On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Italo Calvino’s birth

2023 marks the centenary of the birth of Italo Calvino, the undisputed protagonist of the Italian cultural scene after the Second World War. For the occasion, numerous events dedicated to this important figure have been and will be organized throughout Italy and the world.

The Institute has already dedicated a conference to the Italian writer, and is now continuing its celebrations with the screening of Il cavaliere inesistente, a film adaptation released in 1969 of the novel published by Calvino twelve years earlier, the third and final part of the very popular Trilogia degli antenati (Ancestors Trilogy), one of the cornerstones of the Italian 20th century.

Il cavaliere inesistente is a mixed media film directed by Pino Zac, with parts of real footage and animated parts, and it reconstructs the fantastic Middle Ages and the adventures of the knight in empty armor Agilulfo, Rambaldo and his beloved Bradamante. A revisitation where, in the Italy of the economic boom, Calvino wanted to highlight the lack of a relationship between reality and contemporary man. Zac gives Calvino’s magical transfiguration the flavor of an ironic work, full of funny situations, transported to the end of the boom in which the alienations felt by Calvino were exploding.

Pseudonym of Giuseppe Zaccaria (1930-1985), Pino Zac was an extraordinary cartoonist, animator and founder of various magazines. Creator at just twenty years of age of ‘Gatto Filippo’, the first self-contained comic strip series published in Italy, he collaborated with important newspapers and magazines, arriving in 1977 at the foundation of the legendary weekly Il Male.

The restoration of the film, carried out in the Cinecittà laboratories in collaboration with the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale, was carried out from the original 35mm scene negative, scanned at 4K, and from the 35mm optical soundtrack negative.

ORIGINAL TITLE: IL CAVALIERE INSISTENTE
COUNTRY: Italy
YEAR: 1969
RUNNING TIME: 97′
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: Italian
GENRE: Feature Film, Animation

The movie is Italian with English subtitles.