Alice Rohrwacher’s Upcoming Projects From the graphic novel "Three Incestuous Sisters" to the adaptation of Italo Calvino’s "The Baron in the Trees"

If there is one filmmaker who has shaped a new way of filtering the world through the lens of magnificence, it is undoubtedly Alice Rohrwacher. The director and screenwriter is often said to be underappreciated within the Italian landscape she comes from, yet much like fellow filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, she has had the ability and talent to move beyond the Italian perimeter, crossing into an international panorama where her works have been recognised and loved.

The universal poetics of Alice Rohrwacher

Perhaps it is because of the dreamlike dimension, perhaps because the magical realism that defines her poetics possesses the ability to transcend boundaries. What is certain is that today it is impossible not to admire the cultural value Rohrwacher represents for Italian cinema and the universal imprint she manages to infuse into it. This means often grounding her stories in places of belonging, while then expanding them through an imaginary that becomes specific when associated with the filmmaker, yet carries a collective breath that allows the works to captivate audiences from every part of the world.

An influence that has only strengthened through the international contaminations within Alice Rohrwacher’s works, insertions that could only broaden the perspective of her stories and attract as many viewers as possible. The most recent example is La chimera, where, within the story of her tomb robbers in the lands of Tuscia, she places a young Englishman at the centre, portrayed by rising star Josh O’Connor. He speeds through the countryside in his small car searching for Etruscan artefacts to the sound of Vasco Rossi’s Vado al massimo, creating a hybridisation that is both precise and open towards the outside world, deeply personal within Rohrwacher’s cinema while also containing the possibility of communicating with audiences everywhere.

Adaptations destined for success

The same will happen with her upcoming Three Incestuous Sisters: the film is based on Audrey Niffenegger’s graphic novel, published in 2005, and much like La chimera, it features an international cast immersed in the beauty of the Italian landscape, an essential stage for the filmmaker. The story follows the bond between the three sisters of the title, played by none other than Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson and Saoirse Ronan, which is thrown into crisis by the arrival of the lighthouse keeper’s son, once again portrayed by Josh O’Connor. Obsession, morbidity and passion intertwine as the balance between the three women begins to collapse, emotions destined to erode their isolated existence.

The Aeolian Islands serve as the backdrop to the story, written by Rohrwacher together with author Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation), alternating with several Roman locations and with the volcano of Stromboli likely acting as a catalyst for the characters’ tensions, ready and destined to erupt. Joining the cast are also Isabella Rossellini, who, like O’Connor, already worked with Rohrwacher on La chimera and now returns to the island where her parents Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman fell in love, as well as Mick Jagger in the role of the lighthouse keeper for an exceptional cameo. Although the production of Three Incestuous Sisters has not yet been completed, the director and screenwriter’s next project has already been announced. It appears the filmmaker will adapt Italo Calvino’s novel The Baron in the Trees, originally published in 1957 and never before brought to the big screen.

A delicate talent

A title which, despite its deeply codified literary imaginary, could easily align with the pen and atmospheres of Alice Rohrwacher’s cinema, probably the only filmmaker today capable of revisiting it without making admirers of the novel tremble. And one in which the author will surely infuse her own touch, often associated with a master such as Roberto Rossellini, as even his daughter Isabella has stated. What brings the two together is their attention to an almost documentary-like style of filming characters and their behaviours, with Rohrwacher herself beginning her cinematic career through documentary filmmaking, alongside a focus on individuals relegated to the margins, whom both filmmakers portray with truthfulness and intrinsic care. Until reaching a peak represented by the sublime, deriving precisely from reality transformed into cinematic gesture.

In a journey of growth that, in fiction filmmaking, began with the feature film Corpo celeste in 2011 and continued in 2014 with the deeply personal The Wonders (not autobiographical, yet very close to Rohrwacher’s own experiences), the filmmaker then made her leap in 2018 with Happy as Lazzaro, winner of the Prix du scénario at the Cannes Film Festival ex aequo with 3 Faces by Jafar Panahi, making her unstoppable from that moment onward. A talent that appears delicate on the surface, yet holds immense strength: we cannot wait to see Three Incestuous Sisters, along with each of her future projects.