Giacomo Leopardi - Life and Loves of the Poet: A Rai Miniseries Event

The filming of the Rai event miniseries "Giacomo Leopardi - Life and Loves of the Poet" by Sergio Rubini, produced by Rai Fiction with IBC Movie by Beppe Caschetto and Rai Com, has ended these days. Some scenes of the fiction were shot in Naples, as well as in Recanati, the poet's birthplace, but also in Puglia, Mantova, Rome, Turin, and Bologna. The fiction, which will be aired on Rai1, will narrate the human and historical story of the great poet Giacomo Leopardi, not only a man of letters but also a philosopher, political thinker, one of the greatest exponents of Italian culture of all time. A series that outlines a complex profile of the poet and highlights how through his verses, he managed to bring out amorous passions, but also political ones. A miniseries event in 2 episodes of 100 minutes each, in which passion, love, history, and politics alternate, crossing the tumultuous Italy of the early 1800s. Starring, in the role of Giacomo Leopardi, Leonardo Maltese, already appreciated in "Rapito" by Marco Bellocchio and in "Il Signore delle Formiche" by Gianni Amelio, for which he won the Guglielmo Biraghi Prize at the Nastri D'Argento 2023. With him Alessio Boni, in the role of the father, Count Monaldo Leopardi, Valentina Cervi as the mother Adelaide Antici, Cristiano Caccamo as the lifelong friend Antonio Ranieri, Alessandro Preziosi in the role of Don Carmine, through whom the entire story is narrated, Fausto Russo Alesi as the mentor Pietro Giordani, and Giusy Buscemi playing the beloved Fanny Targioni Tozzetti. "Telling the story of Giacomo Leopardi is one of those endeavors that excite us and call us back to the very essence of our public service mission," says Maria Pia Ammirati, Director of Rai Fiction. "By delving into the biography of Giacomo Leopardi, beyond the canonical image of a man immersed in melancholic solitude with gothic hues, sclerotized by perpetual physical suffering, one can glimpse another, completely different one, characterized by an overwhelming vitality" - comments Sergio Rubini, who with this production signs his first television direction.