The three «città del mondo» of Vittorini's late work: photo reportage, the crisis of the novel form, and the cinematic option

Abstract

Elio Vittorini's Le città del mondo is an interesting example of a work in which photography, literature, and cinema intertwine in a relationship that is at times synergistic and at times antagonistic. Initially conceived as a photojournalist and later transformed into a narrative work, the Sicilian author's latest literary work remains unfinished on paper, aspiring to find a plausible artistic outcome in its translation to film. The novel, suspended in time, attempts to escape its communicative impasse through its conversion into a screenplay, perhaps returning to its original idea of ​​a visual text. More than a transposition of the book, the film thus becomes a sort of formal abjuration, albeit in a viscous complicity between image and text.