Film Forum

U.S., 2021
Directed by Bruce Weber
With Paolo Di Paolo
Approx. 105 min. DCP.

In the postwar years, as Italy emerged from rubble and poverty, a new era began in which Italian movie stars and intellectuals became international celebrities. From 1954–1968, Paolo Di Paolo took stunning, candid, elegant photographs of Anna Magnani, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Moravia, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Grace Kelly, and a mind-boggling host of others. But by the late ‘60s, the photographer had hung up his Leica, uncomfortable with the sensibility of sensationalism that younger paparazzi brought to the job. Decades later, his grown daughter Silvia discovers his archive — some of the most gorgeous images of European glamour ever created. American photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber, deeply admiring of Paolo Di Paolo’s work, meets with the nonagenarian to consider his life and the world he recorded, one neatly summed up by Tennessee Williams: “When I die, let me just go to Italy.”

Reviews

“An uncommonly beautiful-looking documentary”
– Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com

“CHARMING, EXHILARATING AND REVELATORY. Di Paolo’s images remain breathtaking. Weber sprinkles the movie with that quirky dolce-vita dust that distinguishes his own sensibility… It not only fits — it’s delightful.”
– Glenn Kenny, The New York Times

“Celebrates the extraordinary life and work of Paolo Di Paolo….(who) creates revelatory portraits of some of postwar Italy’s culture heroes, such as Anna Magnani and Pier Paolo Pasolini. (The photographer) displays a personality that’s as original as his art.”
– The New Yorker