Don’t miss them! These are the 10 Italian TV series of the fall, coming up from September onward that you absolutely must see. (part one here)
Leopardi – The poet of infinity. In Italy on Raiuno in December.
An event miniseries signed by Sergio Rubini, in his first television direction: the story of the life of the poet Giacomo Leopardi filmed between Recanati-with the village square Saturday and the church of Santa Maria di Montemorello, known for having been the parish of the Leopardi family-to the splendid Piazza della Repubblica in Treia, to the famous “hill” that inspired him The Infinite.
An unpublished but historically consistent portrait of the poet told backwards, beginning with his death in Naples in 1837, with the guidance of his friend Antonio Ranieri. From childhood to escape from the oppressive family environment, from early friendships to unrequited love for the beautiful Fanny Targioni Tozzetti.
Leopardi is played by Leonardo Maltese, Valentina Cervi and Alessio Boni are his parents, Cristiano Caccamo is Ranieri, Giusy Buscemi plays Fanny, and Alessandro Preziosi is in the role of Don Carmine, through whom the narrative of the entire story flows.
If you want to arrive prepared there is catching up on Il giovane favoloso, the 2014 film directed by Mario Martone in which Leopardi is played by Elio Germano.
The Leopard. Coming to Netflix in the fall.
The serial version of one of one of the most beloved novels in Italian literature, written by an authentic Sicilian aristocrat born in 1896, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Duke of Palma and Prince of Lampedusa, and published posthumously in 1958.
Set in Sicily in the second half of the 19th century, during the period of the Italian Risorgimento, it offers a masterful portrayal of the decadence of the old Sicilian nobility and the social and political changes that would disrupt Italy by ferrying it into modernity, telling it through the story of Prince Don Fabrizio Salina and his family.
Filmed in Palermo, Syracuse and Catania, the cast includes Kim Rossi Stuart as Don Fabrizio and Saul Nanni as his nephew Tancredi, while Benedetta Porcaroli lends her face to Concetta, the Prince’s daughter and secretly in love with Tancredi, and Deva Cassel is the beautiful bourgeois “parvenu” Angelica, who will instead become his wife.
Of course, while waiting, it is a must to catch up with the 1963 masterpiece film directed by Luchino Visconti that starred Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale.
The Art of Joy. On Sky Italia in the fall.
Yet another production set in Sicily: the series loosely adapted from Goliarda Sapienza’s posthumous novel of the same name (to be reread: Einaudi publishes it in Italy) 100 years after the Sicilian writer’s birth, sees Valeria Golino’s serial directorial debut.
It tells the story of a young girl in early 20th-century Sicily who discovers sexuality and a desire for a better life.
Modesta, born in Sicily on January 1, 1900, to a poor family, from childhood is driven by an insatiable desire for knowledge, love and freedom, and is willing to do anything to pursue her happiness, without bending to the rules of an oppressive and patriarchal society to which she belongs.
After a tragic accident, she is taken into a convent and, thanks to her intelligence, becomes the protégé of the Mother Superior.
Her path then leads her to the villa of Princess Brandiforti, where she will make herself indispensable. Her relentless movement for emancipation is accompanied by a path of personal and sexual maturation, which leads her to cross the boundary between licit and illicit, conquering day after day her right to pleasure and joy.
The cast includes Tecla Insolia as the protagonist, and Jasmine Trinca as the Mother Superior, while Guido Caprino is Carmine, the man who manages the Brandiforti lands, and Alma Noce the youngest of the family led by Princess Gaia, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. Plus Giovanni Bagnasco as Ippolito, heir to the Brandiforti family, and Giuseppe Spata as the family chauffeur.
The series debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and has already had a theatrical release in Italy between May and June.
Dostoevsky. On Sky Italia in the fall.
The first series signed by the D’Innocenzo brothers is not a biopic of the famous Russian writer, but a noir starring Filippo Timi as a detective tormented by a painful past.
Policeman Enzo Vitello is obsessed with “Dostoevsky,” a serial killer who kills with a peculiarity: next to the body of his victims he always leaves a letter with his own bleak and very clear vision of the world, life and darkness, which Vitello feels resonates within him.
Joining Timi in the cast are Gabriel Montesi, Carlotta Gamba and Federico Vanni.
The 6 episodes, a Sky Studios production with Paco Cinematografica that had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, were released in theaters in Italy for one week last July 11-17.
Carousel. TV movie coming to Raiuno in 2025.
All Italian “boomers” (and not only) fondly remember Carosello, the advertising program aired on Rai’s National Program (later Rete 1) from February 1957 to January 1977, which every day at dinnertime opened the evening television programming. Sending children to bed “after Carosello” was the habit of generations of parents throughout Italy.
This TV film produced by the excellent Matteo Rovere and Sydney Sibilia for Greenland, in collaboration with Rai Fiction, starts its own on January 3, 1954, when television entered Italian homes.
Laura is a girl fascinated by the power of TV and therefore attempts and wins the competition for secretaries at Rai, albeit against her father’s wishes. Mario, creative and womanizer, works as a director for Carosello from day one, but his dream is cinema. At first sparks fly between the two, but as the years go by, things change.
The cast includes Ludovica Martino, Giacomo Giorgio, Alessandro Tedeschi, and is directed by Jacopo Bonvicini.
Does this intrigue you? While waiting for the film on RaiPlay you can catch up with two fantastic episodes of Stracult dedicated to the real Carousel.
The article 10 series plus one movie not to miss in fall 2024 (part two) comes from TheNewyorker.
