Dr. Raffaello Palumbo Mosca Speaks on Rome: “One and Many. Literary and Cinematic Representations of the Eternal City”

Pictured above: A scene from La Ganda Belleza (the primary film mentioned in the lecture) featuring the film’s protagonist [photo via Nori Veit]

Dr. Raffaello Palumbo Mosca, of the Università di Torino in Torino, Italy, traveled internationally from his place of residence in Italy to assume the role of the University of Denver’s Scholar in Residence. The scholar shared his extensive knowledge and wisdom in a lecture-style literary walk, in which the audience was informed of both the splendor and miseries of Rome through texts and cinema by prevalent Italian Authors. 

The lecture was held at Sturm Hall, a large lecture hall at the University of Denver, on May 4th, 2022. 

Mosca, upon arrival, stated feelings of culture shock resulting from the international travel, but was put at ease by a host of smiling faces in the lecture room. Those of previous residents of Italy, frequent travelers well versed in Italian, and, broadly, Italian and Roman culture enthusiasts. 

“We always come back to life as if it is in a circle,” said Mosca. “From no beginning to no end.”

Thus started a beautifully intricate and articulate description of Rome’s fundamentally unique aspects. Not as commonly perceived, however, but as a result of the author’s own experiences. 

The Italian scholar painted a colorful and elaborate cultural landscape in the mind of the listener, referencing the unity of culture and nature, as well as that of city and countryside. Mosca’s descriptions of the urban aspects of the city, however, were wrought with ghostly images of its former glory. 

“Give us back a city that is alive and complex. A city that happens in literature is not an ideal expectation, however much we may desire,” stated Mosca as an introduction to a series of text excerpts by Italian ultra-nationalist, poet, and playwright Gabriele D’ Annunzio. 

Mosca went on to contrast prominent Roman places of interest, such as the Piazza de España, between the opinions detailed in the author’s novel,  L’ombra di don Allesandro. Manzoni nel Novecento, and the opinions of Gabriele D’ Annunzio. 

In reference specifically to the Piazza de España, Mosca quoted the Italian poet with a figurative description: 

“All the soaring sweetness of Rome is collected, here, in a vase.”

This was only one of many beautifully articulated attributions to the prestige of the city. Other descriptions described Rome as the following:

“Rome is all golden, like a city of the fairest.”

For the second half of the lecture, the Italian scholar contrasted D’ Annunzio’s perceptions of the city with those presented in classical Italian cinematic depictions of Italy’s capital. 

The principle film explored in the lecture, La Ganda Belleza, was a classical Italian cinematic masterpiece that Mosca critiqued very harshly. 

The film is a fictional narrative showcasing the cultural spectacles of Rome and painting it as a principal tourist destination for grand, Great Gatsby style parties. 

“The director is almost 60, the movie should be more serious… and they don’t even know how to dance,” are examples of a few of Mosca’s offhanded comments that alluded to an underlying disgust with the cinematic elements of the movie. 

More serious critiques of specific scenes in the film were also addressed, such as one scene that depicted a chaotic party, complete with drinking and sensual dancing. 

Mosca continued by offering his perspective into the inaccurate portrayal of Rome as a city in the film, referencing its prestige that was mocked and diminished by the party scenes in the film. 

To conclude the presentation, the author presented Rome’s beauty, both as portrayed in the cinema and in the various works of literature referenced in the film. Rome’s unique beauty, Mosca offered, only appears when humans disappear. Societally, as a collective human race, we are incapable of understanding the depth and complexities of Rome’s defining characteristics.