Strangeness (La Stranezza) - Italian Film Festival

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Date Reviewed: 19/09/2023

Strangeness is a film that will draw you in right from the first frames. A word of caution though, if you don’t know who Luigi Pirandello is and his role in revolutionising theatre as we know it, you may find this film difficult to follow.

It has its genesis in a real-life event: the journey undertaken by Pirandello (Toni Servillo) to his hometown Sicily after several years of absence, on the occasion of writer Giovanni Verga’s 80th birthday to which he has been invited to give a speech.
From this point onwards, the director and his co-screenwriters Massimo Gaudioso and Ugo Chiti imagine an unforeseen circumstance that forces Pirandello to stay in his native Girgenti (now Agrigento) for a few more days than planned, following the death of his beloved nanny (Aurora Quattrocchi).

It’s within the context of funerals that the Sicilian author makes the acquaintance of Sebastiano and Onofrio (comic duo Salvo Ficarra and Valentino Picone), the town’s two laconic gravediggers who help the writer ensure a decent burial for the deceased by day, and who try their hand at theatre by night, directing an amateur dramatics society composed of various fellow townspeople, some with the abundance of talent, and some not.

Pirandello, who’s in the midst of a creative crisis and in search of inspiration for his next drama, watches the rehearsal and performance of the local drama/comedy being performed by this derelict group of actors eager to get inspiration. During the premiere of their play, by studying the lively repartee taking place between actors and audience Pirandello gets the idea for his new play Six Characters in Search of an Audience, which will transcend all of his previous works and mark a watershed moment between modern and contemporary theatre. 

Servillo, Ficarra and Picone’s performances are faultless as are the performances of most of the remaining cast, and there is also a real sense of ensemble in the film.

I was completely absorbed by Strangeness but found myself wondering how much better the experience would be if I spoke Italian. The subtitles give a good translation, but I have the feeling some of the subtlety and Italian idioms have been lost.

Strangeness is a film to intrigue any theatregoer, or anyone interested in the history of Western theatre.

Reviewed by Barry Hill OAM