Why a Booktrail?
1974/5: The months leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975.
The Silver Book
What you need to know before your trail
It is September 1974. Two men meet by chance in Venice. One is a young English artist, in panicked flight from London. The other is Danilo Donati, the magician of Italian cinema, the designer responsible for realising the spectacular visions of Fellini and Pasolini. Donati is in Venice to produce sketches for Fellini’s Casanova. A young – and beautiful – apprentice is just what he needs.
He sweeps Nicholas to Rome, into the looking-glass world of Cinecittà, the studio where Casanova’s Venice will be ingeniously assembled. Then in the spring, the lovers move together to the set of Salò, Pasolini’s horrifying fable of fascism.
Locations
Reset- Italy - Venice
- A: Road to Venice
- B: Doge's Palace
- Italy - Rome
- C: Cinecittà
- D: Ostia
Travel Guide
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright.
A controversial personality. Openly gay, Pasolini became an avowed Marxist shortly after the end of World War II. A prominent protagonist of the Roman intellectual scene during the post-war era, Pasolini became an established and major figure in European literature and cinema.
Pasolini’s unsolved and extremely brutal abduction, torture, and murder at Ostia in November 1975 prompted an outcry in Italy, where it continues to be a matter of heated debate.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Silver Book
Destination/location: Venice, Rome Author/guide: Olivia Laing Departure Time: 1974
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