To earn the viewer’s attention, a “cultural” program (quotation marks are required) must at least be entertaining, arouse curiosity and encourage personal discovery. In reality, it’s a more general rule: it applies to books, to films, to theatrical works, to everything. We can only discuss the concept of entertainment (which is almost necessary on television).
“Splendid Cornice”, the Rai Cultura show broadcast on Rai 3, is an entertaining show. That’s because it was set up that way by the authors; it is for the skill of Geppi Cucciari; It’s because of the quality of the regulars and the columns: the imaginary dialogue between Enzo Biagi and the singer Arisa was irresistible.
Speaking of curiosities, there were two guests of honor: Luciano Ligabue and Francesco Vezzoli, one of the most established and famous contemporary Italian artists in the world. The interview with Ligabue reinforced an idea of mine, perhaps a crazy one: the singer-songwriter from Correggio wrote only one song, “Certe notti”, everything else (other songs, books, films, etc.) is nothing but an incessant one Play with variants of the original text. This has happened to great writers too, and I don’t know if that’s an advantage or not.
Francesco Vezzoli’s works examine the structures of media communication and production of the collective imagination; However, when he talks about television (exhibition at the Prada Foundation) and cinema (he made fun of police films in front of Geppi), it seems rather obvious to me, but perhaps it is just an impression.
Piero Dorfles quoted a famous passage by Leonardo Sciascia from “Il giorno della civetta”. The mafia godfather Mariano speaks: “I have a certain experience of the world; and what we call humanity, and we fill our mouths with saying humanity, a beautiful word full of wind, I divide it into five categories: men, demi-humans, little men, the (speaking with respect) piggies… and the quacks ». Dorfles was right when he pointed out that when we call someone a quack, we are, without realizing it, using mafia language. We speak, but in reality we are spoken to.
“Splendid Setting” is a bit like Cirque du Soleil on Italian television.