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Stay safe! #45 – 4 giugno

Durante la chiusura al pubblico dell’Istituto, in questa pagina vi proponiamo testi e riflessioni di amici e scrittori, talvolta scritti per l’occasione, scelti ogni giorno per voi. Oggi, Georgia Panteli.

‘Pinocchio Returns’

Most of us are familiar with Pinocchio, the most famous representative of Italian identity and culture around the world. The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi, is the second most translated non-religious book in the world, after Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, the story of another adventurous little boy. Pinocchio’s popularity can also be seen in the numerous and ever so popular retellings of the story.

Some remember him for being naughty, others for his growing nose when lying, and others know him from his more docile Disney adaptation with the beautiful Blue Fairy, who has lost her original ambiguity in her Hollywood blonde version. But Pinocchio is ultimately the symbol of transformation, the puppet who desires to be human and achieves it. He is a metaphor for any human aspiration to become something more.

Over Christmas a new Pinocchio appeared in the Italian cinemas, a beautiful version by Matteo Garrone, with Roberto Benigni this time as Geppetto. Garrone’s dubbed version of the film with Italian actors would be coming to English speaking cinemas now but the Corona outbreak changed these plans. Let’s hope we will see it on television soon.

At the same time Hollywood is preparing a comeback for Pinocchio. Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, has announced a live action adaptation of Collodi’s tale next year. This is a very ambitious production using stop-motion animation and with actors such as Tilda Swinton as the Blue Fairy, David Bradley as Geppetto and Ewan McGregor as Pinocchio. Moreover, the music score, which will include several songs, is being composed by prolific film composer and Hollywood favourite Alexandre Desplat.

Del Toro’s dark adaptation takes place in 1930s Italy, not a first time for Pinocchio to visit this historical period. Both Italian and English retellings of Pinocchio have placed him there before. In my book From Puppet to Cyborg: Pinocchio’s Posthuman Journey (forthcoming by LEGENDA in 2021) I talk about one such example: Jerome Charyn’s postmodern Pinocchio. In his Pinocchio’s Nose (1983), Charyn renarrates a version of Pinocchio set in Italy during Fascist times. Could it be the case that del Toro took Charyn’s text into account for his script? We can only wait and see.

Georgia Panteli, lecturer, University of Vienna

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