If you enjoyed the film “Riso amaro,” presented last night during the 2nd Italian Film Days at the Palais de l’Europe in Menton, you will love “Senza mai levar la Schiena,” a theatrical moment narrated, sung, and interpreted based on the lives of those women – the mondines – who, even in the immediate post-war period, harvested rice in the paddies of northern Italy under the terrible conditions (humidity, heat, mosquitoes, exhausting work…) depicted in De Sanctis’s film.
A play (this Saturday 19th at 8 PM) that is not a copy of the film but a dive into the lives of these women through anecdotes of their daily lives, and especially their songs, the ones they sang to muster courage.
Do not be intimidated by the Italianity of the company Assemblea Teatro, coming from Turin: Italian and French blend delightfully in the narration of a show largely sung. Accessible to everyone, whether you know Italian or not.
And most importantly, should we divulge it to you… You will be charmed throughout the performance by the delicate aroma of a genuine risotto, concocted onstage by the director himself, Renzo Sicco… a risotto you will be invited to taste right after the show.
Do not miss this pure moment of happiness, not forgetting the screening of the magnificent “Vincere” by Marco Bellocchio (Saturday at 3 PM), and a nostalgic nod to the golden age of cinema with “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso” by Giuseppe Tornatore, Sunday at 3 PM, Théâtre Francis Palmero/Palais de l’Europe, Menton.
Gilles Montelatici, a film historian, will present the film on Sunday.
