Carmelo Bene stood as one of the towering figures of Italian avant-garde culture, known for his eccentric behavior and his mockery of Italian theater traditions. He pushed the concept of Artaud's 'Theatre of Cruelty' to its extremes, with his early works often interrupted by police due to their allegedly blasphemous and outrageous content. Bene also made his mark as a filmmaker, though he claimed little sympathy for most cinema made after Buster Keaton and Sergei Eisenstein, with his own films criticized upon release for their unusual and cryptic mise-en-scène. His frequent collaborations with significant intellectuals further cemented his place in the avant-garde world.
I Appeared to the Madonna is an incendiary testament of actor Carmelo Bene's life. Featuring tales of his combative encounters with critics, the public, and his iconoclastic views on theater, cinema, poetry & more, including chapters on Salvador Dalì, Eduardo De Filippo, and others as well as anecdotal elucidations of some of his plays & films.