Film su carta. "Un paese" di Strand e Zavattini

The photobook Un paese (1955) constitues an exceptional encounter between the neorealistic project of an Italian writer, Cesare Zavattini, and the aesthetic experience of an American photographer-filmmaker, Paul Strand. The essay examines the ideas on realism which guide these authors and the intermedial dimension in which both of them operate. The dialogue between photography, cinema and literature is related with the new culture of the image asserting itself in post-WWII Italy. Finally, attention is put on the composition of Un paese, on the relationship between writing and photography, on the narrative articulation of the text. A special attention is devoted to the Lusetti family’s icon (which appears on the book cover) to reflect, besides the particularities of Strand's gaze, on the anthropological and social research which is at the basis of the project of Un paese and which will also shape Un paese vent'anni dopo (1976) through Zavattini's collaboration with another photographer: Gianni Berengo Gardin.