GRETA BELLAMACINA

 

Tell us a little bit about what you do? What are you excited for this year? Can you tell us about some of the projects you are working on at the moment? 

This year I have two films out. A film I shot in Rome with the renowned Italian theatre director Riccardo Vannuniccini, which is called Commedia.  I play a girl who thinks she is a film maker, but other people think she is mad and it's about her friendship with a man she meets in a mental hospital. The film has a strong element of physcial theatre, which is something unique Riccardo brings to cinema. It is very visually metaphorical, and something I am very proud to have made. The second film is called Tell That To The Winter Sea which I co-wrote, and is directed by the Emmy Award winning director Jaclyn Bethany. I play a woman who is reunited with her childhood first love on the eve of her marriage to someone else, and it's their story. It is sort of a coming of age film, twice over.  

I also have a new poetry book which is coming out later in the year called Who Will Make The Fire.  

What is an opportunity you are grateful for in your career? 

I am grateful to be able to work with a community of artists. The great people I collaborate with in film, the photographers and stylists who I have a collaborative relationship with, and the wonderful gang of poets around New River Press, our poetry collective. 

Is there anyone who acted as a mentor to you along the way? 

The beat poet Michael Horovitz, he was a big supporter of my work. He was relentless in his support of poetry. He was the poet who brought together the Holy Communion at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965 with Adrian Mitchell and Allen Ginsberg. When me and Robert Montgomery first organised poetry readings with New River Press he would always show up with a plastic bag of books to sell and his set list. He would always end his performance with the William Blake ‘Happy Song’- “Ha ha he ha ha he”.  I would watch the whole audience's eyes grow a little bigger and their hearts beat a little faster and stronger. Michael was an inspiration and Robert and I are now making a film about him supported by Cheerio, the estate of Francis Bacon. 

How do you approach getting dressed every day?  

I’m a bit of a butterfly. If I am home I will change multiple times a day. I mostly start with what shoes I am going to wear, but I like costume changes.  

What are you wearing here and what made you gravitate towards this look from HUISHAN ZHANG? 

The pale blue dress reminded me of a swan you might find in a ballet or a swirl of colour in the garden on a hazy day. I love the geometric cuts on the tulle, they give it an architecture, but the whole dress moves as if it's in water. Like a swan gliding past a beautiful building.  

Greta Bellamacina wears the Pascale Dress from our Resort 2023 collection.