Rome (NEV), 10 June 2022 – The Conference on religion and cinema, entitled “Visions for a better world: cinema and politics of lived religion“. Also among the speakers Peter CiaccioMethodist pastor, “pop” theologian, writer and president of the Protestant cinema association “Roberto Sbaffi”. The latter, together with INTERFILM (organization that gathers delegates from Protestant and ecumenical film associations in Europe), supports their participation. Peter Ciaccio brings a contribution on the embodied spirituality of Liliana CavaniItalian director and screenwriter.
The conference, hosted by the Faculty of Religion and Theology of the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam, opened with the opening of John Lyden on “Life in the Multiverse: Bringing Chaos Out of Order? (“Life in the Multiverse: Bringing Chaos Out of Order?”).
“This is an academic conference that is usually held across the ocean – says Peter Ciaccio -. This year, however, it takes place here in Europe. There are about 70 participants from all over the world ”.
Cinema, multi-verse, portals …
Regarding the opening speech by John Lyden, professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha and editor of a magazine on cinema and religion, Ciaccio says: “Lyden proposed a reflection on the concept of the multiverse. It is not simply a cinematic issue. Cinema reflects a trend contrary to the ‘universal’ dimension. And we see this in the radicalizations that exist in parallel worlds and in reality itself. Lyden gave the example of the January 6, 2021 attempted coup in the United States. In that context, there were people who truly believed the elections were rigged. And convinced that their behavior was correct. There was, in fact, this coexistence which then in reality turned into a clash of multi-verses. In cinema, it is often thought that the only way to safeguard diversity is to ensure that the portal between the multi-verses remains closed. The most interesting aspect of this lecture concerns the fact that, despite the illusion of isolation and loneliness (as if we were all alone in front of the computer, as if we were always isolated from each other), the real challenge is to take awareness of the fact that we all live together. Cinema deals with this issue, which instead is often ignored by both politics and opinion makers ”.
Peter Ciaccio’s contribution is taken from an essay published last year in the book “Liliana Cavani. Cinema and films ”, edited by Pedro Armocida And Cristiana Paternò for Marsilio.
Liliana Cavani
“One of the first female directors to gain attention in European cinema was Liliana Cavani (born in 1933) – reads the abstract of Ciaccio’s report -. Cavani comes from a rural setting in Northern Italy and began his career in RAI ”. Cavani has directed groundbreaking television productions, including History of the Third Reich, The Stalin Years, Women of the Resistance and Philippe Pétain. About her I note her Francesco d’Assisi (1966), which has no less than two remakes, one in 1989 and the other in 2014, of her last film by her.
“The spirituality in Cavani’s films is linked to an earthly dimension – writes Ciaccio -: Heaven lives on earth, the divine lives in the human. It is a hidden link, just like in the theology of St Paul, St Augustine and Martin Luther. […] Cavani’s eye seeks a spiritual meaning that can only be achieved by falling to the ground, or even underground. Like Jesus, Francesco, Galileo, Antigone and others, in her works she chooses the point of view of the impotent margin ”.