Vittorio Sgarbi

A voyage, from the Po river to Sicily, in search of the sense of culture for the italian population

Luigi Ghirri's final project, unfortunately unrealized, was a "house of the seasons": to purchase a farmhouse, which appears in the photographer's last works, near his home in Roncocesi, and to stage exhibitions there, each linked to the current season, thus creating a close connection between natural time and artistic time. This interrupted project inspired "Pink Desert," in which the camera 'visits' a series of landscapes photographed by Ghirri according to the changing seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Nocturnal Spring. Aleksandr Sokurov narrates each season depicted in the film, focusing in narrative form on Luigi Ghirri's sense of the cyclical nature of time.

Conductor Keri Lynn Wilson leads the Toscanini Foundation Orchestra in this outdoor performance of Verdi's masterpiece "Rigoletto." The stars above Siena, Italy, add ambience to this opera, Verdi's passionate and tragic tale about court jester Rigoletto (Roberto Servile), who vows revenge on his master, the Duke of Mantua (Marcelo Alvarez), after he seduces Rigoletto's daughter, Gilda (Inva Mula). Vivienne Westwood designed the lavish costumes.

A film-journey into the art of Wolfango, born in Bologna in 1926, "the greatest living Italian painter", as Eugenio Riccomini defined him, who first, in 1986, convinced him to exhibit his works. "Painting enters inside and speaks to the world; indeed, it speaks to the world". His production is based on this assumption, extraneous to contemporary artistic currents. The film is also a passionate chorus of those who have known and appreciated it in the last thirty years.

Ciao Darwin is a variety game show format from Italy sold under licence to several countries, including Romania, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Canada, USA, China and Greece. There are two competing teams of about 50 people each, usually made up of people who fit certain opposing stereotypes. In each game two members of the audience are selected at random, one from each team, indicated by a light in front of them which remains illuminated when all the other team members' lights have gone off. The games involve contestants competing in acts of bravery, style and talent, some of which are designed to humiliate the contestants, especially an assault course which was introduced with the Italian version in 2010, and the Finale which is a water tank game.