(2017, dir. Giacomo Durzi, w/ Michael Reynolds, Jonathan Franzen, Elizabeth Strout, Francesca Marciano, Lisa Lucas, Ann Goldstein, Sarah McNally, Roberto Saviano, Nicola Lagioia)

LIFF18 – A CONVERSATION ON ELENA FERRANTE – FERRANTE FEVER & TROUBLING LOVE will finish at approximately 5:05pm.

FERRANTE FEVER It’s a rare feeling when we open a book and find ourselves lost in its pages; finding pieces of ourselves in the story and letting ourselves be enveloped in the emotions that arise. This effect is what the works of Elena Ferrante are most known for. Listed among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, Elena Ferrante is a contemporary icon, whose identity is closely linked to her novels and nothing more. Despite her massive international success, Elena Ferrante is an author whose true identity remains unknown. Via excerpt readings and interviews with critics, directors, booksellers, editors and authors such as Jonathan Franzen and Elizabeth Strout, Ferrante Fever explores Ferrante’s deeply intimate writing and looks into her choice to remain anonymous, which sparked an unprecedented cultural debate. Filmed between Italy and the United States, Ferrante Fever doesn’t necessarily go in search of the identity of the “faceless writer,” instead, it hopes to discover the secret of her success. How was she able to create stories that would conquer readers over the course of 12 years? In depth interviews provide answers, but so do the writer’s own words, and the places and protagonists in her novels. TROUBLING LOVE In this ambitious and Palme d’Or nominated mystery adapted from Elena Ferrante’s eponymous novel, Delia, a Neapolitan artist who has lived for many years in Bologna, returns to Naples after the sudden death of her mother, Amalia. The officials have judged it suicide, but her mother’s exuberance and vivacity, which Delia remembers so well, give her pause. She sets out to find the truth and, in so doing, confronts her own unresolved feelings for her mother. As Delia tries to ascertain what happened in the days before Amalia’s death, she discovers parts of her mother’s life she never knew existed. And then there are Delia’s double-edged memories of her relationship with her mother. As the past spills into the present, Delia must come to grips with buried childhood traumas, which only reveal further, deeper conflicts. (IMDB)