In the Italian book “Gardens at the Movies”, published by Pendragon Editions, Giovanna Mattioli, architect and expert in all aspects of garden and landscape culture through design and teaching, curating and organizing lessons, seminars, and conferences, describes 51 movies, underlining the “green” aspect and the leading role that the garden has in each of them, from The Draughtsman’s Contract to Marie Antoinette, passing through titles such as Mon Oncle, Big Fish, Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Dalloway, Stealing Beauty. These are all the films selected by the author for the film festival of the Garden Club of Ferrara, in Italy, which reached its 17th edition in 2023 and of which this book shares the name.

An idea born from the observation that the two themes have many more similarities with each other than one might imagine: gardens are movies, they tell stories full of characters who move in space following the direction of a gardener, they are fiction, a story all human. For lovers of cinema and gardening, “Gardens at the Movies” provides ideas for a new reading of both their passions.

The book, with an introduction by Paola Roncarati, president of the Garden Club of Ferrara, is divided into 17 chapters: each of them describes an edition of the Film festival, with its original title, and addresses the theme chosen for that year through the 3 films selected and screened: Women in the garden, Gardens between literary suggestions and pictorial quotations, Humor in the garden, Sustainable lives, etc.