Ico

A dreamlike journey, narrated by Gianfranco Angelucci, that starts with Federico Fellini, runs through Terry Gilliam and Bob Fosse, to the invisible documentary filmmaker. Through the history of art and cinema, painting and dance Ico is “cinema that talks about cinema.”

Filming took place partly at the Fellini theater at Cinecittà, partly in the historic center of Rome, and partly in a pose room at RUFA. The simplicity of the production was a consequence of the brilliant work done in writing and pre-production. The director’s clear ideas, aided by a team of sensitive and knowledgeable young people, ensured that the days on set were never a source of anxiety or distress, but rather a fun and wonderful place and time on which to test oneself with the knowledge that one is creating something beautiful.

Most members of the crew are or have been students of RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts, with the exception of Michele Gualano (a graduating student at Saint Louis College of Music) and the performers Giulia Poggioli and Edoardo Vatta, both students at Elle Studio Accademia di danza. This composition reinforced the project’s educational dimension, positioning the production process itself as a site of learning and exchange.

The goal of the documentary is to present an insurmountable, often frightening genius like Federico Fellini as a friend. For this, the narration is left entirely to the voice of Gianfranco Angelucci, Federico’s collaborator and great friend, who is slowly analyzed, disassembled and reconstructed, until arriving at a great personal tribute (the performance). Ico, diminutive of Federico precisely, investigates the relationship between the artist and art, how the two often merge when genius is involved, making one indistinguishable from the other.