Van Quattro
West Texas – USA
Artist, writer, boxer, oil worker.
“At some point you have to make a decision to be with your self and with the world. This world.”
Synopsis
Van is a floorhand, the maintenance man on an oil rig. He works in the desert, at a large oilfield in Texas.
Danilo is the chief engineer of a freighter. He spends all his days in the heart of the vessel where a humongous engine resides. Andrea is a scientist. He has lived his whole life between mathematical formulae and the silence of the anechoic chamber. Vito has spent half of his life looking after slot machines. Today he is in charge of an immense reinforced-concrete pit for waste.
These men, unwittingly, provide the basis for the whole sequence of creation, transport, marketing and destruction of the objects that feed our bulimic lifestyle.
The objects that we think we need every day begin and end their journey inside isolated and eerie industrial and scientific locations. These men are monks in temples of steel and concrete and carry out the same
mechanical rituals every day in silence and solitude, sharing the space with their own phantoms.
She and He are an ordinary couple.
They have spent their life accumulating stuff to the point of saturation. They grew up in the boom years of commercial television, and they are the first generation to have been freed from it by the internet. Today
they are in their forties and are looking for a way out.
She and He are us. And we have never heard about them.
Danilo Tribunal
Medierranean sea. Atlantic Ocean.
Ex-playboy, globetrotter, farmer, cargo ship chief engineer.
“If you have not a reason to sail, lose yourself in the madness of silence.”
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
This movie is dedicated to ourselves who could not endure a life without collecting useless objects, to ourselves, bulimic of plastics and noises and afraid of silence. It’s dedicated to ourselves who fall asleep with Netflix in our ears hoping that night might fall without notice, to us, who accept the idea that life can go before but not that objects can survive us.
This film is a way of dispelling our lifestyle from which we can not escape in any way.
Beatiful things is a journey into our consumption ‘bulimia’.
The many objects we accumulate and we believe to be essential begin their production cycle in silent secluded industrial and scientific sites.
Van, Danilo, Andrea and Vito are monks inside temples of send, steel and concrete. They repeat the same liturgy every day. We don’t even know that they exist. Van, Danilo, Andrea and Vito for the first time will be able to meet and look virtually in the face of the audience to whom they have devoted a whole life of work.
The film was written and directed with a musical approach, like a score where notes and images are conceived together. Words, music, sounds are part of the same language and carry a single symphonic tale The very short slice of daily life that opens every act is the photograph of our life, our home, our terrace, our objects, our melancholy.
This film is a way of escaping a lifestyle from which we can find no way out. In the film we have tried to express all our sadness, the urgency of the need to go back to breathing in silence, free from the constriction
of a life swallowed up by noise.
This is our howl and we have tried to turn it into a song.
Andrea Pavoni Belli
Ferrara, Bologna, Italy. Scientist, waves surfer.
“Silence is death. Noise makes us forget ourselves.”
DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY
Giorgio Ferrero is a composer, director and photographer from Italy. He is the Italian winner of the 2016 edition of the Biennale College Cinema. He has composed and produced soundtracks of dozens of films, theatrical performances and installations. He collaborated with authors and artists such as Paolo Giordano, Daniele Gaglianone, Alba Rohrwacher, the De Serio brothers, Marzia Migliora, Irene Dionisio, Stephen Fingleton. He made many sound and visual installations presented at the Museo del Novecento, at the MAXXI, at the Biennial in Bordeaux and in Lisbon, at the Accademia Gallery in Florence. He made graphic visualizations, photographic campaigns and commercials for publishers and brands such as Condè Nast, Mondadori, Corriere della Sera, Einaudi, Nike and Alfa Romeo. The short film Riverbero, signed as a composer and co-director, was presented at the festivals in Rome, Glasgow and Brooklyn.
At the 74th Venice Film Festival he presented his first feature film ‘Beautiful Things’, for which he signed direction and music. The film won the award for Best Italian Film according to the young under 26 jury and the best first feature award at Cph:Dox in Copenhagen. In Venice he also presented his first short film in virtual reality Denoise made during the shooting of the feature film. With Federico Biasin (co-director and director of photography of Beautiful Things, Denoise and Riverbero) and Rodolfo Mongitore (co-author of the soundtracks) he lead the multidisciplinary studio MYBOSSWAS in Turin.
Vito Mirizzi
Canton Ticino. Switzerland.
Slot machines ex-pusher. Incinerator worker
“Everyone has to burn their own shit. It will never be fragrant.”
AWARDS
74th Venice Film Festival, Best Italian movie (Arca jury, under 26), 2017
Venice Biennale College, winner 2017
CPH:DOX, Copenaghen, Next Wave Award 2018
IDF West Lake International Documentary Film Festival 2018, Hangzou, Nomination Film of the year
Moscow International Documentary Film Festival, Best Soundtrack, 2019
Houston World Film Fest., Best Innovative Film
SIMA Los Angeles, Winner Best Stylistic Achievement
10 Short list nomination, Best Documentary, David di Donatello 2019
Taipei International Film Festival, Nomination Best Film, International New Talent Competition
Fabrique du Cinéma Award 2019, best documentary award, 5 short list nomination
Annecy Cinéma Italien, Special Jury prize, 2018
Grenoble Cinéma Italien, Special Jury prize, 2018
Salina Doc Fest, Jury Special Mention, 2018
Shorts International Film Festival, Mymovies Award 2019
Founder’s Eclisse Award Chicago Arthouse Film Festival
Myart Int Film Fest, Jury Special Mention, 2018
Ecozine Int Film Fest, Jury Special Mention, 2018
VITTORIA DE FERRARI SAPETTO & ANDREA VALFRÉ
Torino – Italy
Dancers, globetrotters, accumulators of objects.
“Oa, nana, nina, idom.”
Cast
Written and directed by GIORGIO FERRERO
Cinematograpy and co-direction FEDERICO BIASIN
Music and sound GIORGIO FERRERO e RODOLFO MONGITORE
Cameras and editing GIORGIO FERRERO, FEDERICO BIASIN, ENRICO ALEOTTI, FILIPPO VALLEGRA
Costumes and scenography ANNA NERETTO
Costumes ELENA PIGNATTA
Color Correction PIETRO FORMICI (MBW), FABIO SCOTELLARO (EDI, Milano)
A special thank to the Venice Biennale team:
SAVINA, ANGELA, MICHEL, JANE, ALEC, GIACOMO, AUGUSTINA, AMY, KATIE, MIKE, VALENTINA…
Produced by VENICE BIENNALE and MYBOSSWAS
CAST
VAN QUATTRO (USA)
DANILO TRIBUNAL (FILIPPINE)
ANDREA PAVONI BELLI (ITALIA)
VITO MIRIZZI (SVIZZERA)
VITTORIA DE FERRARI SAPETTO (ITALIA)
ANDREA VALFRÈ (ITALIA)