5 things Paola Cortellesi said about the Meloni government

As he is about to turn 50 on November 24th and awaits a weekend break from the tour to promote his first film, There’s still tomorrowwhich is touring Italy, Paola Cortellesi has granted to Vanity Fair the most political interview given so far, starting from the themes of the film i.e domestic violence, patriarchy, civil rights. After having contested the fact that newspaper articles referred to her as “the female director”, when the female article was enough, in this interview Cortellesi first of all comments on the clarification of Prime Minister Meloni, made just after receiving the assignment a year ago, on the desire to be called in the masculine form, «the» Prime Minister: «It is important because those who have an institutional role, those who deal with information or those who, like me, give monologues, must be very careful about language. Then an article was easy come on! I would have been happy if they had called me “the” Prime Minister, in fact I would have been proud, but I am not the Prime Minister.” Here you are the five messages to the Meloni government.

Anyone who has seen the film knows: a woman’s fulfillment comes through education, not through marriage. This is the conclusion reached by Delia who, until the moment before, was saving money for her daughter’s wedding dress. A message diametrically opposed to that of the Meloni government which instead, in the latest budget, rewards the woman who starts a family, and who, if she has two or more children, has already given “her contribution” to the State. Cortellesi comments: «I think that we cannot judge a woman’s contribution to society based on what she gives birth to. Children are made for other reasons, out of love for example. Marriage is no longer the only goal for a long time, but a good education and a good job are. We must focus on these rights.”

The Italian school does not provide an emotional education course. Recently a proposal to introduce sex education was mocked in Parliament, and Paola Cortellesi knows the episode well: «A member of the League defined the idea of ​​“teaching sex to our six-year-old children” as “atrocious”. When I heard the news I thought exactly the opposite, education in affectivity and self-respect should begin in nursery school, to continue later with sexual education, the topic of the body… It’s a scandal that I don’t is provided by the ministry”. When it is pointed out to her that some majority politicians argued, on the contrary, that such a delicate task should be attributed to mothers and fathers, Cortellesi comments: «But does a teenage daughter really sit there listening to her parents? It’s clear that an expert needs to take care of it.”

The males of the 1940s, in the film, from the oldest to the youngest, subjugate and belittle women. Everyone seems flattened by the prevailing patriarchy: from her husband Ivano to Delia’s employer, from her daughter Giulio’s betrothed, to her father-in-law Sor Ottorino. When we ask her if today’s young people, many generations later, have improved, she replies: «It depends where they come from. I drew a circle: Ivano, a worker, is the son of a toxic father. The “boy from a good family” Giulio is the son of a father who may not be like Ivano, but from him he learned that, once a woman becomes a wife, she is her property. I wanted to talk about the question of possession, which is not only linked to the culture of the time.” So not much has changed: today we have the son of the President of the Senate under investigation for sexual violence as well as the boys of the Palermo “gang”. Cortellesi continues: «In fact, when I say that “it depends where they come from” I am not referring to social class, but to ethics. In the film not all the males are chauvinistic: there is the American soldier, or the husband of Delia’s friend, who remind us that there were also men who were respectful and playful with their companions. And they are still there now. But at the same time, the sexist mentality resists.”

Italy fell to 79th place in the Global Gender Gap Index 2023: we were in 63rd. The determining factor was one fact: women make up 33% of the new Parliament formed in 2022. It is the percentage that has fallen for the first time since 1996. Paola Cortellesi says she does not know this figure, but she is not surprised: «It is strange, having two women at the head of the government and at the head of the opposition for the first time: it is clear that it is not enough for the cause, unless this combination of circumstances leads to a helping hand being extended». Is he pitching an idea? Let’s ask.
«It would be a real revolution: joining forces. They are two women in power, capable, because we know that to reach an important role a woman has to work much harder than a man. Maybe we may like one more than the other, but it’s incredible that they don’t push for a project, an agreement on issues that concern them both, such as the prevention of feminicides, starting from school. I would love to meet them. With Una Anche Centomila we are thinking of making an official invitation.” Cortellesi hopes that the two leaders can “go beyond” their political affiliations and sit at the table. “I’m sure there is a meeting point: and we need to act immediately.”

When you point out that his film was released on 26 October, a few days after Giorgia Meloni left her partner Andrea Giambruno, after the riots of The news spreads, the director prefers not to comment. She only points out that it is a situation between privileged people, therefore it cannot be generalized to real contexts in which “if you don’t have money, a toxic relationship lasts a very long time”. Cortellesi says: «Yes, of course. There it was fast, there was no economic issue. But the others? Women in extreme situations arrive in shelter homes, when they can no longer do without it, to start a different existence for themselves and their children. How long do they think before taking such a step? They have to hide because there are husbands and companions who come back to look for them, as in a protection program for mafia witnesses. But nothing, we continue to be among the last countries in terms of gender equality.”

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