Alessandro Comodin, born in 1982 in the Italian town of Frioul, on the border with Slovenia, first studied literature and only later cinema in Brussels at the well-known INSAS school. This borderline and transdisciplinary position is evident in his work, where eclecticism meets a desire for universality and recognition. For his first feature, L'estate di Giacomo (2011) - winner of the Golden Leopard for young filmmakers at the Locarno Film Festival - Comodin challenged Portuguese director João Nicolau to edit the film. An affinity was established between the two filmmakers, who have since edited each other's films (without exception). Comodin's ties to Portuguese cinema - and his knowledge of the language - make him a kind of "distant cousin" of Portuguese cinema, and it is possible to find echoes of his cinema in that of some Portuguese directors, particularly Nicolau and Miguel Gomes. His first film imposed him as an author, whose marks are recognisable in the rawness and harshness of his camera and the recurrence of portraits of (lost) youth in a forest landscape. His most recent feature, Gigi La Legge (2022), takes him in a different direction: the "comedy of reality". What seemed like an amusing documentary about a picturesque local policeman turns into an unlikely burlesque thriller. It's no surprise, then, that Alessandro Comodin chose, in the White Card offered by the PPD, two comedies where physical humour, eroticism, action and adventure films merge and confuse. Jacques Rozier and Roberto Benigni are some of his references, filmmakers of laughter and wit, authors who know the power of comedy and whom Comodin revisits through his documentary eye. Whether he follows the precepts of a romantic coming-of-age, a ghost film or a crime comedy, in each of his films Comodin draws characters driven by melancholy, disoriented figures in search of a place where they can recognise themselves.

PROGRAMME ALESSANDRO COMODIN

Gigi la Legge (The Adventures of Gigi the Law)
Alessandro Comodin, Italy, France, 99', 2022, FIC, DOC
TRAILER

L'estate di Giacomo (Summer of Giacomo)
Alessandro Comodin, Italy, Belgium, 78', 2011, FIC
TRAILER

CARTE BLANCHE

Il Mostro (The Monster)
Roberto Begnini, France, Italy, 112', 1994, FIC
TRAILER

Les Naufragés de l'île de la Tortue (The Castaways of Turtle Island)
Jacques Rozier, France, 146', 1976, FIC