In collaboration with the Guido Molinari Foundation, we are looking back at 1968 in Italy. Like in France, it was a year of demands, protests, and social movements. Artists were no exception and, during this period, produced works that directly reflected the context in radical aesthetic forms. The current exhibition at the Guido Molinari Foundation explores this era through the eyes of artists Ulysse Comtois and Guido Molinari, who were featured at the time in the Canadian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. On the cinematic front, dissent was brewing at the Mostra, the famous festival on the Lido. Italian works from Pasolini, Bene, and Baldi capture this atmosphere.
An unemployed bricklayer, stressed out, shoots at a statue of the Virgin Mary during a procession. He then barricades himself in his home with his family. The police try to persuade him to surrender.
Gian Vittorio Baldi
Gian Vittorio Baldi is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. In 1955, he made his debut as a documentary filmmaker, and won the Golden Lion for Best Short Film at the Venice International Film Festival for Il pianto delle zitelle (1958). His 1960 film, La casa delle vedove, also received critical acclaim, being nominated for an Academy Award. The following year, he directed for the first time for a feature film, as his segment La prova d'amore was part of the omnibus film Gli Italiani e l'amore. He directed several independent films, generally characterized by social criticism. Starting in 1967, he also worked as a producer of art films. He founded the company IDI Cinematografia, through which he produced films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, and many others.
Presented in collaboration with
