I fondly remember Giorgio Ferrara

In the gardens of the Architecture Biennale I meet the excellent President Roberto Cicutto who remembers Giorgio Ferrara, who passed away yesterday, aged 76, at his first film direction: “It was half a century ago, ‘A simple heart’ with Adriana Asti and Joe Dallessandro. It was also my first film, I was the production secretary, like the boy of a ship”. And Giorgio, what was he like? “Perfect, as if he had done nothing else.” He won a David di Donatello and a Silver Ribbon. Giorgio was always as if he had done nothing else. In the 70’s we went several times to Moscow and Leningrad (70’s!) And before there was even the slightest mention of Zelig, avatars, various metaverses, Giorgio as he got off the plane became perfectly Russian. He spoke Russian fluently, moved like the Russians moved (militarily, even without uniforms), drank and toasted for hours as if he were Russian. We wrote ambitious scripts together that pulled us along. I think my fault. It also happened to me with Missiroli and Ronconi. I’ve always had great acclaim with bullshit. But Giorgio didn’t get upset. When he was called as ambassador to Paris of Italian culture, he transformed the offices into a theater without getting upset. It became the theater of the Italians. He revived the Spoleto festival with the same aplomb as Altri con Lazzaro.