The History of Morante on the Screen

Abstract

This interpretation of the cinematographic version of the novel La Storia by Luigi Comencini is far from a re-signification of the literary text. We will prove that this director, who has a pedagogical intent but opposes the political use of the cinema (and pays attention to avoid the typical pitiability of the Neo Realism) faithfully respects the Morant’s aims. He makes a film on the innocence threatened by death and violence during the war (at the same manner, innocence is threatened by education during the peace). Useppe is our own conscience in front of the history. Comencini deliberately simplifies the contents of Morante’s novel, which are transformed in exemplary scenes: the first of them on the equivocations of vitality, the second on the destroyed innocence, the third on Jewishness, the fourth on incoherence, etc. Comencini explicates the relation between the micro-history and the macro-history, which intersect one to each other although they don’t go ahead in parallel, using old documentary which alternate with the history of the main characters. The genesis of every historical event is an human act (or an human failed act).