In the first months of 2019 Tuscany witnessed a succession of productions dedicated to Leonardo Da Vinci in the year celebrating five hundred years since his death which were filmed with the support of the Toscana Film Commission in the main holy places and historic palazzos involved in the life of Leonardo Da Vinci such as the Cathedral, Santa Maria Novella, San Miniato al Monte as well as the Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio, the Bargello, Palazzo Medici Riccardi and Orsanmichele.
Between April and May, on the occasion of the latest edition of the Festival del Viaggio (Travel Festival) in Florence, the director Alessandro Agostinelli made a video-story of an imaginary journey: ten places in ten days, from Vinci to Amboise in France, and ten questions about Da Vinci which will be answered by personalities linked to world of history and art, like Philippe Daverio, Franco Cardini, Guido Tonelli, Bernard Vanel and Eike Schmidt.
Filming has just finished on “Decoding Da Vinci”, a documentary directed by Sandra Paugam and produced by the French companies ZED and ARTE France, in collaboration with the Louvre, focused on Leonardo the painter. The two part documentary “Leonardo. L’ultimo ritratto-Leonardo. The Last Portrait” will be broadcast in May on Rai Storia while the docu-drama “Essere Leonardo Da Vinci-Being Leonardo Da Vinci”, directed by and starring Massimiliano Finazzer Flory was released in Italy in mid April in collaboration with the Fice (Italian Federation of Arthouse Cinemas), under the patronage of the Comitato Nazionale per le celebrazioni leonardiane [National Committee of Leonardo Celebrations] and the collaboration of Rai Cinema.
The series, which has received important awards at international Festivals (at the Top Shorts Film Festival, the New York Film Awards and the Los Angeles Film Awards), will be distributed in 23 countries, including China and India.
Some other international productions are France’s “Leonardo Da Vinci”, a documentary produced by Camera Lucida Productions for the Histoire network, the Spanish documentary “Leonardo, il Genio” (Volcan Producciones for Discovery Channel Spain) and the documentary about Leonardo produced by the famous Brazilian television network Globo Tv. After the world premier on February 17th at the Los Angeles Italia Festival, the movie “Inside Leonardo” starring Luca Argentero, produced by Sky and Progetto Immagine, distributed by Lucky Red and directed by Jesus Garces Lambert is expected in Italian movie theaters and on Sky in the course of 2019.
Among the many productions ‘converging’ on the Leonardo celebrations, we should mention the Tuscan experience of the video game “The House of Da Vinci”, a puzzle-game created in 2017 which takes the player to Renaissance Florence and unfolds in imaginary interiors featuring secret passages and iconic contraptions.
Video games are becoming an increasingly stronger presence in
