Italian filmmaker Giulia Achenza’s Fenice (2021) is a gorgeous piece of cinema that succeeds in its mission to illustrate the power of both regeneration of self, and the complexities of the female psyche. A perfectly timed exploration during a pandemic era not without its added challenges for women and girls worldwide.
Shot in collaboration with the high fashion company Momonì and the cinematographer Alessandro Ubaldi, the ethereal Venetian filming locations Sant’Erasmo, Hotel Aman, and the Grimani Museum breathe a haunting historicity into each frame. Model/actress Maria Vittoria Franzini is a wonderful force of dual feminine power and mystery, whose innermost thoughts are outwardly manifested by female dancers.
Director Achenza shares her filmic space with the male element, not in human form, but in other ways. Such as her opening Voltaire quote from The Princess of Babylon (1768):
“Everything in nature is resurrection. It’s not more surprising to be born twice than once.”
Achenza also gives a nod to Andrei Tarkovsky’s films Mirror (1975) and The Sacrifice (1986) in a gravity-defying way (watch the film to see it!), whom she shares credit for, with D.P. Ubaldi and editor Federica Intelisano.
Femme Filmmakers Festival 2021 – Day Two
Fenice is a fashion film of impressive intellectual currency, melding philosophy, spirituality, beauty of nature, choreography, and grand architectural spaces together into a striking presentation of the idea that happiness can be realized when the decision to change overpowers the turbulence of a captive mind.
