Futuri Aprili is the latest fashion film directed by Enrico Bellenghi. A coming-of-age film zoning in on the liminal space between youth and adulthood, Futuri Aprili reflects on the hopes, insecurities and dreams of today’s youth. Paying homage to Pasolini’s Comizi D’Amore, the project takes shape through a documentary-style fashion film, an editorial, a podcast and fanzine. We sat down with Director Enrico Bellenghi and Director of Photography Valentina Todeschi to learn more about their work, the creative process and how they define their style. Here are the highlights from our conversation.
Niccolò Montanari: Enrico, Valentina–thank you for sharing Futuri Aprili with us. Let’s start off by learning about your background and what led you onto your creative path.
Enrico Bellenghi: I studied in Milan at the IED and then completed a master’s degree in London at UAL. I’ve always been involved in the world of cinema, basically since high school where I studied photography. The world of photography, and art in general, have always been my passion.
Valentina Todeschi: I started approaching cinema as a child through writing, screenwriting and RAI competitions. Then, after high school, I enrolled at the Civic School of Cinema Luchino Visconti, where I attended their photography course. That’s where I learned about cinematography. It’s thanks to this school that I met Enrico; one evening I added to my Instagram Civic School of Cinema Luchino Visconti. Enrico had been stood up by a video maker two days earlier on a project so he wrote to me. I really liked his work, so we worked on it together and that was three years ago. We’ve been working together since then.
NM: Valentina–in your opinion how would you define Enrico’s style?
VT: Enrico has a very specific aesthetic sense. His compositions and his timings are almost photographic. We always joke that we should place a person in the middle of the composition–it’s almost a signature. He’s also a huge fan of film. For a long time he tried to emulate the look, until he managed to get his hands on a 16mm and a Super 8, which we used for Futuri Aprili. This feeling, this grain is one of the most important aspects. From a compositional point of view, we are looking at still subjects that give space to the context around them. Something else to mention is Enrico’s approach in selecting models: he’s very intuitive and doesn’t look for the classic Milanese model. This is something we really explored to the max in Futuri Aprili. Another element I really like is that Enrico does extensive research. You can tell he has a background in Art Direction. Everything he directs has a layer of symbolism, stories he revisits and reinterprets according to the theme is focusing on.
NM: Tell us about Futuri Aprili. How was the project born?
EB: It was born as a multimedia project: podcast, short film, editorial and a short film. There’s a website where you can buy the fanzine, listen to the podcast via Spotify and see the photos of all the people involved. This is something that defines us–for every project we try to add several elements and never stop to one medium alone.
NM: The project stands as a tribute to Pasolini’s Comizi D’Amore. How so?
EB: Comizi D’Amore is without a doubt the main reference of Futuri Aprili. We wanted to reinterpret the film within a contemporary context. Considering how much the world has changed since then, especially in terms of how we communicate, we initially thought that we could work on a podcast, interviewing people on the topics we were most interested in, that is the liminal space between adolescence and adulthood. But then we thought we’d try to reinterpret the piece via a short film, which we thought could make more sense as a format to distribute.
VT: Liminal spaces are actually the starting point of our work. First of all, they are a place of transformation–whether physical or mental. Enrico had the intuition to interpret it as a shift from adolescence into adulthood. This moment, this shift, this right of passage is the main focus of the project.
EB: Liminal spaces can also be identified as physical or mental spaces. We decided to explore this also in the choice of locations. Even the photography studios are set up as abstract as possible, to show this feeling of in-between, like a limbo.
NM: Futuri Aprili explores our journey from being adolescents to becoming adults. Is this a recurring theme in your work?
EB: Our investigation at the moment is very much focused on the coming-of-age theme. However, whereas for other projects it felt more like something in the background, in Futuri Aprili it is clearly the main topic.
NM: Tell us about your casting approach.
VT: We’d be waiting outside of schools for our peers and Enrico would immediately spot the interesting ones. Those who clearly expressed their identity and background, for example through their outfits and aesthetic elements.
EB: We wanted to represent subcultures from a fashion and aesthetic perspective. That also meant involving a diverse, multi-ethnic cast. We had specific types we were looking for across quite a wide age gap (13-22).
NM: How did you transform your initial idea into a working concept?
VT: After the casting, Enrico and I, as well as Riccardo Pellerini–my operator–closed ourselves off at Enrico’s house for a week–we hardly slept!–because on one hand we were learning there and then how to use the 16 mm camera and on the other hand we were brainstorming, contaminating each other with ideas and what interested us the most. We wrote everything down and then Enrico selected the ideas that were most in line with the theme of the film. Following that, we passed our results to screenwriter Francesca Perrotta, who created a range of questions of our interviewees. We selected about ten questions. What’s interesting is that we asked people to answer through an image. Almost like visuals we managed to extrapolate. For example, a girl said that her body was the Northern Lights–felt it was a really original image, but she assumed that everyone felt the same way.
NM: Did you ask everyone the same questions?
EB: Yes–the same questions for everyone. Obviously with some people we focused on specific themes–body, identity, past, future. But this was also to learn the different points of view for every interviewee. As a matter of fact, in the edit we tried to create one long narrative thread using the different interviews. There was a lot of audio material to go through and we couldn’t have shown it all. That was actually quite a complex aspect of the piece. So much material, 30 mins per person for 22 people.
VT: For every interview we selected the most interesting answers. Then we reordered them to create a unique thread. Also allowing people to speak in their own language meant that we were getting closer to their way of thinking. Which I felt was important from a documentary point of view.
NM: What emerged out of these interviews in terms of feelings and mood?
EB: Overall it was all very positive. I was expecting people to not be as self-aware, but everyone seemed to be very aware of who they were, how they felt about their bodies and themselves. And they were able to describe emotions very well–if I think of myself when I was 13, I don’t think I was that open to even talk about these topics so openly.
VT: I have learned a lot. What was interesting was giving the chance to people from the crowd to be explored. I’ve always thought that other people would have their own internal world. But I never truly perceived it. Rationally I knew this to be true, but I didn’t feel it until I really got to know someone. With Futuri Aprili I was able to feel that everyone has an inner world just as complex as mine and is alive just as much as I am. And this is something that has stayed with me.
NM: Valentina, from a photography point of view how did you stay true to Enrico’s vision?
VT: The lighting had to be neutral in order to fit within the feeling of limbo. No hard lights and no lights taking a strong position. Soft lights only. Everything had to be natural and intimate, as a way to slowly get to know the interviewee and get closer to them physically and mentally.
EB: Also from a composition point of view, we are looking at a central figure with different shots as a way to describe the entirety of the interviewee.
NM: The style plays an important role in the narrative of the film. What was your approach?
EB: We were four stylists. So many looks, about 24 looks. The concept was to talk about these subcultures, using brands from showroom and niche brands. The challenge was maintaining the identities using different types of brands, but obviously the interviewee had the last word. It was basically a fashion reinterpretation of their own style.
NM: What are you working on next?
EB: We have two fashion films about to be released–we are in the editing process. We are also working on a big project. But we can talk about it further on.