Elisabetta Sgarbi

Cinema is water because it is the shifting, irregular and continuous reflection of our lives. Cinema mirrors itself in the water to the point of becoming its own truth.

Elisabetta Sgarbi

Elisabetta Sgarbi, who was Chief Editor of the Bompiani publishing house, founded and is General Director and Chief Editor of the La Nave di Teseo publishing house.  She was responsible for the publication of Ressurga da la tumba by Pietro Andrea de’ Bassi (1986), the Essential phrase book (for making it through society unobserved) by Ennio Flaiano (with Vanni Scheiwiller, 1986) and for Scritti dispersi by Savinio (1989). Her debut as a film director came about in 1999. In November 2000, her short This is my Chocky Message took part in the London Film Festival. In 2002 she directed La notte che si sposta – Gianfranco Ferroni, which was selected for the 59^th Venice International Film Festival. 2003 saw the medium-length film Fantasmi di voce – Antonio Stagnoli, presented at the 60^th Venice International Film Festival. Her first feature film, produced by Betty Wrong and Istituto Luce, Notte senza fine, Amore, tradimento, incesto, based on texts by Amin Maalouf, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Hanif Kureishi, and featuring Galatea Ranzi, Toni Servillo, Laura Morante and Anna Bonaiuto, was presented in the competition at the Torino Film Festival. The film Palladio, la luce della ragione – with text by Vittorio Sgarbi – was released in 2005. In 2006, she made Apparizioni – Mathias Grunewald, selected for the Torino Film Festival, and Tresigallo, dove il marmo è zucchero, selected for the 59^th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, and was published with Diego Marani’s book La bicicletta incantata. In 2007 she filmed Le Nozze nascoste o La Primavera di Sandro Botticelli, published with Giovanni Reale’s text. That same year a film on the terracotta lamentations in Emilia-Romagna, Il pianto della statua, with music by Franco Battiato and Roberto Cacciapaglia, took part in the Locarno Film Festival. In 2008 she directed Non chiederci la parola – Il Granteatro montano del Sacro Monte di Varallo. In 2009, she worked on L’ultima salita. La Via Crucis di Beniamino Simoni, presented at the 61^st edition of the Locarno Film Festival, and La Stanza della Segnatura. In the same year, her Deserto Rosa/Luigi Ghirri was presented at the 66^th Venice International Film Festival. In 2010, she made the feature-length documentary on Italian culture, Se hai una montagna di neve tienila all’ombra, for Rai Cinema, which was presented at the 67^th Venice International Film Festival. In the course of the 68^th Venice International Film Festival in 2011, her account of the avant-garde entitled Quiproquo, which included Eugenio Lio’s interviews with intellectuals, artists and other Italians was presented together with the short Prove per un Naufragio della Parola with Fabrizio Gifuni and Sonia Bergamasco, based on a text by Edoardo Nesi. In 2012, she made two films about the city of Trieste: Il viaggio della Signorina Vila, which was presented in the competition at the 7^th edition of the Roma Film Festival, and Trieste la contesa, made for Rai Storia. In 2013 she made Quando i tedeschi non sapevano nuotare and Racconti d’amore, both presented at the 8^th Roma Film Festival. In 2014, she began a trilogy on water with Per soli uomini and Il pesce siluro è innocente. The trilogy was completed with Il pesce rosso dov’è?, presented at the 72^nd  Venice International Film Festival. Her latest film is Colpa di comunismo (2015).

The Milanesiana Literature Music Cinema Science Art Philosophy and Theatre Festival is her brainchild and she has been the art director for seventeen years.