A number of Italian film- and literature-related events are in the offing, Mohamed El-Assyouti can't wait Next Sunday the Fifth Italian Language and Culture Week -- a celebration that takes place in several cultural centres worldwide -- will mark the opening of a film screening and conference programme as well as a photographic exhibition in Cairo. This year being the 30th anniversary of his murder -- 2 November 1975 -- a good portion of the event is dedicated to the Italian poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. An exhibition of photographs from the life of Pasolini, "Il nini muàrt", will be held at the Italian Cultural Centre from 23 October to 6 November. The exhibition expands on the iconography in the second part of the book L'eresia di Pasolini (The Heresy of Pasolini) by Gianni D'Elia, published by Effigie. Provided courtesy of the archives of Effigie and the Pasolini Foundation at Bologna, the images synthesise the artist's life journey: childhood at Casarsa della Delizia in Friuli; university years in Bologna; return to Casarsa; and last years in Roma, with literature, cinema, persecution and death. The exhibition includes 140 photographs curated by Giovanni Giovannetti while Bianca Garavelli will make a presentation on the exhibition on Thursday 27 November at 3pm. The Pasolini film screening tribute includes eight of his works: the trilogy of life -- Il Decameron (1971), I racconti di Canterburry (Canterburry Tales, 1972), and I fiore delle mille e una notte (The Arabian Nights, 1974) -- the Greek trilogy -- Medea (1969), Edipo Re (Oedipus Rex, 1967), Appunti per un' Orestiade africana (Notes towards an African Orestes, 1975)) -- and adaptations of his own novel Teorema (Theorem, 1968) and Il vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospels According to Saint Matthew, 1964). In the first mentioned three films, the fragmented and labyrinthine structure of the mediaeval tale displays the free-spirited playfulness with which he engaged with the medium to the fullest. A free-play of characters and motifs thrust into an authentic setting -- where actual locations in remote countries replace the constructed sets of the mainstream historical movie -- takes precedence over the traditional narrative structure, showing neither linearity nor cohesion. There is also a complete rejection of the codified and standardised aesthetic conventions of the visual medium: masculine frontal nudity, a taboo in the mainstream, supplements the relatively tolerated female frontal nudity. With very few exceptions, Pasolini cast no stars in his films, giving non-professional actors -- sometimes non-native speakers of Italian -- plenty of space in his work. This quality of directing unfamiliar faces, sometimes in locations never filmed before -- Ethiopia, Yemen, Iran and Nepal for his Arabian Nights -- combined with the use of a hand-held, documentary-style camera, gives Pasolini's cinema a unique freshness and elegance of expression. Tuesday 25 October, 11am, is time for lectures, on the other hand. Danilo Baöa, of the Faculty of Al-Alsun, University of Minya, speaks about the literature and cinema of Pasolini; while Raffaelina Cammarano of the Faculty of Literature, Cairo University, discusses the Commissioner Montelbano from Camilleri to Zingaretti; and Dario Breda, of the Faculty of Al-Alsun, Ain Shams University, under the title "Through the labyrinth into the invisible cities: The narrative of Italo Calvino", illuminates the work of one of Italy's best appreciated writers. All of which leads up to the main conference, Italian Language and Literature: from Page to Screen, from 12pm to 2pm on Thursday 27 October. Here university professors, journalists, literary critics and filmmakers will present papers on the relationship between Italian cinema and literature, addressing the issue of adaptation of literary works to the screen, specific features of the language and communication characterising the family, the school and sports and variously effective ways of respresenting them. Marco Bazzocchi, of the University of Bologna, discusses "Conflicts and languages in the family: from Pasolini to Ginsburg, from Scola to Muccino". Lorenzo Buccella of l'Unità newspaper, investigates "School in the narratives and cinema of D Starnone and D Luchetti". Dante specialist and Avvenire newspaper writer Bianca Garavelli seeks out the influences of Dante on Italian cinema in her paper "Dante superstar". Giuseppe Iannaccone of the Rome III University speaks about "The language of football in narratives and films". Flaviano Masella of the TV station Rai News 24 discusses the journey of Ammaniti's book Io non ho paura (I Have No Fear) from page to screen, under the title "Io non ho paura of Niccol� Ammaniti: from book to film". Enrico Brizzi, author of the best-selling novel Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo (Jack Frusciante Went out of the Group) -- first published in Italy in 1994, now available in translation in 24 countries -- speaks about the cinematic adaptation of his work. The discussion will be moderated by Luigi Mascheroni of Il Giornale newspaper, Piero Negri from Rollingstone magazine, Pietro Treccagnoli from Il Mattino newspaper and Manuel Gandin from Club3 magazine. The event is coordinated by Roberto Carnero from Milano Summer University.
