He calls it a “crazy marathon.” One poster a day, for 365 days, handmade and then printed. Going down the stairs of the Modernissimo he welcomes spectators at the entrance: it is the poster of one of the films in the programme. They are signed by the Bolognese artist and designer Stefano Ricci, who proposed the project to the director Gian Luca Farinelli.
He started the day after the inauguration, today we are at number 117 with “Io Capitano”, then we’ll see, because it’s a real work in progress. «I browse the program and choose based on inspiration – says Ricci – sometimes it is one of the films of life, other times the work of a young author. When I can, I watch or watch the film again, I study it. Then with colored chalk I create the original poster, I photograph them to edit them, I don’t use the scanner, I don’t understand the light and then the Cineteca prints them. There is the same craftsmanship of the cinema of yesteryear.” Sometimes it’s a photogram that strikes him and reworks it, other times it’s the poster itself that inspires him, more often it’s his vision of that work that prevails. It does not appear to have ever been done before, not even at the dawn of the seventh art. «They are stories from others, which somehow become mine. At the same time it is a universal imaginary.”
The originals are on sale at the D406 Gallery in Modena, which will soon have an exhibition of them. And an exhibition is also planned at the Galery Martel in Paris or Brussels. The Cineteca, on the other hand, will create posters within the reach of all budgets and a book with the entire visual almanac of the first year of Modernissimo reinterpreted by Ricci. At the moment, however, the only place where they can be admired, one at a time, is at the entrance to the underground room.
«It is a work of great discipline and freedom, as my friend Ermanna Montanari of the Teatro delle Albe defined it. And also a great study. I always try to see or watch the film again, sometimes it’s easy, immediate, to understand how to transform it into a drawing, other times more complex. Among other things, I hadn’t worked with colors for many years, but the fact that each film has its own light pushed me to use them again.” The film of his life will be seen in the next few days, it is “To Kill a Mockingbird”: «The first two images I remember are a window from which you can see a large tree and a veranda with a rocking chair that looks out moves slowly. I later discovered that they were two frames from Robert Mulligan’s film, which I probably saw on TV as a child.”
A film that put him in crisis was “The Shining”. «It’s the only one of which there are two versions, one with a red background, the other blue. Initially the original had cold tones, thinking of the exterior of the Overlook hotel, but then the red of the redrum writing prevailed (murder backwards ed.). I couldn’t choose.” The most challenging, emotionally, was instead “Biassanot” «because while I was designing the poster Jimmy Villotti left us. When I was little we lived about seventy meters away, then when he became a great jazz player I continued to hang out with him and we became friends.” And in fact, standing out in the poster is Jimmy playing. «The director I love most is John Cassavetes, because in every frame of him you can perceive the risk of the creative act. Among his titles I particularly prefer “Love streams”. The real discovery, however, was Charlie Chaplin, despite the work of the Cineteca, I hadn’t understood the enormity of his films. Instead I found an affinity with my poetics, the care and obsession for music, the way he moves his body and the repetition linked to comedy. I dedicated three posters to Charlot.”
