“The Set Dresser” by Daniela Clementi

By superimposing reality on narration, the illusion  with everyday life, Daniela Clementi creates a documentary that would deserve a broader name to describe it.
The most surprising aspect for a spectator is to find himself, after a few minutes from the beginning of the film, in front of a well-built story, full of amazing intuitions. “The Set Dresser” moves away from the simple chronological need, and comes much closer to a comedy, with exotic and glamorous tones, full of irony and aesthetic taste.
All this makes the film a truly original short documentary, unique in its kind, and the director obviously manages to impose her authorship even in handling reality, expressing deep cinematographic intentions.

The short is an excellent cinematographic experiment through which it is possible to rediscover the intimacy of a director’s gaze that looks at her life and which is simultaneously capable of involving any viewer. This gash on reality, managed and remodeled by a mature and engaging cinematic style, takes on a particularly important meaning in our day. This precious film is an example of contemporary documentary cinema and the directions it is taking through narrative innovations and authorial impulses such as Clementi’s, successfully realised.