The Director Wears Prada

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola shoot Prada short film

Fashion and film fans waited with baited breath but were not disappointed with Wes Anderson’s eight minute short film for Prada, which premiered at the Rome Film Festival’s behind the scenes Movie Talks, this week, before being made available to the world at http://www.prada.com.

The Collaboration between the fashion giant and the director comes up smelling of roses. Anderson’s mini, ‘Castello Cavalcanti’, staring Jason Schwatzman as a racing driver, is a fun, bite sized entry into the Italian world, and at that, Anderson’s world.

Wes Anderson, a man who sweats quirkiness and eats eccentric for breakfast, was the bold and best choice for Prada to create a little Italian dream in eight minutes. Award winner and Oscar nominee, Anderson is known for his movies which often focus in some way around a family circle, something synonymous with also being Italian.

Meaning? A beautiful woman, a piazza, bambini, some spaghetti, family, and that sense of community, tradition, and belonging. A celebration of Italy. Actor and star of the 8 minute marvel, Schwatzman, said this movie was “romantic, our own contained beautiful little Italian world”. Schwatzman, playing the role of racing driver Jack Cavalcanti, crashes his beautiful racing car into a statue of Jesus Christ in the main square of a town called Castello Cavalcanti, set in the 50’s, only to realise that he has crashed in the town he comes from, and a piazza full of his relatives including his great, great uncle Michelangelo.

Prada, the Milanese clothing brand, collaborated with Anderson to do the advert, and filming this at Cinecitta was his eighth Roman adventure. Rome was the inspiration for this short film, and in particular, the Federico Fellini 1973 movie Amacord, he explained at the screening. Anderson loves Italy, Italy loves Anderson. He can’t get enough of it. Roman Coppola, who teamed up with Anderson on this and another Prada short about perfume, named ‘Candy’, said: “It is very easy for Italian film makers break away from reality.” Therefore, the fact that a foreign director was chosen to make this is great for Anderson. Anderson says: “perhaps this is the first of a series, if Prada would want it”. Magic!

Andersons new film ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ both premiers and opens the Berlin Film Festival in 2014, and stars Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody and Ed Norton.