Biography of Carmelo Bene

Our Lord of the theatre

1 September 1937 16 March 2002 Carmel Pompilio Realino Antonio Well was born in Campi Salentina, Lecce, day 1 September 1937. Those who knew him from small describes him as a taciturn guy, probably polite with excessive rigidity, and perhaps because of it tended to show its irrepressible expressiveness in a revolutionary way, disruptive, absolutely outside the box. All of which, of course, will come to light, especially with his outstanding Theatre, indeed, with the total reinvention that did well in the theater. To quote his same words: "the problem is that the self emerges, as much as we want to crush it, compress it. But eventually, sooner or later, this little will be lost. As I always say: the large theatre should be dark and deserted ". After classical studies at a Jesuit College in 1957, he enrolled at the Academy of dramatic art, an experience which, starting from next year, only convinced of its "uselessness". Well he already had everything you need within ... Anyway, this episode you can catch a glimpse of the incompatibility between the classic idea of theatre, representation, and the "disintegration" of this idea Well brought forth; a cultural operation that would make mulch of idea of acting, staging, performance and even "text". The debut of this great genius is dated 1959, as the protagonist of "Caligula" by Albert Camus, staged in Rome. At this stage, it is still at "dependencies" of other directors and his ideas. Shortly after that, fortunately, he manages to become a filmmaker himself, beginning this way the work of manipulation and estrangement of some classic immortals. The actor has often referred as "variations". Are these years many shows like "the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", "Gregory", "Pinocchio", "Salome", "Hamlet", "pink and black". In 1965 he worked as a writer, producing the paradoxical text "Our Lady of the Turks", published by the publishing house Sugar. The year after, the novel is being adapted and staged at the teatro Beat ' 62. Begins at about the same time his film parentheses, first as an actor in the films of Pasolini "Oedipus Rex", then as Director of the film "Our Lady of the Turks", again taken from his first novel. The film won the special jury prize at Venice and remains a unique case within the cinematic experimentation. Then, make another two films "Capricci" (1969) and "Don Giovanni" (1970), while the 1972 's "The missing eye," book published by Feltrinelli and controversially turned to his critics. With "Salome" (1972) and "A Hamlet in less" (1973) closes its cinematic experience, only resumed in 1979 with "Othello", filmed for television and mounted only in recent times. Back to theater with "La cena delle beffe" (1974), with "S.A.D. and". (1974) and then again with "Hamlet" (1975). Follow numerous works, but very relevant is his so-called "breakthrough" concert, represented in the first instance from "Manfred" (1980), a work based on the homonymous poem by Schumann. Great success with audiences and critics. In 1981 from the Torre degli Asinelli in Bologna plays the "Lectura Dantis", then in the years ' 80 "Pinocchio" (1981), "Adelchi" (1984), Hommelette for "Hamlet" (1987), "Lorenzaccio" (1989) and "The beautiful Lily # 1 and # 2" (1989-1990). From 1990 to 1994 the long absence from the stage, during which, as he himself will say, "disoccuperà." In 1995 he was back in the spotlight and in particular in the bookstores with his opera omnia "in the series of classic Bompiani, which had followed in 2000 the poem" ' mal de ' fiori ". Speaking of the latter work, in a car-interview prepared for May 16, 2000 literary Café, wrote: "before this ' mal de ' fiori I never came across a nostalgia for things that were never in any artistic production (literature, poetry, music). Have always been deprived of every poetic vocation understood as mimesis elegiac nostalgia as I remember, life of suffering-landscapes, never warmed up by the ' poverty of love ", always in the verses of the poem resized in its function of ' amor Porter, courteous or not. Redeemed by divine, unmotivated, scenographic emptied once and for all the erotic breathlessness in her obsessive repetition of no return ... He died on March 16, 2002, in his Roman home. He was 64 years old.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.