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17 November1980
Polenta
Author
Francesco Rinaldi
Format
Super8
Duration
3'42''
Credits
Original sound

"Grandma, what do you make?" "Polenta". The Rinaldi measure time with the seasons and the seasons with the Super8 camera. In this sequence, autumn is the time of polenta: in the daily staging of peasant life of work, rituals and food, 17 November 1980 breaks in. It is a sunny day when grandmother Irma, mother of Francesco the filmmaker, assisted by her granddaughter Anna, prepares polenta clock in the kitchen. When it is ready the hour marks midday and Irma goes out to call her husband Ettore who is working in the fields. When her husband arrives, Irma pours the steaming polenta onto a pastry board placed on the table, and dresses it with meat sauce, sprinkling Parmesan cheese on top. Anna and Ettore start eating it directly from the pastry board. "Mmm, it's good," says Ettore. The taste of rediscovering a lost world in a shrink-wrapped film. In this little chapter of his Emilian peasant family saga, Francesco Rinaldi once again shows off his skills in filming, editing and sound.

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