As in a look. A gaze that moves whoever gives it, who receives it, whoever is in its midst. This is the cinema we love, dream of and hope to see again on a big screen.
On June 8, 2022, the 23rd edition of SacroexpoInternational Exhibition of Sacred Art and devotional objects, constructions and fittings for the Churches.
Since 2005, during the course of this exhibition, it has been decided to award a medal with the title For Artem ad Deumas a recognition of value, to artists of great stature, belonging to all disciplines, who in some way make themselves an instrument to reach God, as a sign of a dialogue with the whole culture.
And last one Tuesday 31st May the ceremony for the delivery of this medal took place. Recipient: Giuseppe Tornatore. Issuer: what now it was the Pontifical Council for Culture in accordance with the Chapter of the fair SacroExpo of Kielce.
Also present at the ceremony Dr. Andrzej Mochoń, the President of the Fair, Msgr. Henryk Mieczysław Jagodziński, apostolic nuncio, Msgr. Marian Florczyk, auxiliary bishop of Kielce, the monsignors of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Paul Tighesecretary, Tomasz Trafny and Lech Piechota and also Marek Sorgowicki, Chargé d’affaires of the Polish Embassy to the Holy See.
Last take for the Pontifical Council for Culture
It was because it is precisely in these days its cessation as a consequence of the reform of the Curia desired by Pope Francis and the birth of a new Dicastery, namely the one for Culture and Education which will have a single new prefect.
The outgoing President of the Pontifical Council, who in some way was its soul and spearhead, presided over the handover ceremony: His Eminence the Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi.
And Ravasi himself, after explaining the role of the Pontifical Council for Culture which has always sponsored this Medal, also told us what his contribution and intention was, or rather “I wanted to bring this award a little higher, assigning it to personalities that they somehow represented not so much a direct relationship with the sacredbut that they had somehow a tension towards the eternal, the infinite, the mystery that surrounds the human personwho consider the human person as an island on whose skin, however, the waves of the ocean, that is, of the infinite, of the mystery beat ”.
The Award to Giuseppe Tornatore
In fact, he himself promoted the proposal for the attribution of this prestigious award to director Giuseppe Tornatore.
Also very happy with the awarding of this medal to the Italian director Andrzej Mochonpresident of the Fair as we have said and member of the Chapter that evaluates and votes the proposals that have emerged year by year.
Part of this Chapter is also another director quite at home in Italy, Krzysztof Zanussihimself awarded this recognition a few years ago.
Mochon explained what was the origin of SacroExpo and what is the intention that drives it: “we wanted to create quality, a place where artists and artisans could meet, talk to each other and at the same time also meet the their potential clients, clergymen, monks ”.
And he too focuses on how in this fair one can also meet artists in search of God, therefore “an art considered sacred in a broad sense”.
And the medal itself For Artem ad Deuma valuable artifact, somehow wants to be a concrete sign of a tension, a dialogue, a vocation both for this annual event, as well as for the Pontifical Council for Culture itself.
Mochon says he is happy that Tornatore has accepted this award, that “Although it is a different award from the others, it considers it just as important in itself“.
Also Msgr.Paul Tighe he declares to appreciate Tornatore’s cinema for being able, working almost always in his homeland, Sicily, “to talk about particular things, also bringing out the universal aspect”.
He remembers with pleasure the work of Tornatore Are all well and declares that he prefers the fact that “it makes us think, reflect, imagine and in this there is an aspect of spirituality, for me, which invites us to see beyond things, to understand more”.
The delivery of the Medal
For the occasion, Tornatore received the medal and a diploma from the hands of Cardinal Ravasi himself and Andrzej Mochon, delivered exceptionally for the first time in Italy, or rather in the Vatican city.
In fact, since this Medal has existed, it has always been awarded in Poland, during the SacrtoExpo Exhibition.
Among the names of those who received it there are also those of great Italian artists, such as Mario Botta (2014), Arnaldo Pomodoro (2016), Ennio Morricone (2012) and, indeed, from this year too Giuseppe Tornatore.
“Ennio”: the correspondence between Morricone and Tornatore
And it is certainly striking that in the year in which his latest film is released Enniothe documentary (and not only) biographical on the great composer, both Tornatore to receive the same recognition, almost as if there was a fil rouge that united them also in this, to sanction, “if ever there was a need”, the great and deep friendship that binds these two protagonists of our cinema and our music worldwide.
When we asked the director departed from Baaria in Sicily and reached the Oscars if you expected this award, Giuseppe Tornatore he replied:
“I honestly didn’t expect such an important award. I never thought it would be assigned to me ”.
And to the question if he had anything to do with this award Ennio Oh God, he first smiled and then replied:
“I don’t know how to explain this wonderful coincidence […] however it is a very beautiful coincidence, very important because curiously it sanctions and strengthens even more the feeling of friendship that has bound me to Ennio Morricone for many many years. We have worked together for thirty-two years ”.
PS: our subtitle to the movie: The best friend.
Ennio Morricone’s ever-present lesson: every occasion is the decisive one
Continuing the interview, we asked Tornatore which one he thought a profound lesson from Morricone’s work and he rightly replied that it would be “an even dispersed chapter to be presumed to be solved”.
Thus, fishing among the many lessons, he revealed to us one that seems to us really precious:
“For him, any occasion was the opportunity to put into practice any type of research, of experimentation. Therefore his lesson is always being able to find a reason in whatever we are called to give our job, our ability to do “.
We could say that this is the secret of his success, because, continues the director, “this has led him to the high limits he has reached. with the humility of always considering every circumstance the decisive one“.
© Rocco Manuel Spiezio – Aleteia Italy
Tornatore and the too difficult question: that Divine that perhaps exists
Finally, we ventured to ask him what relationship according to him his Art has with God.
“Ah, it is too difficult a question: you never know if what you do can have a relationship with the Divine […] Yes, perhaps there is also some Divine in the act of deciding to tell one story rather than another, but I never experience it from this point of view, that is, I never think of it. If so, it happens by itself, but not because I think it is“.
In this too we seem to grasp a certain “spirituality”, that is, that freedom to face things with a speculative attitude without claiming to be exhaustive, without believing that we have understood everything and therefore also who or what God is, much less possessing him.
Questions more than answers
We would have liked to ask Giuseppe Tornatore more.
For instance, if it happened to him to find himself in the position of teacher and to have a faithful pupil – theme that seems to me to be more or less revealed in his latest Ennio.
But more than sociological issues, we would have been curious to know if you have ever witnessed the miracle of seeing one of your pupils sprout and what he ever felt.
As well as we would have asked him what he would like to leave as a legacy to those who come after him, to the new generations of filmmakers.
It is known that every generation walks on the shoulders of the giants that preceded them. And it is their works that speak to us, their legacy that leads us, to lift us beyond the hedge, to certain goals, “to certain high limits”.
We would have liked to ask him more, but there was no time. Who knows, maybe he’ll answer us in the future, maybe we’ll find the answers in his next film …
Or rather, in one of his films we will find only other new questions combined with emotions. And then, maybe we will feel happier because we will have experienced the Beauty which is always greater and more important than accumulating answers.
That look that tastes like Heaven
It may seem a pure formalitybut since we sincerely still wish to see a certain cinema, we do our best wishes to Giuseppe Tornatore for his career and for his next film that we know he is somehow already preparing.
New wonderful paths, new unpredictable infinities cross the creative soul of the artist and then also that of anyone who will admire and see his works, to make them resonate among themselves, to open in this correspondence new ways are hidden towards that mystery which is in everything and in every person and which when inhabited makes everyone feel more welcomed, more understood, finally recognized.
As in a look. A gaze that moves whoever gives it, who receives it, whoever is in its midst. This is the cinema we love, dream of and hope to see again on a big screen.
This, perhaps, ultimately, can also be the extreme sense of the encounter with that God towards whom we all tend. A place and a time in which we look at each other moved, without obstacles or censorship cuts, lovers forever, lost and finally found.
Perhaps someone still doubts that the Cinema in Paradise?
© Rocco Manuel Spiezio – Aleteia Italy