After a long career dedicated to the world of crime, Carlo Lucarelli returns to TV with a new Sky Exclusive series on the theme of madness. It is called “The Ship of Fools. Beyond Reason” and is a six-episode documentary broadcast from 20 January at 9.15pm on Sky Arte – and streaming on NOW – which, through the incredible lives of six characters from the past, tells the story of stigma of diversity throughout history and puts the spotlight on those characters that society has defined as “crazy” but who were perhaps just too modern for their times.
And thanks to Carlo Lucarelli’s story and the intertwining of historical facts with the testimonies of experts on the most recent psychiatric studies, this series created by TIWI tries to ask new questions by delving into the human dimension of characters from the past who perhaps already belonged to the future .
From Nero to Camille Claudel, from Robert Schumann to Madeleine Pelletier, up to Cesare Lombroso, Leo Tolstoy and Joanna of Castile, each of these characters is re-examined in their own genius by Lucarelli with the support of the psychotherapist and popularizer Michele Mezzanotte, Cathy La Torre, lawyer and activist, Paolo Mazzarello, medical historian at the University of Pavia, Francesca Cavallini, psychologist and founder of TICE Center and Gaspare Palmieri, psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
“It’s the right time to talk about madness”
“We live in very crazy times so I think it’s the right time to start thinking about madness again. Those we consider “crazy” – who in reality just have a different point of view from ours – scare us because they question what we it is us now, what we do, that is, our quiet life. And then at that point our defense mechanism pushes us to accuse these people, to define them as “crazy”, so reason remains on our side. I think this is the problem of our society”.
“Why we’re all obsessed with crime series”
“Crime story techniques always work. If I start telling a mysterious story and don’t tell everything right away, my spectator or reader will be there to listen to me. Then crime interests us because it concerns us. It is the dark half of our life We’re interested in it because it scares us. And since fear is a very strong tool of knowledge and cannot leave me indifferent, and if someone comes along and tells us, I’ll tell you something in a captivating way, without telling you everything right away it scares you, well we’ll stop and let’s listen.”
“I dream of telling the Vatican mysteries”
“When I was doing my television program “Blu Notte” I had a whole series of mysteries that I would have liked to deal with but I couldn’t because the cards were in another state: the Vatican. I would have liked to deal with the Vatican mysteries, I would like to”.
