mistral  

The gay bourgeois in Rome meet weekly at trans-gender parties dressed as famous French courtesans. The mysterious murder of one of them puts the host—Madame Royale (played by Ugo Tognazzi)—in touch with the police commissioner (played by Maurice Ronet), who then psychologically terrorizes him with morbid tenacity until leaving him isolated from both his ‘civilian life’ as Alessio, and his gay friends. The loneliness also makes them an unwilling prey for the murderer. This film is the first major motion-picture in Italian cinema that has a major motion-picture star play the leading role as a gay man, without it being written as a parody or commentary. It simply was part of the narrative, no more, no less. Film is Italian spoken and will be screened with English subtitles. Drinks and a modest plate of dinner will be available to guests for a donation to mistral. Together with Andrea Meroni, Luca Locati Luciani has written his second book on the story of this film, its history, interpretation and impact, titled Quelle come me. La storia di Splendori e miserie di Madame Royale (2021). We will screen the film live in Amsterdam at mistral, together with Luca and Andrea being present to give an introduction to the film, their book, and to engage in a conversation afterwards. Maximum capacity audience is 10 persons due to Covid-19, so please send a mail to info@mistral.amsterdam to reserve a seat.

During the conversation with Luca Locati Luciani in Carrara, Italy in early June 2021—when discussing his archive and its purpose—he makes an explicit argument for its significance in that as a collection it is urgent and relevant because it reveals the everyday life of being queer. An ‘everyday life’ that in itself is interesting as a concept, due to its own existence within what has mainly been regarded as being the non-normative segments of social, cultural, political and even economic aspects of ‘everyday life.’
For the occasion of his presentation currently at mistral, we will host an online and live conversation between Luca and guests Gerard Koskovich (San Francisco-based antiquarian book dealer and historian of LGBTQ literature), Sara De Giovanni (archivist of the Cassero LGBTI Center in Bologna, Italy) and Andrea Meroni (writer, filmmaker and activist), to further discuss which desires and purpose are revealed in the objects and subjects of his collection, and how this influences their ultimately social and/or political impact. More specifically, we will examine the challenging implications for understanding the political implications of bringing abundance to the fore and the continual emergence of life that is ‘hidden’ within this collection and its objects. How much these ‘little nothings’ say so much about who we are, and whom we have been. Online video (2:02:41 mins) The talk will be in English. Drinks and a modest plate of dinner will be available to guests for a donation to mistral. Maximum capacity audience at mistral is 10 persons due to Covid-19, so please send a mail to info@mistral.amsterdam to reserve a seat. If you wish to watch/participate online, please do the same to receive a link to the program.