Photography & Digital ArtDEC 6, 2022

I Believe That The Film We Are Most Attached To Can Tell A Lot About A Person So I Asked People To Define Themselves Through A Movie (30 Pics)

Alessio Trerotoli and Gabrielė Malukaitė

We all carry the title of a movie within us that has marked our memories and which, in some way, defines us. If it's true that a photographic portrait can tell a lot about a person, I believe that the movie we are most attached to can tell even more.

The goal of this project is to use cinema as a tool that will help people to tell their stories. These people were asked to define themselves through a movie, revealing a piece of their soul. As the "book people" of Fahrenheit 451 preserved the memory of the book, my series wants to link every person to the film of his life.

#1 Andrea, The Princess Bride (1987)

“Did I choose it because I’m romantic? No! There are two reasons: one is Inigo Montoya (and the characters in general) and then the cloak and dagger genre and these painted backgrounds that reflect its tradition. The characters are fantastic, somehow they are all heroes.”

95points

My name is Alessio Trerotoli and I am an Italian photographer, born and raised in Rome, where I live. I graduated in 2009 in Disciplines of Arts and Cinema, my style is strongly characterized by multiple exposures, but my first and greatest love is street photography. I am also the author of the awarded series Urban Melodies and Raindrop Blues that have already been featured on Bored Panda. I'm currently collaborating with art galleries in the United States, Italy, France, Israel, China, Brazil and Argentina. Besides that, I love walking in my city, cooking pasta alla carbonara and watching tons of movies, of course!

#2 Micaelo, Back To The Future (1985)

“It’s the symbol of our generation, it taught us to dream about impossible things. We are the choices we choose.”

48points

#3 Diego, Edward Scissorhands (1990)

“It’s the film that physically excites me the most, I mean, I press play, I hear two notes and I can’t hold back the tears, I am a river, really. In addition to this very strong physical motivation, there’s also the way how the theme of diversity is told, it’s wonderful, it’s like a fairy tale. And then him, Danny Elfman: the soundtrack is fundamental for this film.”

48points

I always had a passion for photography. There is a moment I can’t forget: when I was 10 years old I was showing my grandmother photos of a little excursion I made with school in a place not far from Rome. My album was full of pictures of my schoolmates and my grandma told me: “But where are you?” At that moment I realized that there wasn’t a picture of me in the entire album because I was always behind the camera. It was the first time I saw myself as a photographer.

Later, after my graduation, I began to travel by myself. In Europe, then in the United States and in South America. At that moment I didn’t know I wanted to be a photographer, actually, I didn’t know who I was. But my camera was always with me and walking through the streets and the alleys of Paris I suddenly found a huge inspiration, an inspiration that followed me in every city I visited since that moment. I didn’t choose to photograph, it just happened.

#4 Luca, Blade Runner (1982)

“I think it’s an unparalleled creative combination of three talents and their genius: Ridley Scott, Philip Dick, and Vangelis. It’s the perfect synthesis between literary and cinematographic work, it’s poetry, it lacks nothing and in Roy Batty’s final monologue there is everything. As a photography lover, I think it’s the film with the best cinematography ever and this makes the difference. I saw it recently, it gave me gooseflesh.”

44points

#5 Francesco, Fantasia (1940)

“Working with Music is a useless profession, I don’t cure anyone, I don’t build bridges or roads. This film reconciles with my primordial world, thanks to its oneiric, creative and hardly simple material. Beethoven is complex, as well as Stravinskij, but we often forget how simple they can be if seen with the creative potential of a child. Thanks to this film, I’m a child and an adult at the same time, since ever, and when I watch it I remember why I choose to do this job.”

41points

I enjoyed every single moment when someone writes the title of the movie on my blackboard, it was exciting! Thanks to this project, I found a lot of beautiful movies that I didn't know about before. I met a lot of beautiful and interesting people, that was great.

#6 Pierluca, Star Wars (1977)

“I saw it when I was 5 and since then, nothing has been the same. I saw it every day when I came back from school and it infused me with all the love I have for cinema. I think it’s the first movie I’ve seen in my life, I was shocked, every day I would come home from school and I would see it again and again, I must have seen it for a year in a row!”

41points

#7 Vito, It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

"It’s a film that always makes me cry, it has a wonderful narrative. Many years ago, I wasn’t a Capra fan, then I was sent to the USA because I was commissioned to write a book about him and I fell in love with Frank Capra. At that time, I thought he was a sort of paternalistic fascist, but he’s a director who talks about America’s contradictions. During this movie, the scene that makes me cry is when after the nightmare about never having been born, he returns to the real world. It seems like a Christian fairy tale for children but it’s a film about America.”

40points

The most challenging part is my shyness: I'm quite introverted and it's not easy for me to interact with strangers, So I started this project also as a challenge to myself. So far I have taken almost 180 portraits, so I'm happy with the result and the series is still going on. To make the process easier I inserted a contact form on the website of the project, so people can contact me and ask to participate. A lot of people also write to me on Instagram to be photographed so it's easy. I'd like to stop more strangers on the street to diversify a bit more the kind of people that take part in the project. It would be nice to reach many people and be able to photograph hundreds of different individuals. Luckily the bulk of my work is on my series "Urban Melodies" and "Raindrop Blues", so I can work on "Film People" without any particular rush or anxiety and this is something I am really appreciating.

#8 Gabriele, Willow (1988)

"In our family, this film is some kind of a ritual. It's one of those films that we have to see on TV when it's on, no matter what. It's part of my childhood and it's definitely the main reason for my choice. Together with my brother, we always repeat the line: "What? What? Oh, Rool, you and your stupid rat dreams."

32points

#9 Mattia, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

“It emotes me every time I see it.”

31points

I'm still working on my three most important projects, "Urban Melodies", "Raindrop Blues" and "Film People", but I have in mind another project based on portraits of strangers. I'd like to take photos of a lot of people in my city and realize a series of "Romans": in some way I'd like to associate a lot of different people that live in my city and put them together in this project, to find something in common and make them closer, to underline the amazing nuances of the Eternal City and its inhabitants. But I'll think about that in 2023.

#10 Massimiliano, Ghostbusters (1984)

“It’s the first film I remember seeing as a child and it’s the first movie that I learned by heart. At every carnival, I wanted to dress like them and then the Ghostbusters are the Ghostbusters, period!”

30points

#11 Roberto, Matrix (1999)

“I think I saw it a million times. I like the characters from Morpheus to Cypher but above all, the philosophical references from the Oracle to Ancient Greece.”

29points

#12 Martina, Dead Poets Society (1989)

"This movie is a part of my childhood. That scene where everyone gets on the desk, well, I always wanted to do it too. Every time I watched it, I was waiting for that moment, he has incredible power. Then it’s the kind of rhetoric that was useful to me in my teenage years!"

29points

#13 Gabriel, The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

“This film is the first memory I have of my life. It was New Year’s Eve, I was about 3 years old and I remember the big worm that came out to eat the Falcon, that scene really impressed me. In my eyes, this movie is a perfect summary of everyone’s life: we joke, we laugh, there is love, there is suffering, family dramas, problems with teachers. I love Star Wars!”

28points

#14 Roberto, The Naked Gun (1988)

“I've seen it 600 times! It’s the kind of humor that I like. I enjoy studying it and, when it’s possible, use it in my daily life, even if it’s not that easy. I remember that Leslie Nielsen died the same day as Mario Monicelli and I quarreled with a person who said that I shouldn’t talk about Nielsen just because Monicelli was more important: “What’s the point?” I told him and we began to argue. But today, that's something I wouldn’t do again.”

27points

#15 Alessandra, Moulin Rouge! (2001)

“When I was a teenager, I watched this movie many times. I learned the songs and I never stopped singing them. I used to love singing, and I also loved this tormented and passionate story.”

26points

#16 Dario, Jaws (1975)

“The story, with its epicness, is truly incredible, it’s a sort of modern version of Moby Dick.”

26points

#17 Valentina, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

“I think it’s the greatest film ever made. I connect it to my mother, she made me see it, it was one of her favorite films: when I was 10, I used to play the piano, as a conclusion of the recital I had to play the Blue Danube and I couldn’t do it right. So she let me see how I had to play it showing me 2001 and there I said: “The piano is ok but… the Cinema!!”

24points

#18 Viviana, Gone With The Wind (1939)

“My father has an endless collection of films on videotape. I remember first seeing this film with him at 5 or 6 years old, I didn’t understand much but it was my first contact with Cinema, with scenarios and photography. It’s a very colorful movie and it fascinated me for this reason, it opened the door to me and I thought: “So this is Cinema!”

21points

#19 Emanuele, Big Fish (2003)

“In my life, I’ve always tried to put together all my passions, that are a lot and the circus and medicine are among these. Sometimes my life looks like this movie, when I tell my experience about the circus, people often believe it and don’t believe it, these stories are so unusual (like a World Record and a Guinness Record in the Yucatan) that immediately create the “Big Fish” effect, it’s like a syndrome. Some years ago, when I was a warehouse worker, I did a commercial for Discovery Channel as a juggler: at work, my boss asked if that juggler was really me. I told him: “If I could do these things, you think that I’d work in a warehouse?” I didn’t tell the truth because if you reveal yourself, you change the balance. Even now, I work in a hospital, when I arrived, they had already seen me on TV, everybody recognizes me for the Mirror Show that has been on television in Italy and around the world: unfortunately you become immediately popular and it’s wrong because I could be the greatest impostor in the world and people talk only about a single episode of my life, not about my studies or what university I attended. At the end, you become a prisoner of your stories.”

21points

#20 Giovanni, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

“I’ve always liked it, always. It has various themes that strike me, as the fatality of life: in the end, even if you want to forget a person, it’s impossible, you can’t. The most beautiful thing is when he thinks he has lost her forever, she says: “Meet me in Montauk”. It’s thrilling.”

19points