell;, n.pag.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Custen, George. (1992), Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed History, New Brunswick, NJ:: Rutgers University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Ferraris, Angiola. (1987), L'ultimo Leopardi: Pensiero e poetica: 1830-1837, Turin:: Einaudi;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Haiduc, Sonia Amalia. (2014);, 'Books on biopics'. , Adaptation, 7:3, pp. 353-60.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Hutcheon, Linda. (2006), A Theory of Adaptation, New York and London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Kline, A.S.. (2003), Leopardi: The Complete Canti, Poetry in Translation, https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/Leopardi.php. Accessed 22 November 2019 .
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Leitch, Thomas. (2009), Film Adaptation and Its Discontents: From Gone with the Wind to The Passion of the Christ, Baltimore:: Johns Hopkins University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Leopardi, Giacomo. (1997), Tutte le poesie e tutte le prose (ed. L. Felici.), Rome:: Newton & Compton;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Leopardi, Giacomo. (2003), The Canti (trans. A. S. Kline.), https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Italian/Leopardi.php. Accessed 1 March 2019 .
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Leopardi, Giacomo. (2011), Canti: Poems: A Bilingual Edition (trans. J. Galassi.), New York:: Farrar, Straus and Giroux;.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Maglione, Armando. (ed.) (2003), Lectura leopardiana: I quarantuno 'Canti' e 'I nuovi credenti', Venice:: Marsilio;.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Martone, Mario. (2014), Il giovane favoloso (Leopardi), Italy:: Palomar and Rai Cinema;.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Minier, Marta. (2014);, 'Interdisciplinary perspectives on the biopic: An introduction'. , in M. Minier, and M. Pennacchia. (eds), Adaptation, Intermediality and the British Celebrity Biopic, New York:: Routledge;, pp. 1-31.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Pasolini, Pier Paolo. ([1965] 1991);, 'Cinema di poesia'. , in Empirismo eretico, Milan:: Garzanti;, pp. 167-87.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Polaschek, Bronwyn. (2013), The Postfeminist Biopic: Narrating the Lives of Plath, Kahlo, Woolf and Austen, Basingstoke:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Prete, Antonio. (1980), Il pensiero poetante, Milan:: Feltrinelli;.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Rosenstone, Robert. (2006);, 'Telling lives'. , in History on Film: Film on History, New York:: Pearson;, pp. 101-24.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Sitney, P. Adams. (2015), The Cinema of Poetry, New York:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Stam, Robert. (ed.) (2008);, 'Introduction: The theory and practice of adaptation'. , in Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation, Malden, MA and Oxford:: Blackwell Publishing;, pp. 1-52.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Tarkovsky, Andrei. (1993), Sculpting in Time: Reflection on the Cinema (trans. K. Hunter-Blair.), Austin:: University of Texas Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Viani, Prospero. (ed.) (1878), Appendice all'Epistolario di Giacomo Leopardi, Florence:: Barbera;.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Welsh, James. (1993);, 'Hollywood "faction" and the new biofantasy'. , Studies in Popular Culture, 15:2, pp. 57-66.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Mirra, A.. (2020);, 'A threefold adaptation: Mario Martone's Leopardi'. , Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies, 8:1, pp. 79-92, doi: 10.1386/jicms_00006_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00006_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jicms_00006_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error