From Motherhood to Fatherhood: The Eclipse of Reason in the Taviani Brothers’ <i>Tu ridi</i>

Abstract

The paper presents an in-depth analysis of Tu ridi, a free adaptation of some of Luigi Pirandello’s short stories, realized by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani in 1998. Within a filmography largely characterized by an attention to the historical, social, and political transformations that Italy experienced over the second half of the twentieth century, special attention should be paid to the films the Tavianis made in a close dialogue with literature, a closeness that has always been particularly fortunate for both art forms. Over the decades, they have recurrently practised the art of adaptation bringing to the screen, among other literary texts, several of Luigi Pirandello’s short stories in films such as Tu ridi, and Kaos (1984). Unquestionably, literature has often been instrumental for the Tavianis’ investigation of reality, and my analysis will place in a close dialogue Tu ridi, their 1982 film La notte di San Lorenzo and, last but not least, Kaos, since in all tthree works the Tavianis’ agenda seems to be the same: to interrogate and overturn official historical discourse in order to unveil the complex and multifaceted truth that lies under the surface of things, and thus to rewrite the very narration about Neorealism and its overcoming.