January is the month of good resolutions and for 20 years Rai has beenthe time to remember Giorgio Gaber and Fabrizio De Andrè, both of whomdied this month. This year, then, the opportunity was double. If for theMilanese singer-songwriter, who died on 1 January 2003, the occasion wasthe screening of the documentary "Io, noi e Gaber", released just a fewmonths ago at the cinema, for the Genoese singer-songwriter it wasinstead the 25th anniversary of his death, with public television whichin this case opted for a simpler retrieval from the rich archive.Allergic as I am to anniversaries, I still subjected myself to viewingthese tributes. Partly because these are two still fundamental artists,with incredible writing and wonderful voices, partly because I amfascinated by the life paths of these two men born bourgeois who thenbecome a little anarchic (Gaber) and a more completely anarchist (DeAndrè), partly because I want to be surprised by the ability of statebodies like Rai to misrepresent and trivialize complex thoughts.The documentary "Io, noi e Gaber" immediately betrays the authorialdesire of Riccardo Milani, who is also a well-known film director and isalways looking for the effective shot or suggestive juxtaposition, evenif it often turns out to be didactic. If it is true that it is difficultto make Gaber's theater-song accessible to the new generations, it isundeniable that Milani tries very timidly, preferring to give only onespace to the "young quota" and peppering the documentary with bourgeoisand "illustrious" voices. Indeed, the testimonies are all "excellent" -journalists, singers, TV presenters, politicians, actors - and anunpleasant "guess who will be next" effect is generated which underminesthe story. There aren't even captions to introduce who is speaking fromtime to time, evidently we rely on the fact that watching thedocumentary will be veterans and nostalgics. Above all because the onlygaze allowed is, in fact, that of the artist, the only one who can talkabout Italy changing together with Gaber's lyrics, first light andpredominantly Milanese, then socially committed and finally bitter andresigned. There is no space for the opinion of a scholar on the economicboom or the j'accuse of "I if I were God", the feminist analysis of lovesongs, not even a voice of an ordinary person who tells us what it meantor what Gaber means to her. There are few moments worthy of note: theversion of "Addio Lugano bella" with five guitars and five voices(Giorgio Gaber, Enzo Jannacci, Lino Toffolo, Otello Profazio andSilverio Pisu), imposed, so it seems, by the most well-known andpowerful of the five artists, that is Gaber, to a recalcitrant TV at thebeginning: Gaber who in an interview at the theater conducted by hisfriend Mario Capanna says that "'68 changed me"; Luporini (the trueauthor of the theater-song) who says of Gaber that he "was a lowermiddle class but with a drive for change and curiosity". For the rest,the documentary lingers too much on the memories of her daughter Dalia.But this is a flaw that unfortunately De Andrè also has to deal with.More generally: never let family members treat artists. Under theircontrol, the return of a glance becomes an affective meatloaf. Forexample, the fiction "The Free Prince" had done this, which hadcompressed ideology and existence outside the box into the most obviousof narratives. Luckily RaiPlay, Rai's web platform, has chosen to takeadvantage of the potential of the web and has guaranteed for the monthof January the possibility of enjoying Fabrizio De André's fewtelevision appearances. What emerges is a rare sensitivity, the abilityto weigh every single word, the hard-won gift of rejecting thedeleterious mechanism of visibility that trivializes any message. Two inparticular are my favorite moments. In the first report, introduced by avery young and then unknown Christian De Sica, Gaber and De Andrè areinterviewed on the choice, then very new, to include some of their songsin school anthologies. For a Gaber who limits himself to providing amodest comment ("this thing makes me laugh a little, it embarrasses me,maybe it's not the case"), De Andrè is more multifaceted: at thebeginning he admits the injection of self-esteem, with a witty phrase("I happened to tell it to some friends"), and then walking away from itshortly after, confessing annoyance at the obligation of having to studyit and learn it by heart, and adding at the end that in his songs thelyrics without the music make little sense. The other noteworthy momentis the visit of a Rai crew at the time of the retreat to the farmhousein the countryside in Sardinia.There is a naturalness that almost stuns, an absence of poses that inthe absolute fiction of today's TV shines even more: to the journalistwho tells of the difficulties in reaching the place thesinger-songwriter replies by explaining the works carried out and thoseto be carried out, and then the lunch with friends, the shyness of hisson Cristiano, the loving eyes of his wife Dori Ghezzi who withtrepidation waits to join Andrea's choir, played by De Andrè and his sonin one of the most beautiful moments of Italian TV, the toast to RenzoArbore with De Andrè who asks who has the empty glasses and instead theyare all already full. We really seem to be there, confirming that artbelongs to everyone and not the prerogative of a few, of the bourgeoiswho would like it all for themselves and who see it rather as anexcluding tool.Andrea Turcohttps://www.sicilialibertaria.it/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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