EDITORIAL
J
ust as well there’s Checco. Puglia’s new super-testimonial, the man everyone is talking about, is Luca Medici, who goes by the stage name of Checco Zalone. With the director Gennaro Nunziante, he created Quo Vado? which is on its way to becoming the film with the greatest ever number of spectators in Italy and record box-office takings, and for which, as Lino Patruno commented ironically in a recent article in La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, “there are people that start queuing at dawn like for the Vatican museums or for the allocation of a house in the projects”.
Equally important is the debate triggered by the film, with Italy divided, as in the years of “communists” against “fascisti”, between supporters and opponents of Zalone, actually with far more in favor, like the intellectuals who evoke Sordi and even Totò. One of these is Nicola Lagioia, who in La Repubblica recently recalled the past work of director and screenplay-writer Nunziante on Telebari and Telenorba in the Nineties, when he churned out the irresistible show of Toti and Tata (Emilio Solfrizzi and Antonio Stornaiolo) and above all Il polpo (The Octopus), the legendary sitcom that offered an Apulian parody of the TV series La Piovra (also The Octopus in English). “The language used was complex and totally before its time: it mixed genres endlessly – says Lagioia – … it was not long before Pulp Fiction exploded in the world”. A homage to talent, in other words, notwithstanding the nitpickers, perhaps envious of the flood of millions inundating Medici and Nunziante.
And there’s not only Zalone. Despite the many problems afflicting Puglia, whether it be unemployment, Ilva, Xylella, Tap, oil drilling at the Tremiti isles, just to mention some of the more serious concerns, we are still the region that produced the two tennis-players who a few months ago, with a sensational success in America, were universally acknowledged as the queens of world tennis.
Another link to Puglia is the recent news, which appeared in the media after its publication in the scientific journal Nature, of the discovery of a process that could eliminate one of the most insidious and widespread brain tumors, glioblastoma. The group in charge of the research was from New York’s Columbia University, coordinated by Antonio Iavarone and Anna Lasorella, among the most important Italian “brains” forced to leave their country. Apulian, and very attached to her area, Anna Lasorella, born in Noicattaro (Bari), had to migrate to the US sixteen years ago in order to find a university facility that could offer the right economic resources to continue her research work. Today, with her husband Antonio Iavarone, she is enjoying her well-deserved success for this discovery, considered sensational in the scientific world.
Last but not least, “our” Joseph Tusiani, the ninety-something poet, writer and Latin expert of international fame, who writes in Italian, English, Latin and Gargano dialect (born in San Marco in Lamis, Foggia, but since the age of 23 a New Yorker by adoption), on January 9 was proclaimed, along with awards to Edmund White and Yusef Komunyakaa, Poet Laureate Emeritus by the Governor of the State of New York, Andrew Mark Cuomo, in acknowledgment of his contribution to the international literary community. “These talented, inspiring writers – stated Cuomo – have each made remarkable contributions to the literary community in New York. Their work is a tremendous asset to us all and has served as a touchstone for many around the world”.
Hats off to Puglia. Let’s hope that a year that starts off with such a bang leads to more and more resounding results.
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30 years since her murder.
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America’s lesson for Europe The Passing of Cristanziano Serricchio, poet of the light Ten reasons to come on holiday to Puglia “Extremely loud and incredibly close” Zeppole in California Those tears on the death of Dalla “Totally awesome” 9/11
ten years later The first time on the web