From the book to the screen: Sense and sensibility in Bassani’s filmography

Abstract

This is a detailed study of the film adaptations of three prose works by Giorgio Bassani that have been made for the commercial cinema during three decades: La lunga notte del ’43 (1960), Il giardino dei Finzi Contini (1970) and Gli occhiali d’oro (1987). The analysis of the films is centred principally on the respective directors (Florestano Vancini, Vittorio De Sica, Giuliano Montaldo), the scripts, actors, technical visual aspects and scores, but it is above all a comparison between the three films and the narratives on which they are based, in which use is made of the statements and recorded opinions of Bassani himself. The three films are all very different from one another. Attention is drawn to the distinctive characteristics of each, considering them as works whose autonomy goes beyond that of the respective literary original. In short, this chapter is an attempt to draw out the meaning of the adaptations and to evaluate to what extent the films may be considered interpretations or defined readings of the prose narratives in each case.