EFP 79: Writer-director Valerio Ciriaci on Elvira Notari

Host Dr Pasquale Iannone goes back to Naples in the early 1900s to discuss a pioneer of silent cinema and Italy’s first woman filmmaker, Elvira Notari (1875 - 1946). Notari directed dozens of features and documentaries, but like so much from the silent era, only a small percentage of her work has survived. Most notably there are three films she made between 1920 and 1927 - A' santanotte (1922), È piccerella (1922) and Fantasia e surdate (1927) - a trio of passionate, visually daring, often subversive melodramas set in the streets of Naples - and all based on popular neapolitan songs.After her retirement in 1930, Notari’s work languished in obscurity for decades until film scholars such as Vittorio Martinelli, Mario Franco, Giuliana Muscio and Giuliana Bruno led the way for the rediscovery of a crucially important figure in world cinema. Notari is the subject of a new documentary titled Elvira Notari: Beyond Silence which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2025 and which is currently touring the US before arriving in the UK and Ireland. First stop - right here at the University of Edinburgh on Thursday 30th April.Joining Pasquale to discuss this wonderful new film is its writer/director Valerio Ciriaci. Valerio tells Pasquale how he became interested in Notari’s work, the background to his film, as well as his work with key collaborators such as composer Silvia Cignoli. They discuss Notari’s working methods, her reception both in Italy and in the US as well as the timelessness of her thematic preoccupations.