Floria Sigismondi

Floria Sigismondi
Born 1965 (age 49–50)
Pescara, Pescara, Italy
Education Ontario College of Art
Occupation Photographer, director
Children Tosca Vera Berlin Sigismondi
Parent(s) Lina and Domenico Sigismondi

Floria Sigismondi (born 1965) is a Canadian-Italian photographer and music video director.

Apart from her art exhibitions, she is best known for writing and directing the 2010 American drama film The Runaways, starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. Sigismondi has also directed music videos for Justin Timberlake, The White Stripes, David Bowie, Pink, Marilyn Manson, Katy Perry, Björk, The Cure, Christina Aguilera, Ellie Goulding, Fiona Apple, Sigur Rós, Muse, Interpol, Leonard Cohen, The Dead Weather, and commercials for Target, MAC, Adidas and Eaton's. Her trademark dilating, jittery camerawork, dates back as early as her video for Manson's "The Beautiful People" in 1996.

Life and career

Sigismondi was born in Pescara, Italy.[1] Her parents, Lina and Domenico Sigismondi, were opera singers.[2] Her family, including her sister Antonella, moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada[3] when she was two. Sigismondi began her artistic training as a painter before switching to photography.[4] She has cited "the subconscious" and the films of Stanley Kubrick, Federico Fellini, and Uli Edel as major influences on her work.[4][5]

Music Videos

Sigismondi was working as a photographer before she started directing music videos. In a 2012 interview, she described what it was like to move from one medium to another:

It felt like a natural progression to move into film. I think I really came into my own when I directed Marilyn Manson’s video, Beautiful People. I remember the feeling of euphoria when I saw my sketches come to life in front of me. It truly became the point when I began to trust myself as an artist and decided this would be the medium I could really explore and settle into.[5]

Film projects

Sigismondi's first feature-length film is The Runaways, a period piece about the 1970s all-girl rock and roll band The Runaways.[1] The film is largely about the relationship between Joan Jett (played by Kristen Stewart in the film) and Cherie Currie (played by Dakota Fanning). Sigismondi's screenplay was partially based on Currie's autobiography Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway.[2] The film premiered in 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in Canada and the United States in March 2010. In an interview with Exclaim!, Sigismondi said "I went in and said I didn't want to make this a straight-up biography. I want to make this a coming of age, because that's what's so interesting about them. And if you want to compare them to anybody else, that's what makes them so special, is how young they were, and that they were all female. So those kinds of things really resonated with me." Her next feature film project is "Behind The Ballyhoo Blues", and she is currently in development on a dark comedy titled " Dave"[6]

Sigismondi also directed the short film Postmortem Bliss.[1]

Film (selection)

Music videos (selection)

Director

Cinematographer

Awards (selection)

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Azulay, Juan; Rice, Benjamin; Aiello, Carlo (2014). Architecture Xenoculture. eVolo Press.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Michel, Sia. "The Girls Who Kicked in Rock’s Door". The New York Times. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Official web site: Floria Sigismondi". Retrieved 2007-01-18.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ross, Matthew. "Director to Watch: Floria Sigismondi". Variety. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Photography by Floria Sigismondi". Leveled Magazine. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
  6. ↑ http://exclaim.ca/articles/multiarticlesub.aspx?csid1=146&csid2=946&fid1=48537
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Beard, Lanford. "Best of 2011 (Behind the Scenes): Floria Sigismondi on working with Katy Perry on 'E.T.' and 'The One That Got Away'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Clarke, Cath. "First sight: Floria Sigismondi". The Guardian. Retrieved March 11, 2015.

Sources

External links