“Dal testo allo schermo” is a new series of interdisciplinary audiovisual media on the greatest films of all time in both Italian and foreign cinema history which were inspired by literature.
Each 40-minute DVD is a sort of audiovisual monograph about an Italian or foreign director that has drawn his/her inspiration from literature – thus being a teaching aid suitable for the teaching of humanities - but it can also have a single theme dealing with a single literary genre or subject, whereas other DVDs are interdisciplinary, especially those about directors that have drawn their inspiration from literature only for one or two films, therefore it would be impossible to publish a monograph on them.
A voice-actor analyzes various films based on various novels chronologically in order to show their differences with regards to literary elements (plot, characters, interpretation of the story meaning) as well as to the role of film direction, editing, cinematography and production design in the new reading of literary writings.
The purpose is to aim at the gap between the two languages, at differences rather than at similarities. First of all cinema is a language as opposed to a subdivision of literature. The problem concerning faithfulness to the original literary source is actually not a problem as far as this series' DVDs are concerned.
Interviews are the DVDs' centrepiece. In addition to those with a literary critic and a film critic explaining how these two languages work differently by examining literary passages and the relevant film sequences, there are interviews with people that have been directly on the film sets so as to better understand how production design, choosing locations, shooting a particular sequence and playing a character have influenced the new reading or twist of a classic.
A film/stage actor reads some passages of the selected literary work and statements of poetics by writers and directors in a studio. Finally film sequences, interviews from the archives of RAI (the Italian public service broadcaster) and those with directors on talking points are the DVDs' audiovisual elements.