Imprinting

Andrea Ciavatta’s Oscar-qualifying short film begins by reminding us that we are all subject to Imprinting.

This is a film that delves into the quintessence of its central character, a version of the director, who is playing himself. It seeks to excavate the fundamental nature of a person and the actions and memories that define it. This is done by taking the audience on a phantastic voyage into his mind via a starkly beautiful landscapes and a string of musical performances. Honoured by several festivals, it never really lives up to the potential of its premise as a cogent whole, feeling scattershot despite an undeniably toe-tapping soundtrack.

In essence, the film is carved into chapters that feel rather like a series of interlinked music videos with Ciavatta – henceforth the film’s character will be referred to as ‘Andrea’ – at their centre. An overarching narrative about Andrea reflecting on and interacting with his formative experiences is as much a framing device for the performances as the film’s conceptual driving force. This is film defined by its music, composed by Andrea Tosi, which shifts registers with each new set piece. They take in Andrea’s parents before his birth (played by Carlo Grotti Trevisan and Martina Maggiore), as well as conversations with mysterious facets of his mind referred to in the credits as things like Temptation, Emotion, and Consciousness.

It is a potentially interesting conceit and there are elements recalling other films that have attempted to grapple with the psyche and self-reflection in different ways – Fellini’s 8 ½ feels inescapable, while some of the vistas bring to mind Pasolini’s Oedipus Rex. Equally, the glamorous but slightly surreal visuals remind of something like Tarsem Singh’s The Fall, albeit somewhat less compositionally striking. Still, Imprinting is a film that brims with an artist’s passion, just one that perhaps never quite lands the emotional punch that its denouement might suggest it was aiming for.

Director: Andrea Ciavatta
Cast: Andrea Ciavatta, Carlo Grotti Trevisan, Martina Maggiore, Martina Ballesio, Sara Soares, Maria Pia Taggio, Giorgia Riccardi, Nicole Russo
Screenplay: Leo Barbato, Andrea Ciavatta
Cinematography: Leo Barbato
Editing: Skatto
Music: Andrea Tosi
Sound: Paolo Eusepi, Valerio Cartareggia, Luigi Sanso
Choreography: Giorgia Riccardi
Scenography: Daniele Ramberti
Production Company: Andrea Ciavatta Films (San Marino)
In English
40 minutes

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