in Florence the Oscar-winning director (The Artist) Michel Hazanavicius
On the occasion of the celebrations for the Day of Remembrance, January 27, 2022, the Museo Novecento organized an extraordinary event in the company of one of the most talented directors of the last few years, as well as the Oscar winner (with The Artist): Michel Hazanavicius.
In the Sala d’Arme of Palazzo Vecchio, Hazanavicius will talk with Giorgio van Straten, President of FAF – Alinari Foundation for Photography and Francesco Ranieri Martinotti, Director of France Odeon. The meeting, scheduled to start at 18:00, will be presented by Cristina Di Domenico, Editor-in-Chief of the TGR Toscana.
From the morning, starting from 10:00 and until 20:30, the preparatory drawings by the dedicated director for his new animated film dedicated to the Holocaust, A very precious commodity, which sees as protagonist a child and a woodcutter family.
“We also did this this year, as 20 Museo Novecento and we did not participate in the Day of Remembrance, and it does not escape its role as the most os frontal instrument in history and human societies”, says Sergio Risaliti, artistic director of the Twentieth century museum. “Art that looks evil in the face, inhuman violence breaks the silence and brings light where there is bewilderment and darkness, where the unspeakable of tragedy makes us deaf and blind. Having the great director Michel Hazavanicius with us in Florence is a source of great satisfaction and above all we are happy to share with the citizens a message of poetry like the one that the director can offer with his drawings and his animated fairy tale “.
Synopsis of the film A very valuable commodity
A very valuable commodity tells the story of a poor woodcutter and her husband, who live at the time of the Second World War, deep in the Polish forest. Cold, hunger and misery are their daily life. And I trains. The trains that go by without stopping, from morning to evening. One day, while the poor woodcutter is intent on contemplating what she believes to be a freight train, she notices that something is being thrown violently into the snow. A lot that is revealed, however, to be like a gift rained down from heaven. In fact, the woodcutter will discover in that package, a child, that child he had been waiting for for a long time. Despite the strong danger she faces, the woman decides to take care of him, becoming his mother. She does so regardless of the laws, which would require her to hand over the child to the authorities, and looks after him despite the others, who even refuse to see him as a child. And finally, he faces death, which will be the price to pay to save the life of this precious “commodity”. By opposing the force of life and love to the machine of mass extermination, Grumberg’s tale manages to find in the tragedy something beautiful to transmit to the world. A fairytale not to forget the horror of the Holocaust.
Who is Michel Hazanavicius
Michel Hazanavicius (Paris, 1967) in addition to being a great director, screenwriter and producer, is also an extraordinarily talented designer who imagines the shots of his films first by drawing them and then transferring them to the big screen. Michel Hazanavicius is the author, director and producer of films such as “OSS 117” and “The Artist”, a film awarded by 5 Oscars, including the one for best director. In 2017 he created a production company with Riad Sattouf and Florence Gastaud, Les Companons du Cinèma with which he produced the film “Le Redoutable”, in competition at the Cannes Film Festival where the director returned for the third time. He is currently President of La Fémis. “The Most Precious of Commodities” is his eighth film.
Free admission subject to availability. Please note the obligation of the Green Pass strengthened with the presentation of an identity document and the use of the ffp2 mask for participation in the event.
Photo: © Michel Hazanavicius / Ex Nihilo.