Tommaso Acquarone focuses on the desires of one woman driving around her town in the short drama ‘My Eyes’.
Film And TV Now spoke with the film-maker about the short.
The film reflects the troubles of a woman looking for affection. What was the start-off point for the script?
I don’t really remember the starting point, basically, I would say that I put some of my personal experience and some topics which I felt like exploring into the classical tragedy structure. I wanted to tell my story adhering to the three Aristotelian units; action, time and space. As soon as I connected the dots, I started writing. I think about “My eyes” as a little contemporary tragedy.
We also see street performers at road junctions. How popular are these locally?
In Italy, it is frequent to find young street artists performing at the traffic lights. They come from all over the world; the protagonist of my film is Portuguese and the other guy who performs with the fire is from Colombia.
Tell us about your cast
Ksenia Rappoport is a very well-known actress in Italy. She won the best actress prize at the Venice film festival (Coppa Volpi), though Joao Fariña is actually a street artist who has never performed in a movie. I actually met him at a crossroads in Torino and I started talking to him, just like in a movie.
Even if the two performers had such different backgrounds, on my opinion they got to have a perfect balance in the film; the work we have done previously and on set with these two talented actors has been really inspiring.
Tell us about your production team
The team which has allowed the film to be realized was made of young, talented people, such as the scenographer Andrea Bianchi, the cinematographer Andrea Manenti, the director’s assistant Sara de Martino and the editor Massimo Da Re.
Mostly, I must give credit to the film’s success to them.
Where did you shoot and for how long?
The filming was shot in Genova and took five day I worked during the previous month with the cinematographer director Andrea Manenti to help plan the sequence shots for the film.
Who and what are your key cinematic influences?
Bernardo Bertolucci, Andrea Arnold, Abdellatif Kechiche, Sofia Coppola, and Darren Aronofsky are some of the filmmakers whom I love, but, for sure, I am also influenced by the experiences I live every day.
What issues and themes are you keen to explore in future work?
Desire keeps on being the main topic of my research.
Tell us about the cinematography in the film.
The cinematographer Andrea Manenti and I decided to work with as much natural light as much as possible. We chose long lenses to map the character’s psychology to see what transpired from their faces, and also to give the sense of claustrophobia which the protagonist feels.
You have worked as a director’s assistant for Gabriele Muccino, who directed Will Smith in SEVEN POUNDS and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. What have you learned from him that has helped your evolution as a film-maker yourself?
I remember the wonderful energy he used to bring on set and which he transmitted to the cast and crew.
You are currently developing your debut feature. Tell us what you can about it.
The movie will deal with desire, adolescence, and taboos and will be set on a Mediterranean island
You made a film which featured at Milan Fashion Week. How can different industries like fashion and film fuse together to create memorable work?
In a fashion film, there is a big focus on shape, and you can experiment on an aesthetic level. It can be interesting to use all of this for cinema stories.
How has the festival circuit helped your film?
Festivals have helped our film to have exposure, they are a good place for discussion about the work that’s been done.
Finally, what are you most proud of about this short?
The theme and the point of view from which we watched the story were unconventional, I am happy that the audience can connect with My Eyes still.
