The Mano Fico (fig hand, properly, ‘mano fica’) is an ancient obscene gesture, and is also one of the better known protective gestures against the eye. The thumb and fist gesture is an ancient representation of sexual union. The name is from the Italian word for the female vulva, fica,meaning fig (and also the origin of a well-known English obscenity).
The fig was associated by the Romans with female fertility and eroticism; the fruit was sacred to Bacchus. The gesture is used against the evil eye in the belief that an obscenity serves as a distraction to evil, even that demons are so repelled by the notion of sex and reproduction that they flee at the sign,
The dark side of life came through too – illness, fear trauma… people like those at the Berlin Love Parade going out to enjoy themselves, and this horrible tragedy befalling them. The human spirit seems to surpass that though, and in the film there’s a sense of redemption – a sense that once you face the dark side of life you can actually get on and enjoy it.
Perché la destra, vedi, mi fa meno incazzare, perché sono cadaveri, è gentaglia, sai che sono dei disonesti, sono messi lì, sai che è un disonesto; ma i finti amici, quelli che fanno finta di fare le opposizioni e poi sono d’accordo e fanno slittare il referendum dalle elezioni, lo fanno slittare e lo fanno mettere il 12 e il 13 di giugno, porca puttana, mi fanno più incazzare quelli lì.
“Such a thing is inconceivable between Cosa Nostra members. The Sicilian mafia is extremely homophobic. But the Camorra is much more liberal and modern in that respect. Camorristi aren’t bothered how they are portrayed or what other people think. As long as they’re able to function and carrying on making money.” Dr de Rosa said their laissez-faire attitude was evident when, in February 2009, police arrested the 27-year-old transsexual Ugo “Ketty” Gabriele on suspicion of being a Camorra drug smuggler.
In other words, here at the Venice Biennale there is absolutely no escaping what a strange and sometimes monstrous thing the art world has become. There again, it’s probably no worse than 15th-century Florence or 16th-century Rome.
If you had
a bike (a
good bike) and
the will (a
strong will) and
the strength (a
cosmic strength), you
would be sitting
with me … under
this tree … on
this grass … in
this sun. I
struggle to imagine
a better place
than this, right
now, in London
You mention the pleasure I must have directing Isabelle A. It’s the opposite of pleasure, it’s daily suffering for me, and almost an agony for her. For her profession is her religion, and because of that our shoot is a trial for everyone. It would be too easy to say she is difficult, she is not. She is different from all the women in this profession and since she isn’t even 20, add to all this (to her genius, let’s not be afraid of words), an unawareness of others and their vulnerability, which creates an unbelievable tension.
She said, in dialect-accented Italian, “Please talk to me, there’s no one here.” I answered, “I’m an American.” She paused and answered, “I am blind, and there is no one to talk to here.”
