In the last few days parts of Italy were hit by extreme storms with severe winds and heavy rains leaving behind damages and death in the north and on the island of Sicily. According to the civil protection agency this was "one of the most complex meteorological situations of the past 50 to 60 years". The statement takes the mind back to the 1966 flood of the Arno river in Florence that happened between the 3rd and 4th November and that left 101 people dead, damaging millions of masterpieces of art and rare books. Roads became channels for floodwaters that brought destruction within the city: there were no emergency measures in place and officials and citizens were caught unprepared by the storm and the devastation that followed it.
To mark the 52nd anniversary of the flood and remember all the people who volunteered to help in those tragic circumstances, the Fondazione Zeffirelli (piazza San Firenze 5, Florence) has launched a screening of an iconic documentary by the maestro - "Per Firenze" (Florence: Days of Destruction).
After he heard about the flood, Franco Zeffirelli left Rome and went back to his hometown to see with his eyes what was happening. He immediately started chronicling the distaster with a photo and a video camera. A month later he released the documentary in support of his beloved hometown and to raise awareness about the flood.
"Per Firenze" was written by Italian journalist Furio Colombo and featured a very special narrator - Richard Burton - plus music by Roman Vlad. In the documentary Burton appeals in Italian to his audience, asking to help Florence, a city with a cultural heritage dear to its inhabitants, but also to the rest of the world.
The real protagonists of the documentary are the people who helped after the flood, cleaning the streets and saving the works of art. The so called "angeli del fango" ("Mud Angels") came from all over the world to try and rescue Florence. Water had invaded chapels, warehouses where paintings were stored, theatres, cinemas, and the HQs of famous publishing houses; mud invaded archives and ruined ancient manuscripts codes and volumes.
In the documentary the Mud Angels are showed picking books from underground archives, while teams in white laboratory coats stained with mud are filmed as they restore the damaged works of art, among them frescoes, paintings and sculptures. A section of the documentary is dedicated to one of the most critically damaged works, the Crucifix by Giovanni Cimabue that became a universal symbol of the Florence flood tragedy.
The Mud Angels who volunteered to rescue the Florentine heritage did it thinking about future generations and showed solidarity and a sense of unity as they went to Florence from all over the world.
In many ways this could be considered as an architecture documentary: the camera lingers on the statues, the bridges, the buildings, the interior of churches and of museum archives, the streets and roads filled with water and devastated by mud. Only one thing was clear when the documentary was shot – the damages were immense, but the heart of the people was bigger.
A number of other international committees were formed with the intention of sponsoring various institutions in Florence, including the British Italian Art and Archive Rescue Fund (IAARF) and the US Committee to Rescue Italian Art (CRIA) that assisted in restoring frescoes around the city (the documentary features American Senator Edward Kennedy talking about the CRIA).
"Per Firenze" is a historical document frozen in time: shot to show the rest of the world what happened in Florence (it raised more than $20 million for reconstruction efforts) it doesn't tell us what happened in the months and decades that followed. Thousands of documents and manuscripts were damaged at the Archives of the Opera del Duomo, the Gabinetto Vieusseux Library, The State Archives and the National Central Library (here 1,300,000 items were damaged, including prints, maps, posters and newspapers). Thanks to new conservation and restoration techniques many works were saved; others are still awaiting to be restored. Though the documentary seems to be dated as it tells a story circumscribed to the period of time when it was shot, it contains a universal lesson from the Mud Angels who volunteered to rescue the cultural heritage of a city for the sake of future generations.
The documentary is going to be screened today and on 17th November at the Fondazione Zeffirelli and will be followed by a visit to the Fondazione archives to look at rare documents like the letters between Burton and Zeffirelli and early images related to the production of the documentary. If you can't make it, you can still watch the documentary online on Archive.org or click on the video embedded at the end of this post.
Comments