While we wait for Luca Guadagnino‘s documentary “Salvatore, the Shoemaker of Dreams” about the great shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo, fans can already watch a Hitchcockian short film directed by Guadagnino for Salvatore Ferragamo’s campaign for Spring 2021.
Luca Guadagnino channels Hitchcock for a short film full of color that nevertheless feels like it could have been made in the 1960s. The camera is distant, and closes on the cast of models as if the camera just became aware of their existence and now follows them obsessively. Despite there not being a single word spoken, the short tells a story of characters interacting and chasing one another in the streets of Milan.
Speaking to Vogue about the making of the short film, Salvatore Ferragamo creative director Paul Andrew talks about the influence of Alfred Hitchcock on the film, saying “[Hitchcock] saw the potential of Technicolor to create visual points of attention that can be both alarming and alluring, absolutely his work inflected Luca’s film.”
“This is a time in which everything feels amplified and extreme, but we can take ownership of that through our own attitude and actions. Hitchcock was the first master of turning suspense, the fear of something dreadful, into an experience people found delicious,” Andrews continues. “When the world feels beyond our control it’s more important than ever that we have a healthy and positive perspective through which to see it.”
The official synopsis for the short film reads: “A story of intrigue, suspense and beauty, set in the streets of Milan, with a mysterious succession of encounters, déjà-vu and enigmatic glances echoing the surreal atmospheres of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpieces. A unique sequence of places, evocations and indelible feelings bring the Maison back to its timeless bond with the world of cinema, through a subtle and impenetrable plot, in a growing tension between elegance and passion, rigor and colour.”