Isabel Pagliai
Isabella Morra - Film - 22min - 2015
presented as part of the exhibition Panorama 17
“It is early. Still very early. Stop acting as if you’re an owl, Isabelle. Let us sleep, and get back to sleep. We’re not interested in your dreams and your poetry.”
Between the wild stories of Adriana, a modern little girl, and the poetry of Isabelle, accused of treason by her brothers in the 16th century,what is the connection? Between the literary text by André Pieyre de Mandiargues and the prerecorded worlds of love on a modern automatic doll, what possible, fantasised echoes can there be?
Here, Adriana is telling a story, Camille grumbling and Océane, in who knows what boredom, is trying to get her doll to speak its never-ending discourse. The trace of a programme or, on the contrary, the hope of a possible emancipation.
This film, freely inspired by André Pieyre de Mandiargues’ play Isabella Morra, came out of a shoot with children on a housing estate in the upper reaches of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Through material made up of everyday activities and portraits of children in their spontaneous theatricality, a play of resonances is established with the world of the text.
Isabel Pagliai
Born in 1988 in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois. Lives and works in Paris.
After training in contemporary dance, Isabel Pagliai studied literature, art history and cinema at university in Paris. She graduated from Le Fresnoy, National Studio of Contemporary Arts.
Her cinematographic work, which combines a fictional approach with documentary filming, revolves around the themes of childhood and language.
Her films Isabella Morra, Orfeo and Tender have been screened at numerous festivals - International Film Festival Rotterdam, New Directors/New Films, Viennale, Cinéma du Réel... - and prestigious venues - Villa Medici, Palais de Tokyo, MAMCO, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts... -
She has won several awards for Isabella Morra (2015) and Tendre (2020).
