MILAN – Despite the profound transformations taking place in production and consumption, cinema regularly continues to draw inspiration from literature of every genre and every era. We have already told you about how several very successful films have been inspired by great international best-sellers , as well as by the biographies of the most beloved artists . Now we offer you the ranking of 10 films inspired by the lives of the most famous writers and intellectuals.
1. GIACOMO LEOPARDI – Presented in competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, the “Young fabulous” gives us a fresh and passionate image of the famous poet from Recanati.
2. ARTHUR RIMBAUD– A young Leonardo diCaprio plays the cursed writer in “Poets from Hell,” which focuses on his troubled relationship with his mentor and lover Paul Verlaine. Nudes, sex and the prohibition of minors. The screenplay is based on a play by Christopher Hampton from 1967, and represents an accurate and precise story of their complicated romantic relationship.
3. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE – “Shakespeare in Love” tells the love of the writer William Shakespeare (1564-1616) for a noblewoman, Lady Viola (who pretends to be a man to be an actor) during the preparation of “Romeo and Juliet”. The two fall in love during the preparation of the opera that will later be a triumph, crowned by Queen Elizabeth, played by actress Judi Dench.
4. KAREN BLIXEN– The love between the writer, in Kenya to marry a baron, and the adventurer Denys is a cult. Between poignant characters and the pride of Blixen interpreted in “My Africa” by the extraordinary Meryl Streep.
5. PIER PAOLO PASOLINI – In “Pasolini” the last hours lived by the great intellectual are told, before his death. In the film, an outstanding Willem Dafoe finds an incredible physical resemblance, but director Abel Ferrara totally renounces the historical truth.
6. ALLEN GINSBERG– In “Young Rebels” the writers of the beat generation jump on the benches, discover literature and fall in love. The film, set between 1943 and 1945, tells of the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr and how this involves three great poets of the Beat Generation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Allen Ginsberg is played by the young and talented Daniel Radcliffe.
7. TRUMAN CAPOTE– “In Cold Blood (Capote)” is a 2005 film, directed by Bennett Miller, based on the life of the American writer Truman Capote, in particular on the research and in-depth work carried out by the author in preparation for his novel “In Cold Blood ”, Capote’s last completed work. Thanks to this film, Philip Seymour Hoffman wins the Oscar for Best Actor in 2006.
8. VIIRGINIA WOOLF – Story of three women linked by the novel ‘Mrs Dalloway’ written by Virginia Woolf and read by the other two with devastating results. In one of the stories told by Woolf herself (played by Nicole Kidman) we are in the twenties, when the writer is no longer able to control her deadly exhaustion.
9. OSCAR WILDE– Some cowboys are arriving in a desert area and here comes a man who looks like he came from another planet, dressed in highly sought-after clothes. And Oscar Wilde who went to visit the miners. Starting from this original episode in Wilde’s life and continuing with the marriage, the director describes the heterosexual period of the author of “Salome”. After that we witness the change of man and the relationship with the young Lord Alfred. 10. CHARLES DICKENS– In the movie “The Invisible Woman” and 1857: Charles Dickens is 45 when he meets 18-year-old Nelly Ternan. Their relationship is kept hidden but soon the rumors spread so much that the writer separates from his wife without making explicit a bond that will last until his disappearance. Later Nelly will marry a man twelve years younger.
January 30, 2015
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