After having received the Guest of Honor as a Tribute at the Inaugural Gala of the 38th edition of the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG38) on June 3, the famous Italian editor Roberto Perpignani gave a master class in which he shared a room with the critic of Mexican cinema Ernesto Diez Martínez.
The talk began with the mention of an interview with Orson Welles in which he expressed his admiration for John Ford, being a director with a great ability to tell stories through the use of cameras and specific scene cuts.
The speaker shared his reflections about one of the most recent films in which he participated and which is part of the Festival program: Leonora Addio (2022) by Paolo Taviani. Of the work, he commented: “it is the youngest film I have ever seen” and said he felt an incredible emotion when seeing a 91-year-old man who did not look 91 years old. This allowed him to see the meaning of a life, to understand that everything continues and that generations must hold hands to continue a discourse of emotions.
On the other hand, Perpignani highlighted the importance of prioritizing the use of more effective formats over conceptual ones to tell a story. This must be the best way to have the possibility of making it understandable to the public and bringing them closer to the characters: “The word understand means to share.”
He also talked about how the different editing styles in all his works were related to the originality of each director and the characteristics of each story, as well as the time in which he made each work. He pointed out that the duty of an editor is to make explicit and give space to emotions and feelings so that they can be shared with the public. The latter is the agent that finishes the film: “Everything is a direct relationship with the viewer, everything that has been thought and what has been transmitted,” the honoree pointed out.
Likewise, he mentioned what the Nouvelle Vague meant for the evolution of film production. He considered it a stage that left a lot of freedom to experiment in the way of filmmaking.
For Perpignani, history has shown that cinema is a continuity of imaginations, suggestions and perspectives that are shareable. He stressed that we had to go find everything that cinema has not done until now and do it through emotions, which are the link that unites all the elements used in a film.
Almost at the end, the panelist emotionally reiterated that montage is not about showing something, but about “feeling and sharing an emotion. We show and open our hearts to say: 'This is me.'”
Finally, three sequences from the following films were projected: Padre Padrone (1977) by the Taviani brothers, The Spider Strategy (1970) by Bernardo Bertolucci and Corbari (1970) by Valentino Orsoni, where the diversity of emotions could be observed. and feelings that can be shared through the montage of a film, with the last sequence being incredibly moving, even without knowing the context of the story.
Roberto Perpignani is recognized for his work in films such as Last Tango in Paris (1972), The Postman (1994) and The Night of San Lorenzo (1982). He began his career in film working as an assistant to none other than director Orson Welles for the production of the film The Trial (1962). During his career he has participated in the making of more than a hundred films alongside great directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci and the Taviani brothers.
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