Diva Futura immerses us in the shadows and reflections of an era that made sexual freedom a frontier to explore and capitalize on. The film doesn't merely evoke the dream of free love that permeated the seventies but tells its evolution, its gradual absorption into the mechanisms of the market, and ultimately, its disillusionment.

At the heart of this narrative stands Riccardo Schicchi, not merely as an impresario, but as the involuntary priest of an aesthetic and cultural revolution. Raised as a frequently bullied child, unable to identify with the myth of the supermacho, he was taught by his father to observe female beauty through a telescope, developing an idea of desire not tied to domination but to adoration. This vision would accompany him throughout his life, leading him to consider himself amoral but not immoral. Schicchi emerges as an eccentric and visionary figure, surrounded by cats, rabbits, and even a snake, to which he gives a funeral ceremony after a rat devours its head. His house is a surreal microcosm, where the boundary between reality and representation becomes increasingly blurry. His view of the world of eroticism is that of a man who, while immersed in the market of desire, seeks to preserve an artistic and poetic dimension. Not surprisingly, he bitterly claimed that the internet would destroy everything, erasing professionalism and transforming eroticism into a mechanism for controlling the masses, devoid of poetry.

According to the director, his work contained, perhaps unconsciously, a message of emancipation: a mischievous game that removed the female body from mortification for sublimation, transforming it into an icon of desire and media power.

The protagonists of this epic, divas trapped in the boundary of eroticism imposed by society, move between television brilliance and the unbreachable limit of their own image. Moana Pozzi, enigmatic and elusive, aspires to be recognized as an intellectual and politician, but her attempt to free herself from the role assigned to her clashes with her narcissism/exhibitionism and with the cynicism of the public and institutions. Ilona Staller, a postmodern coronet in pastel tones, transforms her transgression into a political manifesto, while Eva Henger crosses the innocence of dreams, generosity, and unconditional love for her husband, before confronting the dark side of the industry.

At the heart of the story is Debora Attanasio, Schicchi's secretary and silent witness to an irreplaceable era. Her voice, taken from the memoir "Don’t Tell Mom I’m a Secretary", offers an unprecedented perspective: the portrait of a universe seen not from the inside, but from its threshold, through the eyes of one who observes and takes notes. Through her, the film questions not only the birth of a popular mythology but also its decline, the slow awakening of its protagonists, reduced to cumbersome symbols of an industry that glorified them and, in the end, imprisoned them.

Steigerwalt addresses the paradox of pornography as language and seriality: a dimension that, in the eighties, still sought a balance between entertainment and provocation, before being swallowed by the violence and alienation of the industry. Schicchi and his world moved along an ambiguous ridge: on one side, the desire to dismantle hypocrisies; on the other, the impossibility of escaping the logics of a system that, in the end, absorbs every rebellion, turning it into a commodity.

If Ilona appears as a fairytale character, with her glycemic and disarming aesthetics, behind the mask remains a woman who fought real political battles, trying to push the boundaries of public morality. Her candidacy with Marco Pannella's radical party and her entry into Parliament mark an unforgettable moment in Italian history: a time when transgression became militancy, while today, according to the director, moralism is accompanied by embarrassing hypocrisy.

Diva Futura is the portrait of a broken innocence: a historical moment when desire seemed to be able to be freed from shame, before power—media, political, and economic—pushed it back into the shadows. The film, with its meticulous reconstruction and skillful use of archival material, is more than just a story about an industry: it is the parable of a

01-Feb-2025 by Beatrice