Big party at culture ministry for Liliana Cavani’s 90th birthday, eternal girl
The tribute to the director is a real happening. There are no souls in pain but one great soul. From Giovanna Ralli to Pupi Avati, fromPaolo Sorrentino to Michele Placido. And all those politicians who call art “thou”. She meanwhile is set to return to theaters with “The Order of Time.”
The enchanting witch with wavy white hair and a red scarf, Barbara Alberti, utters a ringing truth: “We are the young people who last enjoyed the right to be young.” And here she is the young among the young. Liliana Cavani celebrates her 90th birthday amid kisses, hugs and slices of cake in the Ministry of Culture library.
In the aftermath of the so-called holidays, in fact, Gennaro Sangiuliano’s Ministry turns into an open house.
It is a real happening. No documents at the entrance. Only one watchword: “We are here for Cavani’s party.”
Everyone was there on Monday to pay tribute to her. With Vittorio Sgarbi psychopomping a great soul to wander through the Archaeology and Art History library on Via del Collegio Romano. No masks or passes are discernible. There is just a vague invitation via WhatsApp and, at the entrance, a checkroom. And there are no souls in pain but one big soul, precisely. With all those politicians who give art a “thou”. There is Fausto Bertinotti who for a moment revisits I Cannibali in the darkness of a movie theater, with cigarette fumes incensing the naked bodies before the eyes of that Milan of his. Luciano Violante, who – a gentleman – apologizes to her for having appointed her as a member of the CDA of Rai in the days of the presidency of the Chamber: for having confined her, in short, in what for an artist is a black hole, Viale Mazzini. And then Gianni Letta, in love with his films. And again Walter Veltroni who dumbs everything down a bit and thunders in obvious barrels of scarcity: “it must have been hard to be a woman back then…” (but it’s also okay to tone it down a bit: it’s good not to take oneself too seriously).
