PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Beniamino Barrese, director of the film The Disappearance of My Mother.
Beniamino Barrese is the son of Benedetta Barzini, an iconic model of the sixties , a worldly famous face and body, now fiercely critical of the world of image, also her own, and the portrayal of the women body in advertising and fashion. The film was born as a personal diary of the director, with no intentions of making a film. But then things changed and Beniamino tells us how and why.
The Disappearance of My Mother: Benedetta wants to disappear. An iconic fashion model in the 1960s, she became a muse to Warhol, Dali, Penn and Avedon. As a radical feminist in the 1970s, she fought for the rights and emancipation of women. But at the age of 75, she becomes fed up with all the roles that life has imposed upon her and decides to leave everything and everybody behind, to disappear to a place as far as possible from the world she knows. Hiding behind the camera, her son Beniamino witnesses her journey. Having filmed her since he was a child in spite of all her resistance, he now wants to make a film about her, to keep her close for as long as possible – or, at least, as long as his camera keeps running.
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This interview has been recorded during the 32nd EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS ceremony on 7th December 2019 in Berlin. FRED Film Radio is media partner of the event.