L’arte astratta e moderna come pittura diegetica nei film di Alberto Sordi

It is well known that Alberto Sordi had a passion for antiques, which he avidly collected. Equally notable is the film episode Le vacanze intelligenti (1978), in which the roman actor and director expressed his skepticism towards contemporary conceptual art, which he considered overly avant-garde and difficult for the general public to understand. This paper explores a previously unexamined aspect of Sordi’s cinematic work: the use of significant paintings by renowned contemporary artists (Piero Dorazio, Achille Perilli, Mario Schifano, Tano Festa, Roberto Matta, Victor Vasarely and Fulvia Levi Bianchi) as interior set design in a series of films made between 1969 and 1992.