🎥3 December 2004. Venice in Movie Series.
The Merchant of Venice, a 2004 romantic drama film based on William Shakespeare's 16th-century play of the same name, is released. It is the first full-length sound film in English of a Shakespeare's play, other versions are videotaped productions which were made just for television.
Entirely filmed in Venice, representing life and history in the Jewish Ghetto (some of you remember my #WalkingTour? 😉 The First Ghetto in the world!), it is directed by Michael Radford and stars 🔝 actors such as Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino.
The title character is the merchant Antonio (#JeremyIrons), not the Jewish moneylender Shylock who is the antagonist (#AlPacino) and the more prominent character. This adaptation follows the text, but omits much, the film Director believed that Shylock was #Shakespeare first great tragic hero who reaches a catastrophe due to his own flaws. The film begins with text and a montage of how the Jewish community is abused by the Christian population of Venice and brings attention to the fact that, as a convert, Shylock would have been cast out of the Jewish #Ghetto: as often happens in these cases the movie treatment of antisemitism has been object of controversies.
Have you seen this film?
#VeniceMovies #VeniceFilmFestival #3December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdbzRtxVtns

📜🎶1222. 800 years ago Leonardo Bonacci from #Pisa, #Italy, later worldwide known as Fibonacci, introduced his numbers sequence, still today one of the most used and referred formulas in mathematics.

#Fibonacci was son of the most important merchant in Pisa at the time, and he travelled for years in North Africa and Middle East countries for trading. His passion for numbers grew in those years and he is considered the main "responsible" for introducing the "Indo-Persian-Arabic" numbering system (1-9) in Europe and in the Western world.
He added to it the "0" which was unknown: 👉 Venice (another prominent Maritime Republic in the Mediterranean, longtime rival of Pisa) later named this figure as "zero".

The #FibonacciSequence (today denoted as "Fn") is a sequence of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144...)
Later studies confirmed that this sequence can be found everywhere in nature 🌳 and applied in all fields of life, from physics, to medicine, to economy...

The Fibonacci Sequence was often applied in Cassical Music too, by "translating" numbers into notes which resulted in repeating the same sequence after 16 notes... uncountable examples can be found in modern music too, especially in Progressive Rock.
This track👇🎧 is presented as one of today examples, Lateralus by #Tool: I'm not a musician so I confess I don't quite get it, but I'm sure some musician here can help.

#VeniceHistory #MaritimeRepublic
https://youtu.be/Y7JG63IuaWs

🎥7 December 1976. Venice in Movie Series.
Fellini's Casanova (Italian title: Il Casanova di Federico Fellini) is released.
Directed by #FedericoFellini, unanimously regarded as the most important film director in #Italy history, the movie stars actor Donald Sutherland as Giacomo Casanova and is mainly concentrated on the sexual encounters of the Venetian adventurer, all surrounded by the typical "Fellinian" atmosphere.
#Casanova #Fellini #VeniceMovies #VeniceFilmFestival #7December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOkiSgBakz4

🎥8 December 1996. Venice in Movie Series.
Everyone Says I Love You, an American musical comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen is released. Partly filmed in Venice, the movie testifies once more #WoodyAllen love for Venice, a city where he often filmed, and played with his orchestra at #LaFenice theater, which he actively contributed to rebuild after the last devasting fire of 25 years ago (29 January 1996).
Everyone Says I Love You stars alongside Woody Allen, #JuliaRoberts (another actress strongly tied to Venice), Alan Alda, Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Gaby Hoffmann, Tim Roth, Goldie Hawn, Natasha Lyonne and Natalie Portman. Set in New York City, Venice and Paris, the film features singing by actors not usually known for their singing.
#VeniceMovies #VeniceFilmFestival #8December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa2VdDbE6lI

🎥8 December 2000. Venice in Movie Series.
Italian for Beginners (Danish: Italiensk for begyndere) a Danish romantic comedy film written and directed by Lone Scherfig is released. It stars Danish actors Anders W. Berthelsen, Lars Kaalund and Peter Gantzler, together with Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Anette Støvelbæk and Sara Indrio Jensen.
The movie, mainly filmed in Venice, was made by the austere principles of the Dogme 95 movement, including the use of handheld video cameras and natural lighting, and is known as Dogme XII.
#VeniceMovies #8December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0I4l3J9ljA

🎥10 December 2010. Venice in Movie Series.
The Tourist, American romantic thriller film co-written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and starring Angelina Jolie, #JohnnyDepp, Paul Bettany, and Timothy Dalton is released.
Despite the poor critical response, the film had a great success in terms of public and awards.
Needless to say it is almost entirely filmed in Venice, here's the Trailer👇
#VeniceMovies #VeniceFilmFestival #10December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R0vcopCNG0

🎥12 December 1999. Venice in Movie Series.
The Talented Mr. Ripley an American psychological thriller film written and directed by Anthony Minghella is released. An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel of the same name, the film stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf, Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge Sherwood, Cate Blanchett as Meredith Logue, and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Freddie Miles.
Mainly set in #Italy, most scenes were shot in Venice, San Remo and Rome.
#VeniceMovies #VeniceFilmFestival #CaffeFlorian #12December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4e-Si4oGEw

🎥19 December 1968. Venice and Dolomites in Movie Series.
A Place for Lovers (Italian: Amanti, French: Le Temps des amants) a French-Italian romantic drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica, written by Brunello Rondi, Julian Zimet, Peter Baldwin, Ennio De Concini, Tonino Guerra, and Cesare Zavattini is released.
The film is based on the play Gli Amanti by Brunello Rondi and Renaldo Cabieri and was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The film stars Faye Dunaway as a terminally ill American fashion designer in Venice, who has a whirlwind affair with a race car driver (played by Marcello Mastroianni).
The scenes are mostly filmed beween Venice #Lagoon and Cortina d'Ampezzo #Dolomites.
#VeniceMovies #DolomitesMovies #19December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWPJfbQmHCA

📜15 January 1623

400 years ago Paolo Sarpi passed away in his birthplace, Venice.
One of those historical figures noone knows and remembers about, perhaps because his main activity was the pensatore ("the man who thinks").

#PaoloSarpi was a Venetian historian, prelate and statesman who spent his life defending the freedom of thought and speech of the Venetian Republic in defiance of the Papal interdict 💪🏻
Venice was in fact a Republic founded on secularism, it was of course a Catholic city as everywhere in #Italy, but never accepted religious interferences on government of public life!
As a defender of the liberties and proponent of the separation of Church and State, Sarpi got famous all over Europe as a hero of republicanism, later cited as an influential figure by philosophers of The Enlightenment!

Paolo Sarpi was friend to leaders of the "Scientific Revolution", such as Francis Bacon, William Harvey and most notably patron to
👉 Galileo!

📸☝️Paolo Sarpi statue in Venice
#15January #VeniceHistory

📜25 January 1348
A big "terremoto" (earthquake) probably the most devastating in #VeniceHistory, hits the city and all North East #Italy.
The earthquake caused 10 consecutive days of Acqua Granda (flood) and accelerated the spread of the "Peste Nera" (Black Plague).
Venice, at the time inhabited by 100.000 people lost 3 quarters of its population that year! 😱
The 25th of January became known for centuries among Venetians as “San Paolo del terremoto” (after the Saint of the day).

From a local chronicle in those days:
“Fu così grande che scorlò tutta la città in modo tale che le campane sonavano da per loro, et caderono in terra i campanili di S. Silvestro, S. Vidal, S. Giacomo dall’Orio, S. Anzolo et la fazzada della chiesa di S. Basilio. Durò diese giorni continui e tutto il popolo stava con grandissimo spavento”.

#25January #Earthquake #HighWater #VeniceFlood

📜26 January 1699
The Treaty of Karlowitz was signed in today's Serbia between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire.
The Treaty ended the 16 year long Great Turkish War and the new borders between European and Ottoman countries were agreed.

Venice, which played an important role in the sea war victories thanks to the amazing strategic wit of the Doge #FrancescoMorosini who never lost a single battle, gained dominion of coastal territories such as Dalmatia and Morea (= Greek Peloponnesus) in addition to the islands of Crete and Cyprus already controlled.

It was the maximum expansion ever for Venice Republic!
The new Venetian administration was split into 3 entities: the Dogado (Venice city and surroundings), the Stato de Tera (lands in Northern Italy and Istria) and the Stato de Mar (Adriatic and Mediterranean coasts and islands).

This dominion on the Adriatic and Mediterranean area lasted until 👉1797 when Napoleon came and put an end to the Serenissima Republic of Venice.

#26January #VeniceHistory