Cinematic adventures: An interview with liliana cavani

In the following interview, which was conducted during the COVID-19 shut-down in December 2020, Liliana Cavani reflects on her cinema and its underlying aesthetics, on current issues such as diversity and gender equality. She reminisces on her formative years and the impact of her anti-fascist grandparents as well as of those open-minded RAI executives who hired her as a freelance professional. She discusses her historical documentaries, her approach to the revolutionary experience of Francis and Clare of Assisi, and her stage production of Eduardo De Filippo’s Filumena Marturano (2016). Of special interest are the director’s comments on the new release of a re-mastered DVD of The Night Porter in England and some critics’ attempts to re-categorize her as a filmmaker obsessed with the corporeality of Eros. She also introduces her new screenplay, written in collaboration with physicist Carlo Rovelli.¹.