Cuir d’ange

Project Description

In a sweltering Rome, the lives of two seemingly opposite individuals converge at night inside a room bringing them closer than they would expect.

Cuir d’ange” is an erotic drama feature film set during the summer in contemporary Rome and inspired by classics of the second new wave of Taiwanese cinema and European and American postmodern cinema. It aims to explore the contemporary dynamics of an impossible love.
The tension and erotic satisfaction experienced by Kang in “days”… the feeling of alienation and loneliness that bob and charlotte experience confined to the park Hyatt in “Lost in translation”… the contrast between a perverse yet genuine curiosity that benny cannot restrain in “Benny’s video”… the isolation and disconnection of life in large anonymous cities; the sensation of being suspended in a perpetual present even as time passes; the tactility of forests and streets, rooms and furniture, clothing and books, sheets and skin in the films of Tsai ming Liang…emotional, cinematic, and rooted in character.

“Cuir d’ange” is a love letter to the peculiar, the perverse, and the “bastards” where the boundaries between real and mediated love become difficult to delineate.

Deliverables: Feature Film 80 – 100 Minutes
Camera: Arri Alexa Mini
Format: 4K
Location: Rome
Reference: Taiwanese 2nd New Wave

 

Concept
A Beauty and the beast in reverse, “Cuir d’ange” tackles the representation of archetypal cinematic love and the common manifestations of conventional love from a critical standpoint: the characters are unable to love in those forms but unconsciously wish they could. In the end, it is their perverse and unorthodox connection that leads them towards a love reminiscent of the archetypal one. The film’s message is that any kind of emotion, even if expressed in unconventional ways, has the right to be experienced, as long as its nature is not denied.

Main Characters

Simone:

23 years old, an aspiring actor, he works at
the ticket booth of an amusement park to
make ends meet. He lives alone and, like
Karen, has never found love. He spends
much of his time preparing auditions and
watching films. He is rediscovering his
sexuality and struggles to express it freely
due to the pressures of conventional
judgment.

 

Karen:

65 years old, she is an American retiree.
She spends the last third of her life in
search of new emotions. Having moved
to Rome, she seeks people with her
same open-mindedness with whom to
engage in any kind of perverse activity.
She has never found love. A vegan and
health enthusiast, she spends her time
in Rome’s parks, grocery shopping at the
market, watering her plants, and
watching old romantic films

 

Margherita:

An Economics student, beautiful,
ambitious, and determined. Belonging to
a group of affluent young people in
Rome, Margherita is everything a boy
should desire at his age. With a
pragmatic personality, she represents
normalcy that Simone struggles to find
attractive anymore

 

Matteo:

A long-time friend of Simone, a wealthy
Roman boy, he has many friends and
often goes out in the evenings. He is
proactive, enjoys company, and tries to
help Margherita get together with
Simone. Like Margherita, he also often
leads Simone back onto the beaten path
of conventionality. He represents
society’s judgment towards the different.