Venice 78, Alice Rohrwacher receives the Bresson Prize

(Adnkronos / Cinematografo.it) – Alice Rohrwacher received the Robert Bresson Award 2021, conferred by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo and the Rivista del Cinematografo, with the patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See and the contribution of the Directorate General for Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry for Culture. During the ceremony, conducted by the journalist and writer Tiziana Ferrario, Roberto Cicutto (President of the Biennale), Alberto Barbera (Director of the Venice International Film Festival), Paolo Ruffini (Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See) spoke ) and Msgr. Davide Milani (President of the FEdS). “The Robert Bresson Prize – explained Msgr. Milani – represents the pinnacle of our presence at the Venice International Film Festival. And this award is our creed. We are proud to award Alice Rohrwacher: her first film, Heavenly Body, makes it clear that there is no faith without encounter. “” Among all the collateral prizes awarded as part of the Venice Film Festival – declared Barbera – the Robert Bresson Prize it is certainly the most important because it is conferred by a prestigious institution such as the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo which, since the 1920s, has published the Rivista del Cinematografo, the oldest Italian cinema publication “. President Cicutto did not hide his satisfaction:” I am happy that to receive the Bresson Prize is one of the most important revelations of the last twenty years of Italian cinema. And I also contributed to a small extent “. For Ruffini, the Bresson Prize” is an important opportunity to celebrate history and rediscover the coordinates of a journey. A recognition wanted and kept by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo as a precious thing: the organization has been able to build a sharing fabric with the Department for Communication of the Holy See, Pontifical Council for Culture and the Venice Film Festival with the mission of research of beauty out of the mainstream. The extraordinary and sweet power of Alice Rohrwacher’s films gives us a restless but not surrendered way of seeing things, an attention to the mystery and the spiritual meaning of life “. space that no longer exists and in a time that is not yet: it is regret and promise, archaic matter and transcendence. The last glimpses of a decaying world, the peasant world, reveal themselves to the author’s gaze as epiphanies of light, celestial bodies and resurrections. His films locally rework global tensions, preserve the mystery from the pornography of the contemporary, lament the loss of the ancient without making it an epitaph. And as they cross the dull earth of the imaginary they see blossoming of meaning, unforeseen possibilities, hidden passages. Like the phantasmagoria of an old skylight. Wonders of Alice’s cinema “. Visibly moved, Rohrwacher reflected on her artistic and human path:” Many times I ask myself: ‘what am I doing?’ Our path is made of visible but also invisible and in order to exist it needs the gaze of the other. Sometimes this gaze is missing: it is very powerful to receive the attention of the other, especially on the spiritual path that I am trying to pursue. I grew up ignorant of institutional religion but with a very strong natural belief: those who live in the countryside believe in the Resurrection because they believe in cycles and every March appears evident in front of our eyes. Heavenly Body was a criticism of the institutional church but had a desire to open a dialogue. We live in a society where we want to remove the conflict understood as something negative. But conflict makes us grow, it allows us to take a step back to find an encounter: making films, conflicts flourish. ”Interviewed by Tiziana Ferrario, the director of Le Wonders and Happy Lazzaro retraced her cinematic adventure. Starting from the present: the increase in Italian productions. “Let’s hope it’s a good sign. A lot is produced but until the rooms are filled there will be no real restart. Going to the cinema is a great possibility for viewers: it allows them to have a collective vision. “She herself is working on new projects:” I have a film planned that I hope to start soon. What is it about? I could also tell the whole plot, those who believe that the mystery of a film is in the plot has a limited approach. It will tell about an invisible world, a frontier relationship. And the protagonists hate the countryside. ”Not just cinema:“ I’m working on an anthology of Italian fairy tales. The series is the only possible way to tell them all. The hope is that the public service will produce it “. According to Rohrwacher,” cinema must tell about the community and not just the individual. I don’t know if I have told of a world that is about to disappear. My characters are not winners but they too win some battles. In cinema, collective plots are hardly investigated, but man is a collective animal. My films are united by the desire to maintain a network that holds people together and not the single drama. ”On women:“ I don’t like prejudices that feed themselves. The problem of the lack of women seems to me due to the myth of the prima donna. There is no union ”. And on the relationship with his sister Alba: “For us, cinema was not part of our education but of our discovery of the world”.