New Yorker magazine
Author Beatrice Dell’Aversano
September 22, 2024
The flavor and aesthetics of the time of the story. The fake facades to be applied to the new buildings were built in Rome, as were all the urban elements. Not everything could be shot in New York, so he decided to create two twin scenes, one in America and one in Rome. The facades of the buildings were twins, as were the manholes, the details of every corner. He even took note of the times so he could have the same play of shadows so that, in the editing, the difference would not be perceived. He assembled it in Rome to see if it was correct, dismantled it and sent it to New York where he reassembled it again. Carlo Simi's drawings were perfect metaphors of the story intended for those workers who would then have to give shape to the plot. He designed the scenography and, at the same time, gave all the instructions on how to build it, up to noting how and how many screws were needed.
The soul of the architect met the dreamer in construction, the visionary in him created the magic.
Alfred Hitchcock said that “cinema is the how, not the what”, Carlo Simi was absolutely the excellence of the how. In his work he managed to create the background of the emotions that passed from the images through the characters, the story, the teams. “A Designer of Dreams”, as the title of his biography written by Andrea B. Nardi, on November 7, 2024, the 100th anniversary of his birth. The biography that his daughter Giuditta has edited with immense love will be presented at the Almeria Western Film Festival and will be published by the Centro Sperimentale, a tribute intended for a few.
The University of Burgos will establish a chair of architecture and cinema in his name. When I asked Giuditta to tell me about this biography, she replied that it is first and foremost the story of a man. Ironic, very cultured, creative, a lover of beauty, but with an always humble approach to the things of life. Beautiful memories of him, a man who never gave up sharing his thoughts, certain of his ideas and the immense abilities that made him an outcast.
Carlo Simi was a great architect, an immense set
designer, an unforgettable man but, above all, quoting another famous film, he
was her father.
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