Angelo Guglielmi, historic director of Rai3, has died

Angelo Guglielmi, longtime director of Rai3, has died. An essayist and literary critic, he passed away at the age of 93.

Angelo Guglielmi, the historic director of Rai93, died last night at the age of 3. Originally from Arona, in the province of Novara, where he was born on April 2, 1929, his long and very active life concealed at least four roles: that of literary critic, director of the third television network, president of the Istituto Luce and finally councilor for Culture for the Municipality of Bologna, as well as an established editorialist and prolific writer.

Having joined Rai in 1955, he directed Rai3 from 1987 to 1994, giving life to a bold and innovative network and creating what was dubbed reality TV.

Under his direction, programs such as Samarcanda, Blob, Telefono giallo, Quelli che il calcio, La tv delle ragazze, Avanzi, Mi manda Lubrano, Chi l'ha visto?, Ultimo minuto and Un giorno in pretura were born and personalities such as Michele Santoro, Serena Dandini, Fabio Fazio, Piero Chiambretti, Giuliano Ferrara and Daniele Luttazzi were launched.

The average share of the network went from less than 1% to over 10% in a few years. From 1995 to 2001 Guglielmi was also president and CEO of the Istituto Luce. From 2004 to 2009 he was called by Sergio Cofferati to the municipal council of Bologna as councilor for culture.

From 2001 to 2004 he was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Encyclopedia of Cinema published by the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia. Guglielmi had friends who made the history of the 900th century. He was among the founders of the neo-avant-garde literary collective Gruppo 63 with Umberto Eco and Edoardo Sanguineti, Beniamino Placido, Alberto Arbasino.

He wrote for Paese Sera and Corriere della Sera, as well as for numerous magazines. For years a literary critic for L'Espresso, he wrote until late in life for Tuttolibri – La Stampa and had a blog in the last years of his life on the website of Il Fatto Quotidiano.

Numerous publications, some of which co-written with Stefano Balassone, his deputy at the helm of Rai 3. Particularly well-known is the trilogy, which he wrote in the XNUMXs, dedicated to Michelangelo, Dante and Cavour.

Among his other works: Avant-garde and experimentalism (1964), Twenty years of impatience (1965); True and false (1968); The literature of savings (1973); Printed paper (1978); The pleasure of literature (1981); Thirty years of intolerance (mine) (1995); The novel and reality (2010). On the occasion of his 90th birthday, his last literary work was published (published by La Nave di Teseo), 'I challenge you to recognize me - Scattered stories'. A story full of literary and personal encounters: from Gadda to Arbasino, from Calvino to Eco, from Moravia to Pasolini, from Neorealism to reality TV.

“I have never written about myself,” he explained in the book. I hate autobiography, considering it the evil of the last thirty years of Italian narrative, but I feel the need to express some memories of my life as a child and adolescent. Since many things do not add up in my life, and what seems certain becomes dangerous and does not prevent unwanted final outcomes. Perhaps the content of those memories provides us with some light of enlightenment”.