Following its premiere at the Bif&st in Bari, Il Dio dell’amore, directed by Francesco Lagi, is now being released in Italian cinemas. The film builds an ensemble narrative around emotional relationships and their tensions, exploring contemporary dynamics of love through a restrained mise-en-scène centred on the performers. Starring Anna Bellato, Enrico Borello, Benedetta Cimatti, Chiara Ferrara, Corrado Fortuna, Vinicio Marchioni, Isabella Ragonese, Vanessa Scalera, Francesco Colella, Leonardo Maddalena and Elia Nuzzolo; the screenplay is written by Francesco Lagi together with Enrico Audenino, with cinematography by Edoardo Carlo Bolli CCS, editing by Alberto Masi, production design by Mauro Vanzati, and original music composed by Stefano Bollani. The film is produced by Cattleya, Bartlebyfilm and Vision Distribution, which also handles Italian distribution and international sales.
Edoardo Carlo Bolli CCS told us:
«The stylistic approach we wanted to give to Il Dio dell’Amore stemmed from a deep affinity that Francesco Lagi and I share for the cinema of the Nouvelle Vague. Starting from the screenplay, written by Francesco together with his long-time collaborator Enrico Audenino, we sought to build a visual language that was free, vibrant, and deliberately imperfect – a delicate, non-didactic fresco. We made use of various shooting techniques: zooms, handheld camera, improvised dollies. And we alternated digital shooting on ARRI Alexa with Super 8 film inserts across almost all the scenes. Transforming the camera from a simple observational tool into a filter through which the characters perceive the world – their abstract thoughts, their emotions. A form of ‘subjective realism’, in which the language of the film does not merely describe reality, but seeks to convey to the viewer the emotional intensity of the characters’ lives.
This same approach guided our lighting choices. For exteriors, we privileged natural light, embracing its variations as part of the narrative and working on those differences in colour correction. For interiors, we avoided top lighting or overly elaborate setups, instead making use of what the environment already offered: daylight through windows, and, in the evening, practical lamps carefully selected and integrated into the scene. The aim was to return a sense of visual truth to the moment. On set, we always tried to allow both the camera and the actors to move freely through space in all directions, without dead zones caused by lights or stands. This gave both the freedom to move without constraint, following the impulse of the scene. ».
