Éphémère

The documentary, winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Salento International Film Festival in 2018, follows Ricci as he walks along the bamboo corridors of his labyrinth and the rooms of his art collection as he tells his own story in an atypical, non-exhaustive biography, with a long series of emotions, memories of surreal adventures, encounters and deep and imperishable friendships. The sense of the documentary, as well as of Franco Maria Ricci’s personal story, develops in a movement marked by oxymorons, dichotomies, and opposites: Parma and the international jet-set; the classical elegance of graphics and his art collection, so eclectic and open to the irrational; the fantastic and Enlightenment rationality; craftsmanship, precious and popular, and art, aristocratic and elitist. These contrasts, never presented in a totally explicit form, are identified not as elements overcome by a synthesis, but as a sign and cipher of the complex and multifaceted personality of the protagonist. In addition to the DVD, the boxed set also contains a small volume, edited by Barbara Ainis, which collects the text Franco Maria Ricci si racconta, signed by Ricci himself, and the transcription of the testimonies of the historical friends who appear in the video.