The media operation that saved Florence - Zeffirelli and the flood of '66

It was in Rome, during the final work for the release of the film “The Taming of Shrew,” that Zeffirelli learned of the tragedy that had befallen Florence. It was dawn on November 4, 1966.

“It was the early morning hours of November 4, 1966, when my sister Fanny called me from Florence. She was in a panic. ”

Information is partial and fragmented, but one fact is clear: Florence is devastated, overwhelmed by a river of debris and mud.

Dismay, fear, and awareness of the tragedy that has befallen the city are not, however, the only feelings that dominate Franco Zeffirelli’s soul in the early hours of that agitated morning.

Something had to be done for the city: to touch the minds and hearts of the world, to think about its reconstruction and salvation.

Thus began a colossal media operation, unimaginable for the means of the time.

“I called a friend of mine, a senior RAI official and a Florentine like me. He too already knew about the disaster that had befallen our city. ‘Something must be done,’ I told him. “If you get me a team of cameramen, I will run to Florence right away to film what is happening.”

Zeffirelli rushed to Florence with the clear idea of putting his skills as a director and his international fame at the service of his city: “I finally managed to reach Fiesole and from above I could see a surreal, unimaginable picture. The beautiful valley on which Florence sits had become a lagoon.”

Around 9:00 a.m. Zeffirelli called on the phone Furio Colombo, then a RAI correspondent in the United States with whom he had immediately established “a relationship of trust and sympathy.” Involved by his Florentine friend, he would work on writing the texts for the short film “For Florence.”

In a 2016 interview by Barbara Scaramucci in Articoli 21, Furio Colombo recalls that morning this way: “Around 9 a.m. on that November 4, while I was at home on my day off from the news, Zeffirelli called me. The radio was still not giving any news-the morning TV was not broadcasting … However, many radio broadcasts were making appeals for doctors to go to the Florence area. After Zeffirelli’s call I was able to find the director Fabiano Fabiani at the Quirinale … From that moment everything was set in motion.”

The timing of the production is exceptionally fast.

Newspaper articles and numerous letters of appreciation preserved in the Zeffirelli Archives clearly attest that the documentary was broadcast by RAI on the evening of November 23. Only 19 days after the disaster!

This was unprecedented in its timing and excellent contributions:

“When Richard Burton asked me if there was anything he could do to help Florence, I immediately proposed to him to present the two versions, one Italian and one English; the documentary that would travel all over the world to raise funds and help the city.”

The scenes of devastation and ruin that were before the eyes of the Florentines, the image of entire historic neighborhoods, such as that of Santa Croce, flooded down to the second floors of houses, works of art of extraordinary value threatened with destruction and irreparably raped, a population exhausted but immediately intent on reconstruction went around the world in just under a month.

In the hours following the disaster, the mobilization to rescue Florence is grandiose and coordinated.

As Zeffirelli begins his shooting, the great art historian Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, former head of the Tuscan National Liberation Committee during the Resistance, launches from the pages of “Art Criticism” the Culture Appeal for Florence. “We need everyone. We make an urgent and painful appeal to everyone who wants to make a contribution to the resurrection of Florence, to set up an international fund for the recovery of monuments, documents, works of art.”

On Nov. 12, Piero Bargellini, mayor of Florence, responded by establishing the International Fund Committee for Florence. It will benefit damaged museums, works of art and monuments, libraries and city archives.

Ted Kennedy himself launches an appeal contained in, among other things, the documentary “For Florence,” and establishes the CRIA (Commettee to Rescue Italian Art).

Beginning in December, screenings of the documentary “For Florence” are organized in the United Kingdom and the United States. The English version is titled, “Florence: Days of Destruction.” It is in black and white, but the part showing the damage in the basilica of Santa Croce is in color, to impress foreign audiences who did not know ‘live’ the splendor of the church and its art treasures.

The London premiere, on January 29, 1967 at the Royal Theatre Haymarket in the presence of Marina Duchess of Kent, was attended by the greatest stars of Anglo-Saxon film, theater, and music.

The operation succeeded: it “brought more than twenty million dollars of aid to the city, and to its people who really needed it. A large amount for the time, but the needs were truly incalculable.”

Not forgetting the “mud angels” who came from all over the world and worked alongside the citizens, “They spoke different languages but were soon able to communicate and understand each other in the tragedy that united everyone.”

“… Last night I had the junta convene (and the items on the agenda were terrible) at 8 p.m. so that everyone could see her documentary, with which she was able to render the grim pride of the Florentines and the rush of the river first; the dishevelment of the mota afterwards. Excellent the actor.

Thank him on behalf of the city and thank you too, quickly, but with much gratitude.

Piero Bargellini.”