Liliana Cavani. Carpi celebrates the illustrious fellow citizen with an exhibition at Palazzo dei Pio.

Until January 15, 2023, Palazzo dei Pio hosts the exhibition The eternal return. beyond Good and Evil which closes the trilogy of reviews dedicated to films such as Galileo (2020) and The night porter (2021) with the intention of enhancing the fund that the director donated to the Municipality of Carpi. The review, curated by Francesca Brignoli, conceived and produced by the Municipality of Carpi – Municipal Historical Archive, in collaboration with the Museums of Palazzo dei Pio di Carpi, with the contribution of the Cassa Risparmio di Carpi Foundation, focuses on beyond Good and Evil (1977) one of the most daring and visionary films by Liliana Cavani that tells the limit experience lived by Lou Salomè, Friedrich (Fritz) Nietzsche and Paul Rée and presents processing materials, set photos, sketches, music, posters, articles by print but also significant installations inspired by the scenes of the film, all from the Cavani archive. The exhibition tells the most daring and visionary film by Liliana Cavani, beyond Good and Evil (1977), dedicated to the limit experience lived by Lou Salomè, Friedrich (Fritz) Nietzsche and Paul Rée. Complex and spectacular, the film (titled initially, and always Nietzschean, The eternal return) is inspired by the thought and work of the German philosopher (considered at the time still uncomfortable) and tells of the experiment of the “trinity”: an explosive experience of a relationshipion to three in which the woman is at the apex of an intellectual, psychic and sensual geometry. An anti-rhetorical, passionate, cruel and risky experience that marks the protagonists, forcing Fritz and Paul to make a fatal return to the starting line, while Lou comes out unscathed, adhering to an idea of ​​justice that requires freedom, autonomy, satisfaction of every wish. Free from conventions, beyond the epic categories of good and evil, the woman, a true Nietzschean superman, leaves the nineteenth century and the two beloved men behind her, entering with curiosity and energy into the new century: a time full of expectations (and tragedies) on which densely reverberates the thought of Nietzsche.
The exhibition itinerary is a real journey into the tunnel of history, a story that starting from the film (with the help of processing materials, set photos, sketches, music, posters, press articles but also significant installations inspired by scenes of the film), he returns to the film to return the extraordinary experience of a story beyond any scheme that has become great cinema. The exhibition finally does justice to a film of great cultural commitment and striking visual impact, with which Liliana Cavani confirms her full maturity as a director at an international level, stimulating intellectual debates and triggering crude reactions. Among the collateral events we note, among others, the screening of the film, in collaboration with the Eden Cinema, a series of guided visits to the exhibition and a round table on the Cavani Fund, also in comparison with similar archival experiences of actors and directors such as Ugo Tognazzi, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni.

Carlo Franza

Liliana Cavani. Carpi celebrates the illustrious fellow citizen with an exhibition at Palazzo dei Pio. – Carlo Franza’s blog