Filmmaking

Directing Between Prose and Poetry: a Pasolinian Approach to Cinema

 

Course program

This course explores film direction through the critical thought and cinematic practice of Pier Paolo Pasolini, focusing on cinema as a form of language rather than a purely technical or narrative medium. Students will examine the distinction between “cinema of prose” and “cinema of poetry” as two different ways of constructing meaning, perception, and point of view. 

The course combines theoretical analysis with hands-on exercises to help students understand how form shapes content in film. Through film analysis, practical shooting exercises, and editing experiments, students will learn the fundamentals of camera grammar, point of view, time, montage, and sound. The second part of the course is dedicated to documentary practice, developed first through a conventional, prosaic approach and then through a poetic, non-explanatory one. By working on the same themes with different formal strategies, students will directly experience how cinematic language transforms reality. 

The course concludes with the production and discussion of both collective and individual documentary works, providing students with a critical and practical framework for contemporary film direction.

 

When and where

  • 24 February
  • 3-10-30-31 March
  • 27-28 April
  • 5-11 May: Closing night

The course will be held in English, at 6.15pm — 8.15pm, in Room 42 (except for the class of March 31, which will be in Room 44).

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Tommaso Santambrogio

Tommaso Santambrogio is a young Italian director; he has lived between Milan, Paris, Rome, Florence, and Havana, and has collaborated with several internationally renowned filmmakers, such as Werner Herzog and Lav Diaz.

His first short films (Escena Final and Los Océanos Son Los Verdaderos Continentes) were both screened in 2019 at the Venice Film Festival and were then selected in many festivals around the world. L’Ultimo Spegne la Luce (2021), his latest short film, was screened in official competition at the 36th Venice Film Festival's Settimana della Critica, and then made it into the shortlist at the 2022 David di Donatello Awards. Taxibol (2023), his new docu-film, recently premiered at Visions du Réel. Oceans Are the Real Continents is his first feature film and will have its world premiere in competition at Venice Days during the 80th Venice Film Festival.