More about "The Poem of Lunatics" and Fellini's movie from it

As I said in a past post, Federico Fellini, back in 1989, made a movie from the novel "The poem of Lunatics", by italian writer Ermanno Cavazzoni. I re-read this novel recently and I want to describe its surrealistic plot to you.

(Actually I'm not going to talk about Fellini's movie, "The voice of the Moon", starring Roberto Benigni. I just suggest to watch it, if you like Fellini's cinema.)

So, what is the story of "The poem of Lunatics" about? There is a man wandering in the italian countryside, in the Emilia region. He looks for strange things: a family with a forest in its house; people who hear someone talking from the wells; wet furniture that can germinate.

In his wandering, the leading character (Savini), meets many people. Some make fun of him, others listen to him  and tell him their stories.

A man tells to Savini his menage with a woman he loved. When they made love, the woman became a steam locomotive and he felt it.

Another man tells about a great cospiracy: every thing around him is fake, the houses are made of cardboard and everyone is an actor playing a role.

When Savini meets Gonella, a retired magistrate, the two men start travelling together. Every day Savini goes in some farm and talk to the peasants, looking for stories that can support the obession of Gonella about being watched. So Savini finds a lot of odd and surreal stories:

A man says to him that there are beings called Madonnas (Virgin Mary) that appear to some man and just smile to them.

Another man tells a story about a convict, a little man, who's penis kept growing and became an enormous thing that weighs some tons.

A student tells about an ancestor that joined Garibaldi in his last war but became aware of the madness of the great commander.

When Savini and Gonella arrive in a diner, Savini falls in love with the maid. In the night, he goes under her window and makes bird noises. Then the maid becomes a rooster and runs after him, hitting him in the head with her beak.

In the end, Gonella causes a fight and the Minister of Justice appears in the sky, looking at Gonella with a severe stare.

You probably thinks now that this is a story of madness. Somehow it is, but the style of the writing and narrating makes this book a masterpiece of Nonsense and Surreal Literature - comparable to Don Quixote, for example.

Needless to say, I love that kind of Literature.

Images sources: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-la-voce-delle-luna-voce-della-luna-la-the-voice-of-the-moon-anne-1990-22093777.html http://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/dante-ferretti-2/