Virgilio Villoresi on cinema as religion and fantasmagoria

Virgilio Villoresi's debut feature film 'Orfeo', a 74-minute Italian production by Fantasmagoria, premiered out of competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. In an interview with Artribune, Villoresi discusses his method as a craftsman of moving images, emphasizing manual illusion and declared artifice. He traces his name to his grandfather, a symbolic weight he now embraces. His production company's name, Fantasmagoria, derives from Gaspard Robertson's 18th- and 19th-century phantasmagoria shows using glass reflections and magic lantern projections in Parisian convents. Villoresi cites Maya Deren's 'Meshes of the Afternoon' as a teenage revelation, along with influences from Jean Cocteau and Kenneth Anger. His background includes over 200 commercial works for top brands, which he calls a technical training ground. 'Orfeo' is described as a homage to cinema itself, referencing Mario Bava, Fellini, and Anger, with Villoresi personally editing to maintain coherence. He defines art as a force that disorients in wonder, penetrating deeply and emotionally destroying yet regenerating. He quotes painter Enzo Cucchi: 'Art dries God's tears.' Villoresi reveals that his absent father never recognized him, making art an affirmation of existence and cinema a symbolic father figure, a religion to which he devotes himself.