Carmelo Bene on stage

with Jean-Paul Manganaro, Piergiorgio Giacchè and Gioia Costa
"Art is life, as an event that can never be repeated, that only lives once. That's why a work of art is dead material, it's a corpse voided of the event.  The fate of a work of art doesn't lie in the work itself, it's art at work, it's the artist's production transcending the work."  (only if you can make an effort, otherwise d [...]

Alessandra Mammì, a journalist and art historian, interviews Claudio Abate on his militancy in the theatre and hid experience alongside Carmelo Bene, on his work on artists, on the pathways of his experimentation and on his generous posture as a witness.

directed by Carmelo Bene, 1968, 125 min
Introduced by Lydia Mancinelli
An imaginary autobiography, this film won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and triggered a public outcry.  It is a short-circuit of images, words and music that denies all form of communication:  "I don't want my films to communicate anything at all...  I believe the time has now come... [...]

directed by Carmelo Bene, 1969, 95 min
Presented at the Cannes Film Festival and hailed with enthusiasm by French critics, this is "a delirious film, deliberately unpleasant... without pretence, naked, raw, wretched", a declaration of war on the vulgarity of the image.

directed by Carmelo Bene, 1972, 80 min
Salomè is a forceful depiction of the possibility that the cinematographic vision may have run its course. With its editing verging on the subliminal and its use of refracting adhesive material, this film, which so appealed to De Chiric, his defender along with Turcato, Arbasino and Flaiano during the disorders that it stirred up at the Veni [...]

1st moment - Language, 2nd moment - Knowledge and Awareness
directed by Carmelo Bene, 2001-2004, 62 min
Bene produced four episodes for the RAI, in which he clarified the intellectual sources and artistic alliances that lie beneath the complexity of his theatrical machinery:  a reflection on his work alternated with shots of his work for film and television, [...]

directed by Monica Maurer and Dietrich Schubert, 1971, 30 min
Introduced by Monica Maurer
A stringent portrait on the brink of the 1970s, produced by the future assistant director of the film Salomè.  Filmed by "candid camera" in accordance with the actor's own wishes, this documentary bears extraordinary witness to special moments in his career and public life.

Fol [...]

3 rd moment - Eros, 4 th moment - Art
directed by Carmelo Bene, 2001-2004, 46 min
Bene produced four episodes for the RAI, in which he clarified the intellectual sources and artistic alliances that lie beneath the complexity of his theatrical machinery:  a reflection on his work alternated with shots of his work for film and television, a case of "theory com [...]

directed by Carmelo Bene, 1974, 97 min
"There are no large or small screens, there are only large or small brains". Bene experiments with all of the possibilities offered by the medium of video, emancipating television from the cinema.  Four Russian poets, including the extremely popular Mayakovsky: pure lyricism enflamed, set to music by Vittorio Gelmetti.

directed by Paolo Brunatto, 1966, 20 min
Filmed during rehearsals for the peformance of Il Rosa e il Nero, this is a visual testimony of the exceptional climate of cultural creativity and cooperation that involved not only Bene but also Sylvano Bussotti, Aldo Braibanti, Vittorio Gelmetti and Maria Monti.

directed by Carmelo Bene, 2002, 76 min
Introduced by Roberta Carlotto
It was not until 2001 and 2002 that Bene decided to complete the editing of the Othello that he had made for television and then abandoned in 1979, returning to the origin of his poetic subversion:  colour, light, editing, music and voice become linguistic devices which he uses to enhance an image that rec [...]