Studia Filologiczne UJK

Summary

The Venice Film Festival is the first and one of the most important film festivals in the world. Since its debut edition in 1932, the communication of the festival has always adapted to the historical context using in promotional materials the persuasive strategies that reflected the different time periods, even the most difficult from a socio-cultural and political point of view. This was also the case with the edition held in the difficult period of the pandemic. In the article I analyse 10 introductory articles (the editorials) of the magazine “Ciak in Mostra”, published during the 77th Venice International Film Festival. For the analysis I use three genres of rhetorical discourse (genera dicendi), used in this case, in a crisis situation: genus deliberativum, genus iudiciale and genus demonstrativum. The purpose of the article is to illustrate how the argumentative strategies of inventio have been used in this difficult situation to talk about the film festival organized in presence despite the health restrictions introduced due to the pandemic. The results of the analyses add a voice to the debate on rhetoric in the era of crisis.