Ermanno Olmi, the magic of a marvel that is always intact – Corriere.it

Grandpa, when is the present?. Ermanno Olmi said that he was struck by lightning the evening when, at Ottavio Missoni’s house, Piero Ostellino said that his nephew had asked him that question. Because, he explained, no one can answer. A child who asks this question demonstrates that he has “visited time”. When the present? I don’t have time to say “a” and it’s already past. And the mind is already in the future. They are formidable, children. And he kept remembering the happiness that the magic of certain verses that only little ones can write gave him: No trees, no flowers. No flowers, no cherries. No cherries, no babies.

A magic that resurfaces intact, like if the great director were here, now, present, full of life, wisdom, irony and enchantment (Man is the only creature able to marvel at the wonders of the world) in the film Ermanno Olmi. The first look by Marco Manzoni, which will be previewed on Monday 8 May at 8.45 pm at the San Fedele Cultural Center in Milan, in via Hoepli 3/B.

A poignant one tribute five years after his death (on May 7, 2018, before the Covid era and the great illusion betrayed that we will come out better) in the city where he grew up and which he remembered as a set of districts to the point that the elderly, from how one spoke the dialect, recognized if it was from Porta Romana or Porta Venezia. A generous and beloved city, despite the fact that at a certain point he no longer recognized it (try shouting in Piazza del Duomo: “I’m in love!” They ignore you) and had decided to go and live with Loredana and their three children in Asiago, in that house on the edge of the forest, alongside those of Mario Rigoni Stern and Tullio Kezich, on the old mule track that led to Monte Zebio and the trenches of the Great War to which he would dedicate his last film, The meadows will return.

Ermannino, as Federico Fellini called him with brotherly affection and admiration, had been gone for over three years, when Russian troops entered Ukraine and the price of gas shot up to record all-time highs, sowing panic in Europe and the rest of the world. world. But in the video interview filmed by Manzoni for the book The first look (Bompiani) and summarized for tomorrow’s Milan appointment, the director already reveals the regrets: for the house built in the midst of the boom: At the time I hadn’t considered at all that large quantities of diesel or oil were needed to heat it, because here winter lasts nine months of the year, at best. I didn’t ask the question. I too was not careful. What’s more: In those years we thought that peace would last forever, there would be no more wars. Such was the painful lived experience that we said: “Enough, we will always be at peace.” This idea (…) made us make a series of mistakes that we can now realize, and the moment we are aware we become responsible. Therefore, from now on, everything we do will be a grave fault for us.

Unforgettable passages. The whole life in search of God. The regret for a country where women sang while they worked and it was a way to pray with songs of an excellent quality. The thrill of discovering the right old farmhouse for touring The hoof tree. There comes a time when the rivulets we don’t see, because they flow underground, find the right point for an outlet in the light. And a birth: water gushes from a rock, like a child coming into the world. Respect for the carpenter who makes a chair with his own hands and for the shoemaker: Shoes shouldn’t be thrown away as soon as they’re a little worn. Not to save money, out of stinginess: you shouldn’t consume more than necessary.

The value of forgiveness: I am reminded of the boy from Tiananmen Square in China. Someone thinks that he has performed a somewhat swashbuckling heroic deed. No, the swagger doesn’t go that far. In my opinion that boy could have even kneeled. Indeed, he was on his knees, with his plastic handbag, alone in front of the overwhelming power of those tanks.

The first look: I am grateful for that first look my father and mother exchanged realizing, in that instant, that they were falling in love with each other. This is my date of birth: that first glance gave rise to all the rest as an inevitable event.

Curiosity about man and his destiny: I’d still like to have the chance to peek at a possible change, where we go back to loving things that have value and distrusting the things they sell us, built to be thrown away as soon as possible. Faith and the mystery for later: I will know when I return to being a cloud that has evaporated from the sea.

Events

Monday 8 in Milan at 20.45 the San Fedele Cultural Center in via Hoepli 3/B hosts the preview of the film Ermanno Olmi. The first look by Marco Manzoni (Milan, 1955). Umberto Ambrosoli (Fondazione Bpm), Marco Garzonio (Ambrosianeum), Betta Olmi, the mayor Beppe Sala, the deputy mayor Anna Scavuzzo and Manzoni, cultural operator who wrote with Olmi will be present The first look (Bompiani, 2015). The Cineteca di Milano pays homage to Olmi on Sunday 7 with three films at the Mic in viale Fulvio Testi 121: at 2.30pm The hoof treeat 17.45 The place (1961) and at 7.30pm The craft of arms .