But this spare plot description does little to seize the impact of this pretty movie, which lingers lengthy after the ultimate, heartbreaking scene. Much less a plot-driven work than one to give up to, it’s certain to attract extra converts to the devoted order of Rohrwacher.

From her dwelling base within the distant Italian countryside, Rohrwacher—rosy-cheeked, with strawberry hair tangled in a knot atop her head—spoke to Vogue via a translator concerning the similarities between archaeology and filmmaking, why she suspects Federico Fellini had grave-robber mates, and the previous man (and the “melancholia,” per her mellifluous pronunciation) she divined within rising star O’Connor.

Vogue: How does one provide you with a movie like this? I do know you drew out of your private expertise rising up in Etruria, an space stuffed with historical tombs and artifacts that have been dug up with frequency within the ’80s and ’90s, and that you just wrote this throughout COVID lockdown, with dying heavy in your thoughts.

Alice Rohrwacher: Films all the time come from afar—they typically have an extended incubation stage inside us after which bloom every time they really feel prefer it. I’ve collected these tales over an extended interval. However I’ve all the time been captivated with archeology. I used to be a classics main at college, and I’ve all the time had a fascination with archeologists’ work. Making a film is sort of much like what an archeologist does as a result of they handle to see a narrative in locations the place others solely see a bunch of stones. They reach recomposing a narrative, piecing it collectively from tiny deserted items they discover.

You labored with three sorts of movie codecs: 35mm, Tremendous 16mm, and 16mm. What was the concept behind bringing these textures collectively?

We wished to point out the fingerprints of those that made this film to some extent, much like the emotion one can really feel once they retrieve an vintage vase and see the fingerprint of the vase maker from two thousand years in the past. This human presence was crucial. Cinematographer Hélène Louvart and I weren’t certain which movie can be finest as a result of, at varied moments, it needed to convey contemplation, showcase the panorama, and likewise work as a form of journey film.

The three movie codecs have been additionally a approach for this film about historical past and archeology to inform the historical past of cinema as a cloth merchandise. Younger folks don’t have many alternatives to see all these codecs, as some have passed by the wayside. So we determined to maintain all of them, from the extra amateur-filmmaking inventory to a extra narrative variety and a extra pictorial one.