Simone Massi returns to the Venice Biennale with the world premiere of “As for us”
JESI – Simone Massi, award-winning illustrator of Marche origins, winner of a David di Donatello 2012 for best short film and two Silver Ribbons in 2014 and 2015, former protagonist of the documentary “Animata Resistenza” by Francesco Montagner and Alberto Girotto, and author of the animated poem “L’infinito” from Giacomo Leopardi, returns to the Venice Film Biennale with a new animation work. Videopoetry As for us conceived and created by the artist of Pergola (Pesaro-Urbino) with the narrative voice of the great German director Wim Wendersinspired by poetry We had studied for the afterlife from Eugenio Montale and produced by the association Nie Wiem, by Francesco Appoggetti and by Massi himself was selected at the 79th Venice Biennale International Film Festival and will be presented on 8 September (in the 5pm slot), as a world premiere, in the Out of Competition – Short Films section. The soundtrack is entrusted to Stefano Sasso, filming to Julia Gromskaya and post-production to Lola Capote Ortiz. As for us was created with the support of the Marche Region – Department of Cultural Heritage and Activities Cinema Call 2020/2021.
The whistles of poetry We had studied for the afterlife by Eugenio Montale are interpreted in Simone Massi’s new work as those signals or sounds that surprise us in life as omens, a broken mirror, an owl’s cry, omens of what awaits us, a nightmare from we would like to wake up. The nightmare in this case is the history of the twentieth century. And to wake up from reality, the only one is to realize that we are all “already dead without knowing it”.
«I am very happy – is the director and author – of the selection at the Venice International Film Festival. A festival that I love very much, which entrusted me with the theme song and manifesto for five years and which honored me with a retrospective in 2014. As for us it is an animated film that is very dear to me, at the moment I consider it one of my most successful works. The selection in Venice, the fact that Wim Wenders has granted, the trust of Professor Bianca Montale together with that of the Nie Wiem Association, co-producer of the film, are for me a source of satisfaction and pride ».
“As for us – he adds Valerio Cuccaroni president of Nie Wiem – is the second Simone Massi video poetry that we produce with our non-profit creative enterprise Nie Wiem. As in the case of L’infinito, we asked Massi to interpret, with his poetic images, the lines of a giant of Italian poetry. After Leopardi’s first successful choice, I thought of another author who could enhance the Marche Region, which co-financed the project. We opted for Montale because he published a first edition of his famous Xenia, from which the inspiring poem is taken, in San Severino Marche, one of the municipalities of the seismic crater that we have enhanced with our initiatives. Professor Bianca Montale, the heir, authorized us to use the poem We had studied for the afterlife and Massi’s genius inserted it into a very personal interpretation of her, entrusting the reading of the text to Wim Wenders. Thus was born this work that brings Montale’s winged words, printed with the humble movable type of the Bellabarba typography, onto the red carpet ».
With videopoetry As for usNie Wiem continues her business as a film production house, after making The infinite by Giacomo Leopardi again with Simone Massi commissioned by the Municipality of Recanati, as part of the “Marche della Poesia” project; the association has participated in numerous festivals including the short of the year (Spain); the 10th International Supertoon Animation Festival (Croatia); the 18th Hiroshima International Animation Festival; the San Francisco Frozen Film Festival (Califorina) and the Giffoni Film Festival (Italy). Still in the name of poetry linked to images, Nie Wiem also gave life to the Franco Scataglini Prize with the original competition “The poetry that is seen”, expansion of the Corto Dorico Film Festival and the Poetry Festival “La Punta della Lingua” . The contest “The poetry that is seen”, this year, in its second edition, became international and saw the participation of over 180 works that were registered, coming from different countries of the world: from Poland to Israel, from Ireland to Indonesia, Hong Kong, Estonia, Brazil, Albania, France, Belgium, Turkey, Namibia and many others.