Don Juan w powieści Vitaliana Brancatiego oraz w filmie Alberta Lattuady czyli o demityzacji uwodziciela z „Don Juana na Sycylii”

Abstract

The aim of the present article is twofold: firstly, to demyhicise the famous “rooster” – a Sicilian Don Juan, both in the novel of Vitaliano Brancati (1907-1954) and in Albero Lattuada’s movie (1967), and, secondly, to present the allegoric and social aspects of the Sicilian provinces (Catania) and of a Lombardy metropolis (Milan), rich in anthropological and symbolic components of the time. In the movie, the two roles, that of the husband – Juan, and of the wife – Ninetta confront each other, and, this way, the myth of the eternal “playboy”, Don Juan, is debunked. Juan changes his life refusing to follow the libertine tradition of the 18 th century, and his “romantic” success is no longer one-time; he remains a husband faithful to his wife. The wife, however, distances herself from him, becoming a female “Don Juan”. During the first party in Milan, Ninetta not only dresses up as a man, but even suggests him changing his life, to have the possibility of a libertine life. This way, two personalities of different cultures crash: that of the North (Swiss-Lombardy) and of the South (Sicilian); consequently, tradition crashes with a new lifestyle. The director attempts at (re)reading individual stories of Brancati’s heroes as a huge market, where everything is sold or is for sale. In the complex allegoric masquerade of the Italian society, Lattuada stabilizes a parallel between being humane and having the virtue which personalizes almost everything. Therefore, under the teaching of his allegory, his humour is underlined in giving the feather an inhuman, enigmatic and comic character in the bourgeois social relations between the Sicilians and the Milanese; which constitute the plurality of the national identity in the united Italy after 1861.

L’obiettivo del presente saggio si centra su due temi: il primo riguarda la dimitizzazione del famoso “gallo” - siciliano Don Giovanni sia nel romanzo di Vitaliano Brancati (1907-1954) che nel racconto cinematografico di Albero Lattuada (1967) e dei suoi viaggi realizzati attraverso l’Italia mitico-simbolica degli anni cinquanta e sessanta (Sicilia, Piemonte-Lombardia). Il secondo invece, presenta l’aspetto allegorico e sociale della provincia siciliana ricca di componenti antropologici e simbolici di allora. Si tratta dunque a prima vista di un quadro ironico e molto divertente della provincia italiana – siciliana, da dove scaturiscono effetti bizzarri, quali velleità maschiliste, vagheggiamanti erotici e tutte le forme di megalomania che si identificano sotto l’insegna del nome “gallismo”. Tutto ruota all’interno della storia individuale del personaggio principale, Giovanni Percolla. Il regista cinematografico, Alberto Lattuada, consente al lettore di instaurare le modalità dell’originale linguaggio cinematografico per riscoprire il vero valore e significato del gesto e della parola del protagonista principale, anzi di presentare l’incarnazione nuova dell’antica figura mitica di Don Giovanni.

Autor niniejszej pracy podejmuje dwa zagadnienia: pierwszy dotyczy demityzacji słynnego sycylijskiego Don Juana zarówno w powieści Vitaliana Brancatiego (1907-1954) jak i w filmowej opowieści Alberta Lattuady (1967) oraz jego podróży odbytych w mityczno - symbolicznych Włoszech z lat pięćdziesiątych i sześćdziesiątych (Sycylia, Piemont i Lombardia). Drugie zagadnienie dotyczy wymiaru alegorycznego i społecznego sycylijskiej prowincji bogatej w różne elementy antropologiczne i symboliczne tamtego okresu.