Carota Machine (Carrot Machine)

Italy 2001-04; 30 min. - World premiere

Prospero, Er Cicala (the Cicada), is the Carota Machine Man of Campo de’ Fiori. Campo de’ Fiori is the stage where, every morning, the Cicada performs his show. Because without a doubt this is a show; perhaps commedia dell’arte or, more simply, arte della commedia... After all, as he says, "There is only one Cicada… anybody else is nada!".

The ingredients for the show are the classical ones, they are all there:

• the actors - the kitchen tools, brought to life as if they were puppets, by Cicada);
• the story board - the so called canovaccio (the kitchen towel, where originally the plot of the comedy was written );
• the lines - that in Cicada’s mouth maintain a taste of disappearing romanity, in spite of the translation;
• the coup de théatre - such as with the chicken... one has to see to believe;
• the gags - like the antenna and the ear-rings;
• and last but not least, the audience: the tourists themselves become actors of the show, on stage every working day at Campo de’ Fiori market in Rome.

A... B... C... cletta (A... B... C... cle)

Italy 2000-01; 3 min.

Occhi di-visi, Occhi di-versi (Di-vided Eyes, Di-verse Eyes)

Italy 2002-03; 11 min.

Here's the only linguistic problem of this work: its title. Apart from it, no other words, no translation, just eyes, faces and some music.

The title of this artistic and poetic work is based on a play upon words: in spoken (but not in written) Italian the words "divisi" (divided) and "diversi" (different) can also be interpreted as "di visi" (of faces) and "di versi" (of verses), i.e.

OCCHI DIVISI - Divided eyes, by the nose.
OCCHI DIVERSI - Diverse eyes, different (a lot) one from the other.
OCCHI DI VISI - Eyes of faces, eyes of countenance, facets...
OCCHI DI VERSI - Eyes of verses: the verses of the poetry of glance, the poetry of life.

A human, daily, instantaneous, desperate, confused, ingenuous, foolish, sweet, normal, voracious, wild... poetry. It doesn't matter what kind, it is nevertheless poetry, and yet life.

In the end, having to define this work, we can say that Occhi di-visi, occhi di-versi is the work of a visionary poet, a revolutionary of the possible, a howeverist, or more simply an artist, who is trying to realize a progressive Video Poem with eyes, glances, faces and facial expressions from all over the world.

A Video Poem without cultural and linguistic borders, since its language is the universal one spoken by glances and eyes, a silent language...
...or maybe, only the echo of the continous research to under-stand/take the emotions contained in the instant -susceptible of eternity- of a glance...
(Source: notes from the director)

Stornmi* #3 (Starling-Flock #3)

Italy 1987-2003; 8 min.

The only possible introduction to this (never ending?) work should express my mortification at having violated such beauty, shooting with inexpert passion.
Otherwise, the Flocks of Starlings – or rather, those that I managed to ensnare in so many cassettes** - are all here, with all of their beauty and all of their strength.
One does not need to know that there are Falcons flying with the Starlings, or that I shot 18 hours of video in the attempt to capture this Magical Nature and/or Natural Magic. Stornmi #... is dedicated to Daniele and to all the dreamers.

* STORNMI is the result of merging two italian words: STOR-NI (Starlings) and STOR-MI (Flocks). In English it might be translated approximately as STARLOCKS or FLOCKLINGS, or...
** In Italian cassette has two meanings: referring to both video tapes and the cages where birds can be kept.
(Source: notes from the director)

Directed by:

Ermanno De Biagi

Cast:

Prospero Di Veroli, Er Cicala (in Carota Machine)

Story and Screenplay:

Ermanno De Biagi

Cinematography:

Ermanno De Biagi

Editing:

Ermanno De Biagi

Music:

Renato Carosone (Carota Machine), Pino Cangialosi (A... B... C... cletta), Andrès Arce Maldonado (Occhi di-visi, occhi di-versi) and Ermanno De Biagi

Produced by:

Ermanno De Biagi

Production:

Video Artigiano, Ermanno De Biagi

• 60th Venice Film Festival 2003: New Territories

• Ermanno De Biagi's official site

About the Director:

After all he is an artist: of words, gestures, images, sounds, communications.
Musician, actor, teacher, animator, cultural figure and videomaker, or rather VideoCraftsman as he prefers.
He began shooting in 1975 with the old 1/2" reels in black and white.
His works - VideoPoems or VideoPaintings - are those of a visionary poet, a revolutionary of the possible, a ...howeverist...
(Source: production notes)