Franco Piavoli

Southern emigrants, arrived at the Milan station loaded with suitcases, rush to catch the connections for Germany and Switzerland. Some, lost and tired, abandon themselves in the waiting room waiting for other departures.Read More »

Experimental film director Franco Piavoli’s Al Primo Soffio Di Vento (At the First Breath of Wind) is nearly a wordless, non-narrative account of a summer’s day as appreciated by the residents of an estate in Lombardy, Italy.

The family, despite living in a idyllic mansion, live their lives very much apart from one another. The father (Primo Gaburri) is usually holed up in his study, while his wife aimlessly paces the grounds pining away after a former lover. Of the two daughters, the eldest plays sad tunes on the piano, while the younger explores the woods and struggles to understand her recent inklings of sexual attraction.Read More »

The life and work of the poet and sculptor, Umberto Bellintani, seen through his correspondence with the art critic and historian, Alessandro Parronchi. The letters reveal the brotherly trust uniting the two friends, as well as the deep sensitivity that inspired the poet’s lines. Acclaiming the harmony of two artistic sensitivities, the film blends the beauty of poetry in words with that of poetry in images.Read More »

Synopsis
The film follows the cycle of the seasons upon a rural landscape, from the reawakening of life following the Winter thaw to the blossoming of Spring, the heat of Summer working in the fields and the twilight of Autumn. Man is confronted by nature through the succession of seasons and in the essential moments of his existence: youth, love, food, work, pain.Read More »

Description
Poems in 8mm are the early works of Franco Piavoli, digitally restored. Independent short films, captured with a simple Paillard camera, involving no crew and no production. In this collection, one can find Le Stagioni (The Seasons), precursor to Il Pianeta Azzurro (The Blue Planet), Emigranti (Emigrants), a short on immigration in Milan during the Sixties, Domenica Sera (Sunday Evening), and the experimental Evasi (Convicts). These titles, up to this point unavailable to the public in an edition that respects the original state of the film. This also goes for the Piavoli’s first work, Ambulatorio (Surgery), described by the director as mere playing around with the camera. Without music and words, it is nonetheless revealing of an artistic sensibility that would soon show itself in full splendour.Read More »

Synopsis
At the end of the war, Odysseus, the wandering hero, with his companions begins his sail back home to the Mediterranean. The conclusion of his adventure is delayed by many natural obstacles and he takes an internal journey of fleeting memories of his childhood, his parents, love for a beautiful girl, nostalgia for the past, regret for what he did, and the deep silence that envelops everything. He confronts the most terrible loneliness following a shipwreck in which all the comrades perish.Read More »

Synopsis
An ode to the cycles of life charts the passages of infancy, youth, maturity and old age against the seasons of the year in the bucolic Lombardy village of Castellaro.Read More »