Pescara, Italy
Mission Title: Moving Pictures – Il Vento del Cinema
Mission By: Carmine Lampitiello, Giuseppe Mercurio
Mission Finished on Date: 28-05-2008
SCRIPT
- Visit the festival and Pescara.
- Take a look at the cityscape, try and highlight the mythic elements of the fascist architecture, not necessarily in the shapes but in the appeal. Tape corners that posture strength and evoke myths, if you find any.
- Go see the screenings at the Ex Aurum. Ask people about their impressions on the festival, ask how movies affect their sense of place, like the moment the walk out of the dark theatre and into the sunlight, ho they look at the world after they’ve watched a powerful fim.
- Watch Julio Bressane's movie Cleopatra and his two short movies dedicated to Antonioni. Ask him about myths, movies, and place. Many critics have noted his fascination for Antonioni, ask him what does his use of space, perhaps in relation to painter Giorgio De Chirico.
TRAVEL BAG
Is the mythology of cinema a space on its own?
Movies take us places, across a cinematic landscape, through a geography of modern myths. A succession of auteurs have been fascinated with exploring the mythology of place through film: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Julio Bressane, Amos Gitai, Straub and Huillet, Ciprì and Maresco, all made movies affecting and reflecting upon these themes in entirely different but equally affecting ways.
Critic and organizer Enrico Ghezzi's ideas in this direction are a little breezy, like his weakly titled “The Wind of Cinema” film festival in Pescara, but the festivals’ stated themes of “Myth, Mediterranean, metamorphosis and first-last beaches” (though not a little academically amorphous) deal directly with the issues of myth, movies, and place.
If we pull back our cameras momentarily and do a wide shot of the city of Pescara, we find mythmaking at play there as well, especially in one of the sites of the festival. The fascist architecture of the Ex Aurum, a former liquor factory, uses washed over Roman style to achieve its hollow postures of strength. Use movies (and your movie) to explore the layers of myth, movie, and place, where one ends and the other begins.
Mission Report
The mission developed following the clues in the script. The day after we got in Pescara we went to the Ex Aurum, where the Vittorio Cottafavi retrospective was taking place. We tried to document the development and the features of the space.
At the Teatro Massimo, the Festival’s primary location, we had the chance to talk with the curator, Enrico Ghezzi, in person about the ideas behind our trip. With his usual verve, he asked our questions to the director Julio Bressane, in an interview, which in our opinion hit all the clues suggested in the script.
We also had the chance to interview the coordinator of the association behind the Festival, Francesco Calandra. After documenting people's opinion about projections and the Festival in general, we tried to show the most interesting architectural features built during the Fascist period in Pescara.
Carmine Lampitiello, Giuseppe Mercurio
