(17 June 2016) Goethe’s Italy, two hundred years later. Many years have passed “Italian Journey”, an account of the German writer and philosopher’s Italian adventures during the years 1786-1788 and a significant example of the Grand Tour, the long journey that young Northern European intellectuals embarked on from the eighteenth century onwards. What would Goethe see if he were to visit Italy today? How would he describe the Italian society to his countrymen? With the “Goethe + 200” project, the Italian Cultural Institute of Hamburg traces the main stages of Goethe’s Grand Tour to discover the geographical, social, cultural, political and the anthropological landscape of the “country where lemons bloom”. The journey – a film festival organised by the ICI in collaboration with the Metropolis Cinema and the association Mercury – started from Venice and now making its way to Florence, the city where the film “C’è chi dice no” (Some say no) by Giambattista Avellino is set. The film will be screened Wednesday, June 22 to 19:00 at Cinema Metropolis in Hamburg and will be followed, on June 24 at the Chamber of Commerce of Hamburg, by a panel discussion on “The labour market in Italy”. It then continues onto Rome, Naples and Sicily: where many Italian films were set, which will in turn be a starting point for a discussion on contemporary society of Italy. (Sip)
