alain elkann interviews

LITERATURE AND EDUCATION

René de Ceccatty

René de Ceccatty

TO BE A WRITER. René de Ceccatty is a writer of numerous novels and biographies. He translates Japanese works, and Italian works such as those of Giacomo Leopardi, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alberto Moravia. He has also written biographies of Pasolini, Moravia and Elsa...

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Simon Sebag Montefiore

Simon Sebag Montefiore

HOW THE WORLD WE LIVE IN WAS CREATED. The historian, novelist and TV presenter Simon Sebag Montefiore has been reading extensively during lockdown. He recommends some delightful books and offers his perspective on Trump's failed putsch. LISTEN TO THIS INTERVIEW HERE....

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Alba Rohrwacher

Alba Rohrwacher

NECESSARILY AN ACTRESS. Alba Rohrwacher studied medicine before she identified her calling as an actress. Cinema is in the Rohrwacher blood. It has been said that Alba "radiates intelligence and sensuousness in all her performances". She also provides the narration...

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Katia Pizzi

Katia Pizzi

BUILDING NEW BRIDGES. Katia Pizzi is Director of the Italian Institute of Culture in London and 2021 is a year of Dante celebrations and many more.Katia Pizzi, before becoming Director of the Institute you were Senior Lecturer in Italian at the Institute of Modern...

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Vincent Bevins

Vincent Bevins

THE KILLING CODE. Washington Post reporter Vincent Bevins is the author of “The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder that Shaped Our World”. His book asks why the US government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one...

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Virgilio Sacchini

Virgilio Sacchini

“There will be one million more cancer deaths in the world because of coronavirus.” Dr Virgilio Sacchini is a professor of surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York and at the University of Milan (UniMi). He also teaches in Zurich. Dr Sacchini,...

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Alexandre de Vogüé

Alexandre de Vogüé

THE STORY OF VAUX-LE-VICOMTE. Alexandre de Vogüé and his two brothers, Jean-Charles and Ascanio, own and run the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, one of the greatest Historical Monuments in France.A podcast of this interview is available to listen to here. Alexandre de...

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Robert Lacey

Robert Lacey

FACT OR FICTION? Robert Lacey is a writer and the historical consultant to the popular series THE CROWN, for which he has published two offical companion volumes. The fourth season of The Crown is released on Netflix on November 15. Lacey recently published Battle of...

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James Fox

James Fox

AUTHENTIC VOICES. James Fox is a British journalist and biographer with an American father and a British-American mother. His books include White Mischief, The Langhorne Sisters, Life - Keith Richards, and most recently Look Again – David Bailey. His work is received...

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HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal

HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal

HOW DO WE MOVE FROM HUMILIATION TO HUMAN DIGNITY? His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan is well known for his international humanitarian work. He was recently appointed Honorary Chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council together with former...

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Nerio Alessandri

Nerio Alessandri

WELLNESS AS A WAY OF LIFE. At just 22 years of age, in 1983 Nerio Alessandri founded Technogym. Today Technogym is a world leading company offering products and digital services for Wellness and rehabilitation. Nerio Alessandri, you created your first exercise machine...

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John Micklethwait

John Micklethwait

THE WORLD IS AT A CROSSROADS. John Micklethwait is Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News. He oversees editorial content across all Bloomberg platforms, as well as its research services including Bloomberg Intelligence. He was previously the Editor-in-Chief of The...

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Florence Williams

Florence Williams

THE NATURE FIX. Florence Williams is a journalist, author, and podcaster. She is a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and a freelance writer for the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, The New York Review of Books, Slate, Mother...

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Giulia Maria Crespi

Giulia Maria Crespi

"I’ve worked very  hard, in order to give back." Giulia Maria Crespi was an Italian media proprietor. She was a non-profit executive and environmentalist who founded Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI) whose model is The National Trust in the UK.  FAI's properties include...

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Amos Gitai

Amos Gitai

LAILA IN HAIFA. Amos Gitai is an Israeli filmmaker who was trained as an architect. Born in 1950, and best known to the public for his film Kippur, shown at Cannes in 2000, Amos Gitai bases his work to a large extent on personal experience, including the Yom Kippur...

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Jill Lepore

Jill Lepore

THE WANT, WILL AND HOPES OF THE PEOPLE. Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University, as well as a staff writer at The New Yorker, and the host of the podcast “The Last Archive”. Professor Lepore’s recent book “These...

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David Rogier

David Rogier

A PASSION FOR LEARNING. DAVID ROGIER is the co-founder and CEO of MasterClass, where since 2015 he is leading the Californian company’s re-imagination of online education. Previously, David launched British retailer Tesco’s first stores in the U.S., where he focused...

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Kimberley Motley

Kimberley Motley

WORKING FOR JUSTNESS. Kimberley Chongyon Motley is an African-Korean American international human rights defense attorney from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Known for her amazing work in Afghanistan, which she wrote about in her book “Lawless: A lawyer’s unrelenting fight for...

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Vincenzo Paglia

Vincenzo Paglia

AN INCLUSIVE TOUCH. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and head of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences. Your Excellency, you’ve written two books during this pandemic, “Pandemia e...

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Victoire Bourgois

Victoire Bourgois

MISSING HOME. Victoire Bourgois was born in Paris, France, in 1987. She is the daughter of the publishers Christian and Dominique Bourgois. Victoire is an artist and is pursuing her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at New York University (NYU). Victoire, how did you feel...

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Timothy Radcliffe

Timothy Radcliffe

THE END OF OPPRESSION. Father Timothy Radcliffe is a Roman Catholic priest and Dominican friar of the English Province, and former Master of the Order of Preachers from 1992-2001. He is the only member of the English Province of the Dominicans to have held the office...

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Hans Ulrich Obrist

Hans Ulrich Obrist

BREAKING DOWN SILOS OF KNOWLEDGE. Hans Ulrich Obrist is a curator and interviewer. He is the Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. He has curated more than 300 shows...

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Sandro Veronesi

Sandro Veronesi

REFLECTIONS ON CORONA AND QUARANTINE. Sandro Veronesi is an Italian writer. After earning a degree in architecture at the University of Florence, he started a career that includes novels, essays, interviews, screenplays and television programs. Sandro Veronesi, how...

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Mario Testino

Mario Testino

CIAO! Photographer Mario Testino has created his personal love token for Italy’s people, art, food, and fashion in the form of a new book published by TASCHEN. This interview is also available to listen to as a podcast here. Mario Testino, why Italy? When I was a...

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Berel Lazar

Berel Lazar

REBUILDING THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN RUSSIA. Berel Lazar is a Jewish Orthodox, Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi. Born in Italy, he studied in America and began his service in Russia in 1990. He became Chief Rabbi of Russia in 2000.This interview is available here as a...

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Carlo Clavarino

Carlo Clavarino

RETURN TO GENOA. Carlo Clavarino is Executive Chairman of the AON insurance company’s Europe Middle East and Africa region. 22,000 people work for AON in this area and Clavarino is a member of the executive committee of AON Corporation. He is also president of the...

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Paola D’Agostino

Paola D’Agostino

THE IMPORTANCE OF FLORENCE. Paola D’Agostino is Director of the Musei del Bargello, in Florence, Italy, a new museum group comprising the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, the Medici Chapel, the Church and Museum of Orsanmichele, Palazzo Davanzati and Casa Martelli. This...

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Ernst Beyeler

Ernst Beyeler

TRANSFIXED BY GUERNICA. We celebrate Ernst Beyeler (16 July 1921 – 25 February 2010), the great Swiss art dealer and collector. This interview first appeared in La Stampa on June 1st 2005.In 1955, Ernst Beyeler was transfixed by Picasso’s Guernica at the Palazzo Reale...

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Marlene Taschen

Marlene Taschen

INDEPENDENT, INCLUSIVE AND INSPIRATIONAL. Marlene Taschen is the CEO of the international publishing house TASCHEN that was founded by her father Benedikt, who is also a collector of contemporary art. TASCHEN specialize in illustrated publications on a range of themes...

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Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley

CONNECTING THE WORLD. The sculptor Antony Gormley is perhaps best known for his large installations in public space. A major exhibition of his work was recently held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. His next exhibition is at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris...

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// FEATURED

Money Must Stay in the Family

The plot of Money Must Stay in the Family, unfolds around the family matriarch’s last will and traces the story of an upper class Jewish family from Turin, the fictional Ottolenghis. The multigenerational saga begins with the flight from Mussolini’s Racial Laws of 1938 and continues with the arrival in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and the dispersion from New York to Rome, Paris, Tuscany, South America, and Jerusalem.

// PUBLICATIONS

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