Chapter 36 - Cinema after Pirandello

Summary

This chapter examines the legacy of Pirandello’s work in cinema. It outlines his own direct involvement in the medium, through novels (e.g., Shoot!), his work on adaptations and screenplays (for directors such as L’Herbier, Righelli, Ruttman), and essays expressing his ambivalent views on film as it evolved from the silent era to the “talkies.” This outline is followed by a survey of key film adaptations of his works (by Steno, de Sica, the Taviani brothers) and reflections on later film–theatre hybrids that mediate Pirandello’s transposition to the screen (e.g., by Rivette, Stoppard, Pinter). The chapter finally moves on to explore some broader, indirect forms of affinity that might be characterized as “Pirandellian.” It proposes four of these: films that play self-consciously and meta-cinematographically (e.g., by Nichetti, Allen); a cinema of “humorism” (e.g., in Fellini, Hitchcock); a cinema of selfhood that uses typical Pirandellian motifs such as doubling or insanity, among others (e.g., by Antonioni, Scorsese); and cinema as a medium of thought or philosophy (e.g., by Weir, Kaufman).