CANALETTO, THE FABULOUS JOURNEY
BERLINALE 2024, NEW PROJECTS
Bernardo Bellotto’s “The Fabulous Journey” docu-film will be an immersive experience, connecting artificial intelligence and visual storytelling. It will focus on the impact Bellotto had in rebuilding European cities, including Warsaw, after World War II. With the help of the most prestigious institutions, museums, and partners, it will connect audiences everywhere to the beauty and sophistication of the past while utilizing the technology of today.
SHORT SYNOPSIS
Bernardo Bellotto, Chronicler and director of the eighteenth century accompanies us on a fabulous journey with his faithful Camera obscura, the ancestor of the modern camera. This journey starts in Venice, crosses Italy, and reaches Dresden, Munich, Vienna, and Warsaw. Up to the present day, there were two”Canaletto,” uncle and nephew, often confused with each other. An orphan boy, forced to work as an assistant of his uncle, surpasses the master and becomes the most requested painter of the European courts. He paints cities and views, combining documentation with fantasy. Warsaw will be rebuilt on his paintings after the Second World War. Still, today architects from Warsaw, Wien, and Dresden have to ask his permission to change the urban landscape. His dreams become reality.
https://www.filmlux.it/canalettopresentation2024.pdf
https://www.filmlux.it/canalettoLocations.pdf
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Born in Venice on May 20, 1722, nephew and pupil of Antonio Canal, known as “Canaletto”, Bernardo Bellotto, was one of the greatest protagonists of European artistic life of the XVIII century. He was the first film director in cinema history; through his visions captured by the Camera Obscura. Bellotto allows us to immerse ourselves in the fascinating everyday life of the eighteenth century. With the help of artificial intelligence, the beauty of European heritage will be brought to audiences everywhere. Bellotto’s vision allowed cities to be immortalized in his paintings. Through the docu-film will be a tour of famous paintings from Venice, Verona, Florence, Lucca, Rome, Milan, Vaprio d’Adda, Dresden, Pirna, Königstein, Munich, Vienna and finally Warsaw, where Bellotto arrived in Warsaw in 1767 paintings. Warsaw’s reconstruction in 1945 was faithfully based on the Paintings of Bernardo. In Warsaw, where he remained to the end, for thirteen years. Here he survived the death of his beloved son Lorenzo in 1770, his assistant and interpreter, whom he immortalizes in one of the most famous paintings of the Warsaw Castle. Never was a painter so powerful.
We are proud to bring this amazing project to life soon. We will enter his painting and discover his films, as Bernardo, with his narrative power, was a proper director. His paintings have enormous narrative power, like the novels of great Russian writers, as one of Pasolini’s masters, Roberto Longhi, affirmed. He spent hours observing and sketching through his darkroom/camera obscura and then composing the story in his studio. A unique project that takes us on a journey in the beauty and style of the 17th century: Venice, Rome, Florence, Dresden, Vien, and Warsaw. We successfully presented it at the Berlinale market.
Canaletto is a famous name known everywhere in the world. Not many people know there were two Canalettos, an uncle and a nephew. The nephew Bernardo, a pupil of Antonio Canal, overcame the uncle and became his alter ego—the best-paid painter in the Dresden court and later in Warsaw. Warsaw, after WWII, was rebuilt, copying his paintings. No artist in the world could have such power that an entire city was rebuilt following his masterpiece, becoming an ideal city.