Fragments of Cinema and Philosophy

The international film festival Il Vento del Cinema (The Wind of Cinema), devoted to cinema and philosophy, was held for the fourth time in 2006 on the charming island of Procida (Naples, Italy) from 21 to 25 September. As usual, several stimulating discussions were held among directors, artists and philosophers. This year’s theme was ‘Catastriumph’: from the Titanic to René Thom’s theory and the post-2001 era, a sign of human life and the world itself as the constant development of an eternal, infinite and frightening catastrophe. Catastrophes since the Lumière brothers, as a privileged subject or as a menace to be recorded and enhanced. Catastrophes filmed in real life and, even more, cinema itself (for the simple, obsessive fact that it records?) as a catastrophe.
In the series Fragments of Cinema and Philosophy, artistic director Enrico Ghezzi discusses the main themes of the festival with Werner Herzog, Amos Gitai and the philosopher Boris Groys (author of the celebrated book Stalinism as Aesthetic Phenomenon). The film was shot in the Terra Murata fortress (from where the view of the Gulf of Naples is astonishing), in the ancient harbour of La Corricella (a peaceful and remote place by the old Mediterranean Sea) and in the Gardens of Elsa (where, among lemon trees, the famous Italian writer Elsa Morante stayed for a long time and wrote her masterpiece Arturo’s Island).