Figueres 11-5-1904 Figueres 23-1-1989 Valle de la Sangre 23-1-2019
During the winter of 1992 I found myself walking in front of an
open-air bookshop by the seafront of Pescara. I was looking for a book
about cats. On the shelf above the volumes dedicated to felines, I saw a
cover in which a bald man seemed to look for something at his feet,
standing against a wide semi-desert landscape whose perspective receded
to the sea horizon. It was the Salvador Dali's painting "The Pharmacist
of Ampurdan seeking absolutely nothing”. And that was the cover of one
of the first monographs published after his death. By a meaningful
coincidence, someone had recently created a chalk fresco copy of Dali's
"Corpus Hypercubicus" on the near square dominated by the Pietro
Cascella's fountain "The ship". Until then I didn’t know so much about
him. At 7 I just read a brief bio in an old book while stuck in bed for
recovering from a fever. In the same period, I glanced at a framed print
of “Woman with a head of roses” in the dim light of a room in my
maternal uncle’s house. I felt there was something familiar and ominous
in the mood of that image, as if it was a slide flickering from an age
(not a different life) I lived prior to my childhood. That archaic
feeling haunted my infancy, making me enjoy more the mysteries of places
and books evoking solitude and distant past than the company of my
playmates. Sometime when I was sick and alone in my bed leafing through
artbooks, my cat stared at me from behind the glass of the French
window. Only that non-human presence was able to share and preserve the
magic of that solitude. Somehow it was fateful that, while looking for a manual about cats I ended up buying one about the quest for nothing. That enthralling Nothing was waiting to be populated by the hidden fauna swarming in the sea of Time in front of me.
AFAN Alessandro Fantini plays
Christopher Marlowe's DOCTOR FAUSTUS
Over his last hour, Doctor Faustus vainly struggles to save his soul from a past of ambition and lust, as he gets closer and closer to the future price he's doomed to pay in the eternity promised by the devil's deal.
Alessandro
Fantini, versatile artist working in a wide range of artistic expressions, from painting to filmmaking, who had presented the singular
science fiction feature film Edonism at the
first edition of the Selva Nera film festival, of Italian production but shot
entirely in Japan, is back with a short film (excerpted from the seven episodes
webseries)always characterized by intelligence
and sense of the grotesque, which will appeal to lovers of that branch
of the most bizarre fantasy fiction.
Dr. Malorda solves your problems, but be careful what you ask for ...
Stefano Bovi and Massimo Bezzati, founders and directors of the SELVA NERA FILM FESTIVAL
Get ready for the You Tube premiere of my indie movie "New York, a venture" shot in Manhattan
and screened at the Dobbs Ferry Movies4movies film festival in 2017.
Share the watch page and make sure to be there tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. (Central European Time).