It is my pleasure to introduce you to our Director Giulia Brazzale.
A resident of Cascais, and an award winning Italian film director and producer, Ms. Giulia Brazzale had the dream to merge the two great cultures of Portugal and Italy by bringing a creative, light hearted new film festival to her home in Cascais.
Please tell us how you became interested in being a film director?
"Everything started as a game. I was young, and I remember my father, a 30-year-old man with dark skin and straight black hair, in our family of fair-skinned people with red hair and blue eyes from northern Italy near Venice. He was a very creative, eclectic person with a thousand passions. He loved photography, he took beautiful photos, developing them in his darkroom. He also loved making Super 8 films, shooting many movies that he edited on a moviola. After Super 8, there were VHS tapes and then 8mm followed by mini DVs.
For me it was all a game, and he played with me. He never stopped me from experimenting with his technology. I've been handling cameras since I was a child: the first little films, first stories, the first short films - if we can call them that - I shot them in my grandmother's countryside house near Vicenza, with my cousins and my sister Margherita. Co-incidentally I shot my first feature film in my grandmother’s typical Italian country house, as well.
In my twenties, I thought about doing a film of my own. I shot a little story in which a child befriends a mentally ill, old woman, and I dedicated my first film to Franco Basaglia, who closed the asylums in Italy. I didn't know how to edit a film, but I had seen my friends do it. So, with the advice of a dear friend on the phone I managed to edit my little film. I showed it to my friend, who said to me, 'This rocks.' I sent it to competitions and won many awards from Italian film festivals. From then I decided that film making could be my future because it’s exciting, and it allows me to continue playing like when I was a child.
Did you study film at University?
Actually, I never studied cinema. My degree was in psychology, but I believe that psychology can be useful in many areas, including for creating good stories. When I was a child, everyone said I would become a painter. Then, as a teenager, I wanted to write. In a way, I combined the two by writing with images in my films. Certainly, my father had a fundamental influence on my life and my cinematic choices. Not only because he allowed me to use all his technology but also because he took me to the movies with my little sister, Margherita, when she was still very young. When I was in high school he enrolled me in the film club, and every Thursday we went to see movies.
What films or directors influenced you over different stages of your life?
The very first movie I remember seeing as a child in the theater was Walt Disney's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. I remember the stepmother transforming into a witch: horrifying, terrifying! The second movie that struck me was 'ET.' Steven Spielberg is truly a genius at conveying something universal. This is important in a good story, being universally understood.
Regarding Italian cinema, the first films I remember are those of Fantozzi, which didn't make me laugh as a child, but deeply moved me because of the pain I felt for the misadventures of this poor man. Other films that struck me in my youth were 'War of the Buttons' and 'Lord of the Flies'. I also adored David Lynch for his dreamlike approach to reality. I recognized myself in 'Wild at Heart' because I was a rebellious teenager.
Naturally, as a romantic girl, I also loved films like 'The Way We Were' and 'Out of Africa.' Other films that touched me were 'Tea in the Desert' by Bertolucci and 'Kikujiro's Summer,’ among many others. ‘Lolita' was a film that I really liked. Kubrick is a director I adore, and Hitchcock. I think I've seen all of their films.
As for Italian cinema, of course I love Wertmüller because her comedy was not only extreme but fair in that she did not just make fun of the privileged, she also made fun of the unprivileged. She could show all sides in a brutally honest way, while making you laugh and also making you think.
In the 1980s I adored the films of Francesco Nuti, especially ‘All the Fault of Paradise' and 'Caruso Pascoski, son of a Pole.’ I think he was a genius, not entirely understood.
An Italian film that I loved very much was 'The Great Beauty,’ and 'Don't Move' by Castellitto, starring Penelope Cruz, who is an amazing actress. I also loved 'A Journey Called Love' by Michele Placido. Other films that deeply impressed me were 'Requiem for a Dream,' 'I Origins,' and 'A Clockwork Orange.’
Please tell us about some of your films?
Regarding the films I've made, they were initially cathartic for me. Not because everything narrated in them was something I experienced firsthand, partly the stories belong to my life, partly to the lives of people very close to me. They were stories that for that time I felt the need to express. Sometimes as a way to focus a light on violence towards women.
Lately, I've made some short films that manage to touch the universal human soul. If I ever make another feature film, I would like it to have the same impact. If it does not, I think it's not worth it. Making a film is the most stressful thing I've ever experienced. The creative process is what I like the most, but it really takes a lot of energy and the physical strength of a superhero. So today my opinion is that it's absurd to embark on an endeavor if you don't really have something important to convey, something you must say.
My latest short films carry with them a desire to convey a message, and also to capture the love that certain human beings, who are often misunderstood, can offer. The truth is that even through a small film you can show the audience a reality from a completely different perspective. I am an idealist, and I think a film can be a messenger and somehow impact reality and change it.
My latest feature film, ”The Awful Wars," is a fantastical comedy-drama, a dark fairy tale set in a forest against the backdrop of WWI and WWII. Three characters trapped in a love triangle are in a surreal place, and must uncover a secret to find a way out. Betrayal, sorrow, eternal love, and death are the ingredients of a universal story.
It's entirely shot in Veneto in its original dialect, with the humor of Teofilo Folengo and Ruzante, the poetry of Govoni and traditional pavanes harkening back to Venetian renaissance music and dance.
"The Awful Wars" received national cultural interest premiering at the Shanghai International Film Festival was winner of the Cinema Leone di Vetro Award, winner of the Umbria Sugar Land Festival, Winner for Best Makeup at the Caorle Independent Film Festival, and nominated for best film at the Miff Awards, Stockholm Independent Film Festival, Versi di Luce Film Festival, Vyborg Film Festival, Italian Film Festival of São Paulo, Brazil, 2019.
"Ritual - a psychomagic story" is a psychological thriller. It was my first feature film, with the extraordinary participation of Alejandro Jodorowsky. "Ritual" has been defined as a snapshot of the modern couple's lack of communication. It is dreamlike, with Jungian symbolism, and full of psychomagical rituals, set in a typical Venetian country house from the 1700s. In the film I mixed legends, sayings, Venetian customs, and rituals typical of our region; with rituals taken from Jodorowsky's books.
Jeff Gross, one of Roman Polanski's screenwriters, supervised the screenplay writing.
The film was in many festivals including: Copenhagen Pix, Pifan South Korea, Fantasia Montreal, Uruguay Film Festival, Inventa un Film, SugarCon, London Underground Film Festival, Alcances Atlantic Film Festival, Dallas Video Fest, and Italian Film Festival of São Paulo.
In "Ritual", Patrizia Laquidara plays the anguana, a mythical Venetian water-nymph. In the film's soundtrack are included "Dormi putin" from "Il Canto dell’Anguana," for which Patrizia won the Tenco Award, and many pieces by Moby. I shot these two films with Luca Immesi.
And finally what inspired you to produce CinemaItalia in Cascais, Portugal?
The idea came about when I met my mentor Nico Rossini, who moved here for six months a year, after living many years in Brazil. He is the director of the Italian Film Festival in Brazil, which is now in its nineteenth year, and shows in over 75 cities around Brazil. One evening we said to ourselves: 'Why don't we also do an Italian Film Festival in Cascais?'
I love Portugal very much, which welcomed me. It is a wonderful and heavenly place to live. However, I always remain Italian and feel a bit nostalgic. For this reason, as well as for my love of cinema in general, the idea immediately fascinated me. Also, my warm welcome here made me realize that the Portuguese love Italy; many here speak to me in Italian. So I thought CinemaItalia Cascais would be a winning idea.
And then what happens when all things, speaking Jungianly, magically fit together? We were granted the opportunity to organize CINEMAITALIA at the 'Casa das Histórias - Paula Rego' with great appreciation to Professor Salvato Teles de Menezes, President and Director-Delgado of Fundação D. Luís I, and the Italian Cultural Institute of Lisbon graciously collaborated with us. From there we could begin with the lovely help of Ilda Carvalho, General Coordinator of the Casa das Histórias - Paula Rego. Erika Bernardini, Curator of the Italian Film Festival in Brazil, was instrumental in organizing this festival, as well as my sister Margherita, my boyfriend Everardo Altieri, and my friend Kristi Thompson, who is interviewing me and writing a wonderful blog for us.
Today we are electrified by this adventure of creating a new film festival in Cascais. We are happy to bring to Portugal a slice of Italian culture, presented at the museum of an internationally known female Portuguese artist.
In creating this event there have, of course, been many unforeseen challenges. Sometimes life itself seems like a movie. In every life experience, to put it in the classic “hero's journey” story telling way, obstacles appear, 'mentors' arrive, with unexpected plot twists throughout. You test yourself, to overcome your obstacles. This is not always easy. It is very demanding, but it is beautiful and worth it.