Hollywood
Peek at the 2020 Pirelli calendar, art film by Paolo Roversi
This year, there isn't just a calendar. Pirelli has also produced a short film.
In fair Verona, Pirelli unveiled the 2020 Pirelli Calendar. Featuring a "Looking for Juliet" theme, the calendar features many of the world's top film stars including Claire Foy, Mia Goth, Chris Lee, Indya Moore, Rosalía, Stella Roversi, Yara Shahidi, Kristen Stewart and Emma Watson.
This is the 47th edition of TheCal, as its colloquially known.
Alongside the calendar, calendar creator Paolo Roversi showed his new short film that follows the same theme as the calendar, merging photography and cinematography. The 18-minute short features Roversi playing himself as a director interviewing candidates for the role of Juliet.
Here's how Pirelli describes the film:
"The scenario unfolds in two phases. In the first, the protagonists are shown arriving at the set, without makeup or costume. They sit and talk with Roversi about the project under way, each one vying to be chosen, telling the director about their personal experiences and how they envisage Juliet. In this way, the actresses reveal their intimate, personal side. In the second phase they put on the costumes devised to transform them for their personal interpretation of Shakespeare's heroine. The idea is to portray a story in which reality and fiction dovetail and their distinctions blur, as in a hazy photograph."
"I was looking for a pure soul, someone full of innocence that combined strength, beauty, tenderness and courage," said Roversi. "I found this in the glimmer of an eye, in the gestures and words of Emma and Yara, Indya and Mia and in the smiles and tears of Kristen and Claire…in the voices and chants of Chris and Rosalía. In Stella we have the innocence. There's a Juliet in every woman ... and I will never stop looking for her."
The photo and video shoot took place in May in Verona. The 2020 calendar is the first to be created by an Italian photographer. Past calendars have been shot by masters of the craft including Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts, Mario Testino, and Terry Richardson.
Check out this extended look at the production of the calendar:
It is comprised of 132 pages. The monthly calendar is on the cover and then there are sections of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" followed by 58 photos featuring a storied imagining of "Romeo and Juliet" in Verona. The scope of the project was informed by Roversi's love of opera.
The many behind-the-scenes moments during the photo-shoots and filming, along with the characters and backstage stories of the 2020 Pirelli Calendar can be found online at the dedicated site www.pirellicalendar.com, which also offers the chance to explore the over fifty-year history of The Cal™ with films, interviews, photographs, and hitherto unpublished texts.