| Poems of Asolo | |
| Director: | Georg Brintrup |
| Producer: | WDR, Cologne, Brintrup Filmproduktion |
| Starring: | Philippe Nahoun Mario Perazzini Lucia Casagrande Paola Guccione Alessandro Bertorello |
| Music: | Gian Francesco Malipiero Igor Stravinsky |
| Cinematography: | Emilio Bestetti |
| Editing: | Carlo Carlotto Georg Brintrup |
| Released: | 20 April 1985 [1] 5 October 1985 |
| Runtime: | 60 min |
| Country: | Germany/Italy |
| Language: | German/Italian |
Poems of Asolo (Italian title: “Poemi Asolani”) is a 1985 German-Italian biographical film about the Italian music composer Gian Francesco Malipiero, directed by Georg Brintrup.
"Poems of Asolo" (Poemi Asolani) is also the title of a musical composition by Gian Francesco Malipiero, who was born in Venice but lived most of his life in Asolo, a small town in the Veneto region. The film offers a portrait of the composer and the town, he chose as his favorite place to live. Like a “musical with no singing” [2] the film features instrumental music and a speaker. The broken voice of old Malipiero (actor: Heinz Kreuger) is an inner monologue which covers the most interesting stages of a life entirely lived by the motto: “I have constantly, inevitably, rejected and destroyed whatever was the outcome of my will instead of my intuition.” [3]
It seems that the real protagonist of the film is Malipiero's music. Each shot and scene have its own precise number of bars or musical notes. The action and the camera movements have been done according to the rhythm of the musical compositions. Environmental noises are often at the origin of Malipiero's music. In the film, in fact, these noises have the same value as the music. The volume of the direct sound is always kept at the same level as the music.
The film’s soundtrack is made up of musical compositions by Malipiero, except for one piece by Igor Stravinsky:
“Poems of Asolo” was first shown at the 1985 “Salso Film & TV Festival” [4] in Salsomaggiore,[5] as well as at the 1985 Prix Italia. The film was also shown at the “Festival Internazionale d’Oriolo” on 24 July 1986, where it won for best photography.,[6] [7] [8]