Casa Malaparte: an unforgettable setting from Jean-Luc Godard's films

There are places, landscapes and scenes that we see on the cinema screen that, long after the session has ended, still live clearly in our memories. It can be said that Casa Malaparte is one of them: an architectural jewel built 31 meters above sea level at Punta Massullo, on the island of Capri, the house is the setting for the film Contempt ( Le mépris , 1963), directed by Jean- Luc Godard , master of the Nouvelle vague who died yesterday at the age of 91. With an unusual architecture, and surrounded by an aura of mystery, the house is not attributed to any specific architectural style, having been completed in 1941 by Curzio Malaparte , an Italian who developed his skills in several areas of knowledge, but who was not trained architect. Throughout his life, Malaparte referred to Casa Malaparte as " casa come me " (in translation, "house like me"). The "strangeness" that many feel when observing the house is due to its foundation: only accessible by boat or on foot, Casa Malaparte constitutes an architectural pilgrimage through one of the most isolated areas of the island of Capri . In Curzio's own words: "In the wildest, loneliest and most dramatic part of Capri, in the part facing south and east, where the island loses its human quality and becomes ferocious, where nature expresses itself with an incomparable and cruel force , there was a promontory of extraordinary purity of line, a rocky claw thrown into the sea". Initially, Curzio Malaparte hired architect Adalberto Libera to bring his ideas and expectations for the residence to life. Libera created a rational structure, consisting of a two-story rectangular building, with identical rooms along a corridor, as was expected of the modern architecture in vogue at the time; however, Malaparte wanted to create a house that reflected his needs and his personality, and that was, in short, more complex than Libera's proposal. So, rather than creating identical windows throughout the living room, Malaparte designed the room to include four differently sized windows – each offering a unique view of Capri, functioning almost like an art gallery. In the end, Libera ended up resigning from the job, leaving Malaparte to complete the venture on his own. A curiosity: until the end of the 1980s, Casa Malaparte was attributed to Libera, until research by Marida Talamona revealed otherwise.

Imagined from the inside out, Casa Malaparte was created with stark contrasts, exemplified by the difference between the living room and the dining room: while the large living room is inconvenient for conversations, it constitutes an isolated space intended for meditation and introspection. ; the dining room is an almost claustrophobic cube, dominated by a large stove accented by dark wood. The staircase with a 'stairway to heaven' effect is undoubtedly the most recognizable feature of the house . Shaped like an inverted pyramid, becoming wider as it approaches the large, flat roof area, the staircase became world famous after the release of Godard's film, and was also the setting for an " target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yves Saint Laurent campaign with Kate Moss in 2018. Another curiosity of the building is its red color, which changes tone according to the position of the sun . This means that at noon, when the sun is at its strongest, the building is illuminated, while at the moment when the sun weakens, the building begins to emit a more sinister glowing effect. The idea here was to make it look as if the building was constantly changing, never being the same twice. Furthermore, the landscaping design takes into account the vegetation in front and on the sides of the house, which was carefully crafted in order to make clear the minimum intervention of the construction in the immediate natural environment. [april-see-also]W3siaWQiOjEzMzA2OSwidGl0bGUiOiIxMiBtZWxob3JlcyBjYXNhcyBkZSBsdXhvIGRvIEFpcmJuYiBhbyByZWRvciBkbyBtdW5kbyJ9LHsiaWQiOjEzMzAwOSwidGl0bGUiOiJBcGF y dGFtZW50byBkZSAxNjAgbSYjeEIyOyBuYSBCYXJyYSBkYSBUaWp1Y2EgZ2FuaGEgZCYjeEU5O2NvciBjb250ZW1wb3ImI3hFMjtuZW8gZSBjaGljIn0seyJpZCI6MTI3NjE5LCJ0aXRsZSI6IkFzIG11Z GFuJiN4RTc7YXMgbm8gUGFsJiN4RTE7Y2lvIGRlIEJ1Y2tpbmdoYW0gYW8gbG9uZ28gZG8gcmVpbmFkbyBkZSBFbGl6YWJldGggSUkifV0=[/abril-see-also]