Pupi Avati, year of birth 1938, is one of the most prolific and acclaimed Italian living directors. Ranging from comedy to thriller, from historical drama to horror, his films stand out for their unique blending of grotesque and realism, tenderness and cynicism, black humour and empathy.
From his very debut, a penchant for the Gothic, the fabulous, and the supernatural has proved to be one of Avati’s trademarks, begetting cult films such as ‘La casa dalle finestre che ridono’ (‘The House with Laughing Windows’, 1976), ‘Zeder’ (1983), ‘L’arcano incantatore’ (‘Arcane Sorcerer’, 1996), and ‘Il Signor Diavolo’ (‘Mr Devil’, 2019). The latter brought to the big screen a novel of the same title authored by Avati himself, hinged on a chain of ominous and gruesome events steeped in folklore and superstition, which take place in the early 1950s in Lio Piccolo, a rural village of the Venetian lagoon.
On Tuesday 2 February 2021, at 18:30, Pupi Avati will be remotely presenting his latest book ‘L’archivio del diavolo’, follow-up to ‘Il Signor Diavolo’, an online event organised by the Italian Cultural Institute in Valletta, in collaboration with the University of Malta’s Department of Italian, the publishing house Solferino, and the literary agency Book Media Events, under the aegis of the Embassy of Italy in Malta.
Pupi Avati will be discussing ‘L’archivio del diavolo’ with Fabrizio Foni, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Italian and member of the Institute of Anglo-Italian Studies at the University of Malta, with a specialisation in popular culture. His research interests and publications are mostly in the areas of the Gothic, the monstrous, and the supernatural.
To attend the conference, which will be held via Zoom, kindly click on the following link:
https://zoom.us/j/91934931880?pwd=RjNrVmFua3lDenpEMm5GWThRc0dDdz09
Passcode: ku4xg6
Further information is available at www.iicvalletta.esteri.it.