In search of beauty: Anticipating the ‘new Renaissance’ of Italian cinema: Interview with Lora Guerra

Abstract

Lora Guerra (Eleonora Yablochkina) was an Italian writer and screenwriter Tonino Guerra’s wife and collaborator. She worked as a translator for a few films produced by her husband with Russian filmmakers, and today she is the curator of Tonino Guerra’s Memorial House in Pennabilli (Rimini). In this interview, she discusses the problems of cinema during the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between Italian and Russian cinema, the historical role of Italian cinema and the future of film festivals in Italy. She also reflects on the connection of neorealism with the Italian artistic tradition in literature, theatre and fine arts, on the importance of the ‘word’ as the basis of a screenplay and on the importance of visual and sound images in poetic cinema (both fiction and documentary). Lastly, Lora Guerra reveals details about the production of the documentary Tempo di viaggio (Voyage in Time) filmed in Italy by Andrei Tarkovsky and Tonino Guerra in summer 1979 and released in 1983.