Casa Malaparte itself is an alluring enchantress<\/strong> and a temple to one of the most beautiful examples of Italian architecture of the 1930s and 40s<\/strong>. Visiting Capri it\u2019s impossible not to notice the reddish rectilinear villa lining the clifftop near the Faraglioni. A bit odd and out of place, it\u2019s the exact sentiment that Curzio Malaparte<\/strong>, creator of Casa Malaparte wanted to achieve with his island domus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Casa come me – dura, strana, schietta”<\/p>a house just like me, hard, strange and blunt.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Born Curt Erich Suckert, Curzio Malaparte<\/strong> was a famed author and intellect who supposedly chose the name Malaparte (meaning \u201cevil side\u201d) as a play on Napoleon\u2019s last name Bonaparte, (\u201cgood side\u201d). The eccentric aesthete<\/strong> passionately courted whatever political power was in favour, but in 1933 Malaparte dramatically fell out with the Fascist party and was banished from Rome<\/strong>. Exiled to Capri, ever the opportunist Malaparte contacted party-favourite architect Adalberto Libera<\/strong> to build a new home to meet his every whim and fancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malaparte\u2019s choice of Libera isn\u2019t surprising. A top Italian rationalist architect <\/strong>of the 1930s and 40s, Libera was known for creating beautiful buildings of austere symmetry and metaphysical language<\/strong>, like EUR\u2019s Palazzo dei Congressi and the Palazzo della Posta in Ostiense. But his design of Casa Malaparte was something else entirely. It wasn\u2019t rationalist, it was almost surreal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Built between 1938 and 1942, Casa Malaparte is an elongated Pompeian red masonry<\/strong> box\u00a0 structure, contrasting with the warm greys of Capri\u2019s natural limestone and the cool azure <\/strong>of the Tyrrhenian Sea while perfecting integrated in the natural landscape. Subtly jutting out from the very top of Capo Massullo, a perilous cliff on the eastern side of the island, its flat roof beckons as sundeck and outdoor theatre \u2013 because of course, even though resolutely solitary, Malaparte wanted his epynomous Casa to be seen by all.\u00a0\u00a0 An Incan-inspired pyramid staircase<\/strong> tapers into the natural landscape of the rock, reaffirming the property\u2019s perfect paradox –\u00a0 a completely modern <\/strong>concrete building that seamlessly fits into nature, a timeless temple <\/strong>that anachronistically occupies primordial space, and a provocative setting for a melodramatic life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melodramatic is the very definition of Casa Malaparte, inside and out, which is why Godard set Le Mepris\u2019s most telling scene in Malaparte’s large living room.\u00a0 A wide-open space painted a neutral cream with a grey basalt floor – stone deliberately chosen to mirror the showmanship of Ancient Rome – and the living room is illuminated by natural light from five panoramic windows opening out to the sea, including one at the base of a fireplace.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s here where the film\u2019s protagonist Jeremy, a proto-Weinsteinian film producer played by Jack Palance, <\/strong>flirts with Bardot\u2019s Camille while her husband Paul, a struggling playwright played by Michel Piccoli, passively looks on.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As expected, Camille abandons Paul for Jeremy, and eventually Casa Malaparte is deserted as well.\u00a0 In the 1980s, Malaparte\u2019s descendants picked up the crumbs and turned the mysterious villa into a private foundation <\/strong>with very limited public access.\u00a0 Today the villa stands defiantly alone, just like Malaparte wanted, ever timeless and alluring<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The alluring architectural enchantress of Capri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9406,"featured_media":6875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[]},"categories":[284,483,288],"tags":[377,385,313,376,384],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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