My atypical and urgent "Orpheus." Villoresi: I make films like dreams. The director's feature film, premiering at the Venice Film Festival, is inspired by Dino Buzzati's "Poema a Fumetti."

Luca Vergoni handled movement and emotion with sensitivity and precision, making every interaction believable within an "invisible" space. Giulia Maenza also managed to create a subtle balance between melancholy, romance, and mystery. Her character harbors a secret, and she conveyed it with restraint. Virgilio Villoresi praises the two actors—the protagonists of his film " Orfeo ," selected out of competition at the Venice Film Festival . The rising filmmaker, born in 1979, lives and works in Milan.

The film "Orfeo" will be presented on September 1st, out of competition, at the Venice Film Festival. Not bad for a debut feature...

"I'm very excited. I want to express my gratitude to Alberto Barbera and the entire Biennale Cinema organization for believing in this project. 'Orfeo' is a film with a strong experimental component, an atypical cinematic object. I conceived it in total freedom, without worrying about how it would be received, but driven by a creative urgency that I've been cultivating for years."

The independent feature film is inspired by Dino Buzzati's "Poema a Fumetti"...

"When I discovered "Poema a fumetti," it was as if an inner door opened. I recognized in those panels something profoundly mine: a reflection of my creative side, my imagination, my visual obsessions; my idea of cinema as a poetic, evocative, and visionary space."

Tell us about the film.

It's a story of love and loss, loosely inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. In the first part, we witness the meeting between Orpheus and Eura and the birth of a love lived with an almost timeless intensity. But their union is abruptly broken by Eura's mysterious death. One evening, Orpheus sees her, in ghostly form, walk through a door on Via Saterna—right across the street from his apartment—and from that moment on, a journey into the afterlife begins for him. I'll stop here, so as not to reveal too much.

Moments of difficulty?

Well, it wasn't a walk in the park: the film took two and a half years to make, and the entire production took place at Viafarini Works, where my production company Fantasmagoria was also based. The main challenges were financial. However, precisely from these limitations arose the need—and the desire—to invent an alternative way of making films, based on entirely artisanal techniques, with an almost theatrical approach to the staging.

Is it a fantasy made with a dreamlike vision like in all his creations?

"Yes, the dream dimension has always been a common thread throughout all my work. In this film, however, I've fully embraced it: the entire narrative architecture, the pace of the direction, and the visuals are conceived as if it were a dream."

The cast includes Giulia Maenza and Luca Vergoni . What's it like working with them?

"Two extraordinary performers: accessible, talented, and highly professional. Luca Vergoni found himself immersed in an animated universe, and he skillfully mastered a daunting challenge: acting and moving in scenes where he was often alone, without a real partner. Giulia Maenza was also exceptional. She approached the part with great dedication, meticulously preparing the character, including physically, studying dance to give her body the necessary grace and posture."

What are the sources of inspiration?

"“Orfeo” is a film deeply inspired by Jean Cocteau's “Le Sang d'un poète,” but also by Eastern European animated cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, by the abstract and cosmic cinema of Jordan Belson, and by a constellation of visual references linked to 20th-century Italian design and architecture—from Giò Ponti to Fornasetti, from Piero Portaluppi to Tomaso Buzzi."