Author: Massimo Volpe

Schneider and Bertolucci, an [Endless] Last Tango

TORONTO – When Aristotle was stating his law of non-contradiction in the work Gamma of Metaphysics, it wasn’t likely that he imagined a society [in the West at least] as polarized as today’s. “It is impossible for the same thing to belong and not to belong at the same time to the same thing and in the same respect”, wrote the 4th century B.C. Greek Philosopher. In others words, two opposing ideas cannot be true at the same time. But the extreme ideological divides permeating politics and society in the 21st century has created somewhat of a “cancel culture”, a concept that Aristotle would likely not have supported – at least not in the name of his law. And nowhere has this cancel culture been more practiced than within show business. 

CORRIERE CANADESE / Parthenope, Napoli e la “giovinezza perduta”

TORONTO – L’autore italiano e napoletano Luciano De Crescenzo una volta disse che il suo concetto di Napoli è che “non è solo una città ma una componente dell’animo umano che so di poter trovare in tutte le persone, siano esse napoletane o no”. Ma a parte cercare di sciogliere il nodo gordiano o scoccare una freccia attraverso i fori di dodici teste di ascia, non riesco a pensare a un compito più disperato che cercare di definire lo spirito napoletano. Questo ovviamente non ha impedito al regista italiano Paolo Sorrentino di provarci con il suo ultimo film Parthenope, che lui definisce un film sulla “giovinezza perduta”… Read More in Corriere Canadese >>> 

Parthenope, Coming of Age in Napoli

TORONTO – Italian and Neapolitan Author Luciano De Crescenzo once said that his concept of Naples is “not so much of a city, per se, but rather an ingredient of the human spirit that I detect in everyone, Neapolitan or not”. But other than trying to untie the Gordian knot or shooting an arrow through the handles of twelve axes, I can think of no task more hopeless than trying to define the Neapolitan spirit. This of course didn’t stop Italian Director Paolo Sorrentino from giving it a shot with his latest film Parthenope – which he says is a film about “missed youth”.