The World of Ciprì & Maresco: A Tribute to a Degraded Territory

Abstract

This article explores the territory occupied by the characters in the work of Sicilian directors Daniele Ciprì and Franco Maresco, who for years collaborated to build one of the most subversive and disturbing filmographies on the Italian—and European—scene. As their contributions to both cinema and television have been extensive, this study is limited to the analysis of a few pieces and excerpts that reveal how the degradation of the landscape and the visual motif of the building in ruins serve as pillars in the construction of their particular universe. The periphery and the outskirts, industrial archaeology, disordered interiors, and a certain texture of the sky and the horizon are some of the settings that participate as characters in their own right, framing the aimless wanderers who people their films.