CC + 32 The experimental ilm scene in Italy remains a largely unexplored ield, as well as a deeply fragmented one. During the last few years though, some efforts, both from a scholarly point of view and from a curatorial perspective, have been carried out in order to clarify this complex history. Most recently, the ilm program- me curated by Sergio Toffetti and Annamaria Licciar- dello has directed the attention towards a speciic historical moment of this production. The programme, entitled Off & Pop, irst shown in Italy and then presen- ted in a different coniguration at Centre Pompidou earlier this year (January 8 – March 12), focused on the years before and after 1968 aiming to compare the Italian context to both the American underground sce- ne and the (inter)national art world, as the title aptly suggests. This operation, albeit quite understandable, already carries within it a simpliication of that panora- ma. Contrary to what happened with the brilliant and ambitious programme curated in 2011 by Giulio Bursi and Federico Rossin at the Vienna Filmmuseum (The Night and the Day: Italian Experimental 1905-2010), in which the deinition of experimental was stretched in time and spread across different genres, Off & Pop is framed historically and presents itself as a rather classi- cal overview of the Italian scene around the 1960. Even approaching the scene through this well delimited view on the past, the subject appears to be extremely com- plex and resists all attempts at possible simpliications and systematisation. One of the dificulties that emerge from the program- me is the intertwining of different contexts when con- sidering Italian “underground” ilm, or more broadly “independent” ilm production. The most striking ex- ample is given by the beautiful short ilms by Mario Schifano, presented in 16mm prints preserved by the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome, and irst presented at the Venice ilm festival in 2011.A crucial igure of the 1960s, Schifano has been considered the leading artist of what is often referred to as “Italian Pop Art.” His importan- ce though is not merely linked to such movement but spreads across different contexts, making him stand out as a key igure to understanding the Italian cont- ext. To draw a parallel, one would think of Warhol as a reference, not so much for his artwork (even if there might be some similarities, most notably in the use of repetition of the same iconographic motif) but rather for the ability of gathering around him a whole scene of artists. Schifano happened to be the bridge for all artistic environments of the time, ranging from painting to cinema and from performance to music. Moreover, Schifano’s links with the ilm industry may be quite well known to cinephiles. Marco Ferreri‘s Dillinger is Dead (1969) was in fact shot in the artist’s apartment, fea- tured excerpts of some of his movies (and canvases in the background – most notably one version of the ico- nic Futurismo rivisitato), and in turn Schifano produced a portrait of the director (Ferreri, 1966-69), part of an ideal series of home movies shown at the retrospec- tive in Paris. Moreover, to stress this proliic exchange between the two worlds once more, Schifano made a short ilm entitled Relex (1964) around the same time that seemed to anticipate Michelangelo Antoni- oni’s Blow up (1966). Following fashion photographer Bob Richardson in his studio, the ilm presents a clo- se resemblance to the portrait of David Hemmings’ workspace. In another ilm, Souvenir (1967) Warholian references are multiplied into a beautiful, shocking and ironic portrait of Gerard Malanga in Rome, at the time the actor and poet was visiting the capital with the Living Theater. Schifano follows Malanga on a tourist visit to the Vatican, and captures him injecting heroin while looking at the panorama of the Eternal City. Warhol’s inluence, though, is also visible in a different context: the Turin school.The main igure of that scene was Tonino De Bernardi, who is still active in ilm pro- duction nowadays, but within the context of “auteur cinema” rather than experimental ilm. De Bernardi introduced two of his ilms on February 12, reminding the audience of the context of the time. According to him, one of the primary inluences on Italian underg- round ilm was the Living Theatre (the company led by Julian Beck and Judith Malina was operating in the country at the time). Their presence partly explains why many of the works produced during this period rely on performance, rather than on pure cinematic elements – contrary to parts of the American underg- round. In a way, Il mostro verde (1967) the irst feature by De Bernardi (co-directed with Paolo Menzio) cou- ples most notably the performance element with the typical American underground taste for kitsch or camp. Conceived as homage to Universal horror movies, not far from the work of Jack Smith, Il mostro verde also features Allen Ginsberg and Warhol‘s superstar Taylor Mead. De Bernardi recalled the inluence of Warhol on his work, although he interestingly mentioned that the idea of working with a double screen came directly from Chelsea girls (Andy Warhol, 1966) at the time that audiences in Italy had only read about it, and the ilm had not been actually seen. Due to technical dificulties Il mostro verde, originally shot in 8mm, is now transfer- red onto video, thus ixing the work in a precise state, avoiding all the aleatory element of the double projec- tion. Bestiario (1968) multiplies the number of screens involved (here four) once more and arranges them so that they partially overlap. Here, the interaction of the four images and their overwhelming presence aims to produce a broken, elliptic narrative. Narrative in fact, even if mined by such devices, seems to be one of the distinctive features of De Bernardi’s work, as it is the same for another key igure of the Turin scene, lesser known abroad: Ugo Nespolo. Nespolo divided his ilm work between a strange blend of exploitation-camp movies (un supermaschio, 1975) and more art related production. Not by chance then, both De Bernardi and Nespolo made two portraits of Piedmontese artist Michelange- lo Pistoletto. This series of ilm was commissioned by the artist in 1968 when he was having a solo show at the gallery L’Attico in Rome, run by Fabio Sargentini. As curator Dominique Païni pointed out, introducing the screening on January 15, the episode by De Bernar- di (entitled La vestizione) is probably closer to Carmelo Bene and Werner Schroeter (or even Philippe Garrel) than to the American underground. Pursuing an almost baroque-like aesthetic ideal, De Bernardi underlines the “traditional” roots of Pistoletto‘s artworks, refe- rencing most notably all the classic religious iconogra- phy. On the other hand however, Nespolo’s ilm appears much more mundane, and follows the artist in his daily actions, and then in the streets of Turin carrying one of his sculptures in his car. This ambiguous and uncertain grey zone between documentation and mise-en-scène is one of the characteristics of Italian artist’s ilms of the time, so that one can say that the aim is precisely to blur the distinction between documentary and more staged situations. This is something clearly readable in other works of the era that recall the uses of ilm made in the Land Art context.The ilms by Luca Patella fall entirely within that category. In SkMP2 (1968) for instance the artist documents one of his own perfor- mances plus other by Jannis Kounellis, Eliseo Mattiacci, and Pino Pascali (again all artists represented by L’At- tico gallery), but such documentation is staged for the camera, and Patella subsequently applied coloured il- ters to the different sequences, showing how the ilm could be considered itself an original artwork. Another way of displaying artworks can be found in an interesting independent production directed by Sandro Franchina entitled Morire gratis (1968). Fran- china, who starred as a child in Roberto Rossellini‘s Enrico Camporesi Mario Schifano, Relex (1964). 16mm, black & white, sound, 16‘. Courtesy: Archivio Fototeca e Manifestoteca, Cineteca Nazionale (Rome). Luca Patella, SkMP2 (1968). 16mm, colour, sound, 30‘. Courtesy: Archivio Fototeca e Manifestoteca, Cineteca Nazionale (Rome). CC + 33 Exhibiting Italian Experimental Film A Review of the Off & Pop Retrospective at Centre Pompidou