Still courtesy of B&B Film
Directed and edited by Ilaria de Laurentiis, The Rossellini Method promises to be “an archive film portrait of the legendary Italian director: revolutionary, irreverent, contradictory, candid in life and art.” De Laurentiis edited the feature doc The Rossellinis, which was pitched at MIA 2019 and selected for Venice the following year. Producer Raffaele Brunetti talks to Business Doc Europe about his latest Rossellini doc.
The new project is described as “a first-person account of his life and work, in his own voice, beginning with the mystery that surrounds his creativity.” In the production notes, the team explains that “Rossellini’s method is not just a way of making films but a ‘sacrilegious religion’ about how to live life, a set of values invented personally by Rossellini, wherein cinema and reality merge into one.”
Before embarking on this project, de Laurentiis helmed the observational doc What Nourishes Me Destroys Me (2013) and edited both fiction and non-fiction features for prominent Italian directors such as Mario Martone, Marco Bellocchio, Carlo Verdone, Roberto Benigni and Pupi Avati.
“In the process of editing The Rossellinis, I became closely acquainted with the enormous amount of archive portraying Roberto Rossellini, and the many interviews recording his ideas as a film director and man. Much of the footage didn’t make it into The Rossellinis, which focuses on the emotional tool left by the director on his family. I became convinced that a new project on Rossellini himself and his free spirit was crying out to be made. […] It is an ‘autobiography’ guided only by fascination of his genius and his contradictions,” de Laurentiis says in her director’s statement.
Speaking about the pitch and the overall experience at MIA, the production team led by Raffaele Brunetti told Business Doc Europe: “Three years after pitching The Rossellinis, [taking part in] MIA is still a great opportunity for us. In 2019 we presented a project about the Rossellinis, a multi-ethnic, dysfunctional family which became the subject of a documentary feature which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and received wide acclaim worldwide. We’re now back with The Rossellini Method, which prompted great interest among the commissioning editors in attendance. We know it wasn’t an easy project to pitch, since it is a documentary exclusively made of archive footage. We’ve delivered our editor-director Ilaria de Laurentiis’ knowledge and passion for archives. […] The idea of using mostly his statements from archive footage made [the audience] curious, intrigued and amused.”
“During our pitch, we stated our willingness to tell Roberto Rossellini’s career in chronological order. It will be a true autobiography by Roberto Rossellini. We will record his voice in a creative – but also ‘scientific’ – fashion. His words will be from his texts, interviews and letters as well as from his family and closest friends’ anecdotes. The picture we’re working on is unique, especially if compared to the already existing documentaries made on the subject,” Brunetti continued.
On the topic of the project’s research work and production schedule, the producer added: “Our research work started with The Rossellinis and it is now continuing with The Rossellini Method. We gained access to high-value archive footage, most of which was never edited or published. We can count on the support and access granted by the Rossellini family and Alessandro Rossellini [director of The Rossellinis, son of Renzo and grandson of Roberto], who warmly welcomed our project, joining us on stage during the pitch. The development of the project will continue until the end of 2023, and production will start at the beginning of 2024, with delivery scheduled later that fall.”
The Rossellini Method is being produced by Brunetti for Rome-based firm B&B Film. Budgeted at €479,000, the feature already secured financing for a total of €100,000 through the Rossellini family (in kind, worth €40,000), B&B Film (€40,000) and Latvian outfit VFS Films (€20,000). Since 2002, B&B Film has been producing documentaries and docuseries with major European and international broadcasters such as ZDF, ARTE, NDR, YLE, SVT, RAI, National Geographic, Al Jazeera and Discovery.
The team is looking for international co-producers which would help secure agreements with foreign archives, since images of Roberto Rossellini are stored worldwide, in particular in France and the United States. “We’re also open to collaborate with the most fitting and passionate distributors, and with broadcasters an
d platforms focused on cinema and culture,” they added.
