Eloi : ” Deserto is a visual piece between the documentary and the abstract, shot in 16mm. Alessandro had a disease in his childhood and he spent most of his time at home watching movies, setting up an own world based in cinematographic imaginary.
It is a fact that cinema and visual culture have a lot of influence in western society. Projecting values through the screen and setting aspirational models.
Hollywood teaches how to have a date, how to conquer love. “Boy meets girl”, that plot is always there. The high school dance, that kiss in the car, happy endings and the complete successful outcome for the main character, etc… To a greater or lesser extent this behavior is inside us, sometimes unwittingly. The portrait of Alessandro is a sample of this situation.In all movies there is always a girl.
Claire in Deserto represents the stereotype of feminine characters. The beauty, the vitality, the admirable and desirable, both for other film characters or the audience. A presence constructed from very specific actions, attitudes, and spaces. These elements and their constant shape Alessandro’s desires. Claire could be all the feminine characters in Éric Rohmer movies, women with determination, strength and self will. But always filmed from a masculine point of view, perpetuating the gender roles. Claire is a movie character, she is a cliché, she isn’t real, as neither are Alessandro’s expectations.
The idea of Deserto comes from conversations with Alessandro. I realized that he has a love conception really stylized and always through cinematographic world. I found an interesting show that yearning that can become in frustration. And Claire without question was the correct girl for the project, while it’s true that in shooting we had some guidelines, a lot of actions appeared spontaneously, in a natural way, clearly interpreted herself.
Claire is a model, she’s from Paris and lives between Barcelona and Paris. Also, she is a painter and is belongs to an artistic collective. Her parents are involved in the cinema industry in Paris, her mother as a dressmaker and her father as an art director. So, without a doubt she overflows cinema in all ways. The contribution of Alessandro and Claire in this project was great. ”