G. PANELLA, I misteri di Volterra, città etrusca. Un percorso tra letteratura e cinema, Maritima, n. 3, 2013, pp. 41-50.
Abstract
Volterra was always considered like a city of magical and uncanny dimension. During the Twentieth-Century many writers (and also many directors) used that old Etruscan town like a natural set for their literary and cinematographic location. Gabriele D’Annunzio described the lunar and mournful aspect of Volterra in his Forse che sì,forse che no published in 1910 – it was the last of his narrative novels before the season of the poematic narrations in first person. In it, the love story by the amateur airplane pilot Paolo Tarsis and the married noblewoman Isabella Inghirami takes place in an ancient palace that was in Volterra. A very important episode of the novel happens also on the Balze, a very dangerous and awesome cliff situated over the ancient side of the town. A remarkable number of characters in the novels written by Carlo Cassola live in Volterra and some of his most famous novels (La ragazza di Bube, Fausto e Anna, Paura e tristezza, Un cuorearido) are located in the Tuscan town. Volterra is yet a very significant place for movies about decadence and death: Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa by Luchino Visconti shot in 1965 and set in an old building in Volterra won a Golden Lion at the Movie Exibition of Venezia and Ermanno Olmi represented Volterra like a Medieval city in his Camminacammina of 1983.
Keywords:Volterra, Twentieth-Century Novel, Significant Movies, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Carlo Cassola