Rosabella la storia italiana di Orson Welles (Rosabella: Orson Welles Years in Italy) will air on Italy’s public television channel RAI TRE on April 6. Immediately after that, the acclaimed documentary will stream for free for two weeks on RaiPlay.
The 1993 film was directed by Gianfranco Giagni and the late Ciro Giorgini, who also wrote and narrated it.
“I’m happy and proud that after 30 years Rosabella is still seen,” Giagni told Wellesnet.
The screening of Rosabella by the Italian cinephile television program Fuori Orario coincides with the 10th anniversary of Giorgini’s passing, Giagni said
Giorgini died on April 6, 2015 at the age of 63. A highly respected Welles scholar, he worked on the Welles written and directed travelogue series Nella Terra di Don Chisciotte (In the Land of Don Quixote) for RAI in 2005. He was credited with identifying the previously lost silent footage of Too Much Johnson, which was discovered in an Italian warehouse in 2010.
RAI TRE also plans to run the nine-episode Nella Terra di Don Chisciotte (In the Land of Don Quixote) on April 6 following Rosabella. In addition, Massimiliano Studer and Filippo Biagianti’s conversation with Giorgini about the discovery of Too Much Johnson will air.
For Rosabella, Giorgini and Giagni worked with producer Maia Borelli to examine Welles’ work and ties to Italy.
Rosabella included interviews with Othello actress Suzanne Cloutier, Don Quixote editor Mauro Bonanni, Chimes at Midnight and Othello composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino and longtime Welles associates Alessandro Tasca and Gary Graver among others. The documentary also utilizes archival interviews with Welles and his wife, Italian countess Paola Mori.
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