I am writing my first feature film…
I would say the crux of cinematic brilliance is salvaging space from the dimension of decoration and integrating architecture into the unity of the film’s psychology. Most directors fail miserably, for their ‘movies’ suffer from the theatrical habits of placing drama in front of a decor (fleshing out their stories in a nether land – a 3D stage – for the talking heads, in that case acting is definitely the most important aspect of the finished product), but without ever scratching the surface of what the cinematographic medium is capable of realising: yes, the metaphysical nature of cinema, the richest and most effective of all artistic platforms… found in the works of absolute visionaries chiselling away the most complex expression of human capability. I am the child of those guys and they raised me well.
So, here I am in my annual meditative journey across Mamma Roma, my focus is predominantly poised on the rumination of how my expression in cinema will turn out. How it should differ and must capture the nature of man in our times… in an effort to continue the tradition of film art.
I am also contemplating how music surfaces in a film, in the same vein of the general practise of theatrical habits adapted to film, music is whacked on top of the image to dictate emotion, the cheap and easy trick.
Where painting and photography end cinema begins, where music begins cinema must visualise the music in the absence of music. And effectively, performance must be the thread that should give every element in the film a raison d’être, including my camera as much as the actors. (Definition of a KiNo-film to be). — Roma, Santa Maria Maggiore.