Fondazione Prada

Flesh, Mind and Spirit

13 Jan - 01 Feb 2016

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST @ Cineteca di Bologna
FLESH, MIND AND SPIRIT
13 January – 1 February 2016

“Flesh, Mind and Spirit” is a selection of 15 films chosen by Academy Award-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Mexico City, 1963) in collaboration with Elvis Mitchell film critic and Curator at LACMA of Los Angeles. The screenings are free, upon booking, held at Fondazione Prada’s Cinema between 13 January and 1 February 2016, every day except Tuesdays.

Presented for the first time in 2009 at the Prada Transformer, designed by OMA in Seoul, “Flesh, Mind and Spirit” offers a unique occasion to experience the reactions and emotions that the director felt when he first saw these films. As Iñárritu explains, “despite this extremely eclectic selection, there is a common factor: these films are all experiences full of emotion. All of them provoked in me appetites that I never knew I had”.

The full-length films are divided into three categories distinguished by a key word: “Flesh” groups Fists in the Pocket (1965), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Seasons of the Year (1975), Killer of Sheep (1977), Padre Padrone (1977), Yol (1982), and The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008); “Mind” comprises Last Year at Marienbad (1961), I am Cuba (1964), La Ciénaga (2001), and You, the Living (2007); and “Spirit” consists of Ordet (1955), Mother and Son (1997) and Silent Light (2007). As emphasized by Elvis Mitchell, “most of them are about the family in crisis, and the survival of the family is key to the way Iñárritu works, thinks and feels as an artist and a person”. A special screening for the public of Pál Fejös’s Lonesome (1928), featuring a live score, will be held on 13 January 2016.

The festival was extended with a series of special screenings of Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), directed by Sergio Leone, on 6 and 7 February 2016. Speaking of this film, Sergio Leone stated: “I wanted to create a funereal dance, shaping it according to the ordinary myths of traditional western films: the avenger, the romantic bandit, the wealthy landowner, the criminal businessman, the prostitute. Starting from these five symbols, I aimed to present the birth of a nation”.
These additional screenings were organized in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna and Leone Film Group.