Addio Lugano bella
As a result of judicial proceedings, the female narrator/protagonist/director is forced to relive the memory of her revolutionary past and resume old habits. In her efforts to defend a man who has been caught up in the wheels of “mediatised” justice, she receives support from one of the old revolutionary leaders of the period, Oreste Scalzone...
- Ufficio Federale della Cultura, Cantone Ticino, Migros Kulturprozent, vangelisch-reformirte Kirche der deutschen Schweiz
(selection):
- 19th Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival, 2015
- 16. Int. Dokumentarfilm Festival, 2001
- 23e Festival International de Films de Femmes, 2001
- 53. Festival internazionale del film di Locarno, 2000
- Solothurner Filmtage, 2001
As a result of judicial proceedings, the female narrator/protagonist/director is forced to relive the memory of her revolutionary past and resume old habits. In her efforts to defend a man who has been caught up in the wheels of “mediatised” justice, she receives support from one of the old revolutionary leaders of the period, Oreste Scalzone. He continues both to practise and defend the credo of these early days, obsessed by a need to keep their meaning from being betrayed, and to avoid corporal punishment. Reflecting on the past, the narrator thinks back on the selfless way her father accepted her revolutionary stance and showed understanding, even though it caused him suffering. Shortly before his unexpected death she succeeds in expressing her gratitude. In the meantime the idea of the film has begun to take shape. The bond with Giorgio Bellini, the man caught up in the judicial proceedings, has been strengthened by the desire to capture it on film. Memory can be used as a path to free the mind from the dead weight of old resentments, through the power of love. The words she managed to find again for her father have helped to break the circle of rebellion/dependence which tied the director to men, and to the world as it is. The relationship with her mother suddenly appears in an entirely new light.
Born in Locarno, Francesca Solari worked in Ticino as a journalist before studying film in Paris. With Addio Lugano Bella, produced by Ventura Films, the protagonist - narrator and director - traces the judicial vicissitudes of Giorgio Bellini, the Ticino resident arrested in 1994 by the Swiss police and accused of having participated in the preparation of an attack on a radio station in Munich (Freies Europa) in 1981. Like Bellini or Oreste Scalzone, director Francesca Solari has shared the ideals and protest activities of the Italian extra-parliamentary left since 1968. By interviewing the actors of this period, who are like herself involved in the film, she evokes these years of political struggle, with their hopes and their anger. This collective story of "radical criticism, existential and political revolt" was also an opportunity for Francesca Solari to question her own past. The film introduces the director's mother and daughter: "By revisiting memory," she explains, "we can free love from the weight of hate". Through interviews, "gestures, phrases taken from reality", the film takes on the aspect of a narration commented by the director's voiceover. Presented at Locarno in 2000 in the official selection of Cineasti del Presente, the film was nominated for the Swiss Film Prize for best documentary.
Frédéric Maire, Director Cinémathèque Suisse
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