by Maelle Arnaud, Director of Programming of the festival

Maelle Arnaud, Director of Programming of the festival talks about the cinema of Ettore Scola

How would you define the films of Scola?

Melancholy. And more specifically, the melancholic theme of the passing of time. This is apparent in We All Loved Each Other So Much and in The Pizza Triangle / Jealousy, Italian Style. Love is there, but then slips away, like in What Time Is It, or during a single day, the time frame of the absolute masterpiece A Special Day. Scola tells us that sometimes we need time to stand still for an encounter to take place. I love this notion immensely: observing time, recognizing that things have a temporal quality. And it means looking back at times, yet without ever getting stuck in the past, simply being present, right here.

 

What was the most significant contribution of his cinema?

In addition to working as a screenwriter for Italian comedy, he was also its heir, as exemplified by the dark, biting, social comedy Ugly, Dirty and Bad. It’s the connection with the cinema that came before him, tinged with a sense of disappointment twenty years after the war. Faith in the economic boom was gone. He participated in that golden age. When he turned to directing, he introduced a sense of melancholy that had been missing up until then. His films are not devoid of a political component, but he infuses them with tenderness. One senses that, through his directing, he brings one era to a close and ushers in a new one, questioning Italian society in a slightly different way.

Your favorite work from the retrospective ?

A Special Day is such a beautiful love story. I find it incredible that a film could be made about two lonely people who manage to talk to each other, even though it takes them a whole day to do so. Those words that allow them to express their love and talk about their loneliness are a way of breaking free from it. It really moves me. What Time Is It is similar, with a father and son engaging in conversation.