Uccelli mendichi

Two experimental films that form part of a project eventually planned to comprise a large number of films to be screened accompanied by live music. De Bernardi chose this approach to make some thing special of each show, instead of just a ‘mechanical repetition’. The whole project is to consist of films with uccelli (birds) and must result in a kind of encyclopedia. De Bernardi: ‘Don’t think I’m crazy: it is my cinema! (And also my life.)’Uccelli che vanno (Birds That Go) as a whole also has two other titles: Uccelli di terre (Earth Birds) and Uccelli d’amore (Love Birds). The film consists of lyrical silent shots of poetic and improvised theatrical situations, filmed in associative and meditative images.Uccelli mendichi (Beggar Birds) comprises two films projected simultaneously on two screens. The film wants to be inspired by life itself, but film can only be a weak reflection of life, according to the maker. Yet Uccelli mendichi keeps looking for something Utopian; life in the form of a ballet.The films are accompanied by live music from very different genres. Serene songs from the baroque and romantic eras (Monteverdi and Schubert) and, on the other hand, improvised music inspired by