‘The Habit of Beauty’, · Nick Moran, ADAM. He is an actor and writer, known for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, PINCH FILM LTD

‘The Habit of Beauty’, co-produced by London/Rome-based Pinch Media and Rome/Berlin-

based Orisa Produzioni, is a heartfelt film from an award-winning writer-director team who have

worked together across Europe for the last five years, Director Mirko Pincelli and writer-producer

Enrico Tessarin.

This film is very much a labour of love. Two years to write the screenplay and another two years

to raise finance and assemble an Oscar / BAFTA and Emmy-winning cast and crew, including

Francesca Neri (Almodovar’s ‘Live flesh’) Noel Clarke (JJ Abrahams’ Star Trek), DOP Fabio Cian-

chetti who shot the last four Bertolucci films, editor Esmeralda Calabria who, with Nanni Moretti

‘The son’s room’, won The Palme d’Or, and Oscar-winning Art Director David Bryan.

‘The Habit of Beauty’ was eventually shot in March/April 2015 between a London more socially

divided than ever and the Italian Alps, and is currently in the final stages of post-production in

Rome. With the film ready to start its festival run, we are now at the stage where we can proudly

show it to the world.

Centred around the themes of dreams, love and loss, The Habit of Beauty is a heartfelt drama telling the story of Elena (Francesca Neri) and Ernesto (Vincenzo Amato), a couple bitterly torn apart by the tragic death of their son Carlo, who find a new lease for life when they meet a troubled English boy, Ian (Nico Mirallegro), who becomes their surrogate son.

Three years after the accident, tortured fashion photographer Ernesto discovers he has a terminal illness and attempts to reconnect with his successful gallery owner and ex-wife, Elena. He has one last request: to hold a final showcase of his photography work - before it’s too late.

Unaware of his ill-health, Elena agrees and is introduced to Ian – Ernesto’s latest protege who, as a coun-cil estate hoodie, doesn’t quite fit in with the photographer’s assistant profile. As time goes by the family somehow recreates itself with Ernesto and Elena realising that helping Ian out of his troubled life, is the only way to get through their immense grief.

As the opening night of the exhibition arrives, with a mighty crowd of fans and press anxiously waiting for him, Ernesto is nowhere to be seen. Elena realises he has gone back to Italy for the first time since the death of their child. The Italian Alps becomes the only place where both can feel at home again as their connection changes Ian’s life – and their own.

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Synopsis


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Project CardProduction Company - PINCH MEDIA (UK) ORISA PRODUZIONI (Italy)

Titile - THE HABIT OF BEAUTY

Director - Mirko Pincelli

Producers - Enrico Tessarin & Mirko Pincelli (UK) Cristiano Bortone (Italy)

Screenwriter - Enrico Tessarin

Director of Photography- Fabio Cianchetti

Film Editor- Esmeralda Calabria

Set Designer- David Bryan

Cast- Francesca Neri (Milena) Vincenzo Amato (Ernesto) Nico Mirallegro (Ian) Noel Clarke (Stuart) Nick Moran (Adam) Kierston Warein (Rita)

Genre- Drama

Time- 86’

Format- 4K HD

Language- English (80%) - Italian (20%)

Locations- UK London - Italy Trentino

Contact- Pinch Media LTD - [email protected] T. +44 79 68 9191 89 Orisa Produzioni SRL - [email protected] T. +39 06 3975 0996 – 64

Director’s VisionAfter three feature documentaries, I wanted to create a very personal film for my feature film debut. My

writer and business partner, Enrico Tessarin and I wanted to write and produce a film about issues that

were important to us, uncompromising and true. In order to do that, we started to develop a screenplay

on the love-hate relationship that we have with London, a city full of madness and contrasts which is the

incarnation of today’s ‘mal de vivre’.

I come from a working class Italian family, where money was tight and we struggled to rarely go out for a

meal. At school I wore the cheapest clothes, in a country where fashion meant everything. In my life, as in

the life of Ian, I found salvation and a way out through family’s support and my father’s passion: photogra-

phy. What I believe lifted me out of my own troubled life in a council estate was my passion for this “art”.

It almost became an obsession, and gave me the strength to do something different, from the nothing that

was widely expected from somebody with my background and my poor academic record.

“Never lose your identity, and always make sure it comes out, sharp and clear”. I remember my father’s

words more clearly than ever now that I’ve been living in London for a decade. I am fascinated by how

today’s society forces us into permanent conforming and compromise; and it makes us focus more on

what we appear to be as opposed to who we really are. This, for me, is the problem the protagonists of ‘The

Habit of Beauty’ have to face.

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Ernesto, Milena, Stuart and Ian and all the characters around them, have invested their life creating an ‘im-

age of success’, a social position that defines them as professionals as well as people. But in doing so they

have sacrificed everything else: family, love, relationships, ethics, even the death of their own child did not

stop them being obsessed with the life they had built for themselves around their careers and success.

Until they couldn’t do it anymore and it all breaks down.

Through the painful understanding of their fragility, they discover the bond that links them. They were so

different in terms of life, social background, personality and even nationality, but they understand that per-

sonal relationships and the human warmth of a family are what they were all missing.

In the “The Habit of Beauty” my main goal will be to visually capture the most intimate moments, to explore

the innermost feelings of our diverse group of characters. I want to convey the harsh differences between

their worlds, while also showing the similarities in their aspirations and needs. In the final analysis, even the

most different people have something in common, something that can connect them, something that tran-

scends economic status, skin colour or political views. Something that goes straight to the essence of any

being human, or, to be precise, of any being human at a particular moment in time.

At the end of this film there will be no winners and no losers, but there will be people who have learnt about

the very essence of their own lives. By appreciating something all too often taken for granted: the beauty

of life within and around them, the beauty of being who you are: different, unique, special. At the end of this

film there will be no winners and no losers, but there will be people who have learnt. They will have learnt

about the very essence of their own lives, by appreciating something all too often taken for granted: the

beauty of life within and around them, the beauty of being who you are: different, unique, special.

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Cast

Kierston Wareing Francesca Neri Vincenzo Amato

Nico Mirallegro Noel Clarke Nick Moran

Kierston Wareing, RITA. She starred in Ken Loach’s film It’s a Free World. She has also played in Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank (2009) and Martina Cole’s The Take. She has been nominated for one BAFTA award and three British Independent Film Awards. Her latest role saw her play the character Heather in Channel 4’s Top Boy.

Francesca Neri, MILENA. Winner of four Silver Ribbons (Italian Critics award) as Best actress, Francesca worked with some of the most relevant directors in the world. Including Pedro Almodovar’s Live Flesh (op-posite Javier Bardem), Ridley Scott (Hannibal) and Bigas Luna.

Noel Clarke, STUART. Noel is a BAFTA-winning actor-director and has worked extensively on both sides of the Atlantic. His recent credits include JJ Abrahams Star Trek. Noel is still mostly known for his award-winning role in Adulthood as well as his pivotal role in Dr Who.

Nick Moran, ADAM. He is an actor and writer, known for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010). He was previously married to Sienna Guillory.

Nico Mirallegro, IAN. Nico is a British actor who played the role of Barry “Newt” Newton in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks from 22 October 2007 until 25 June 2010. Recently he played the role of Finn Nelson in the E4 television series My Mad Fat Diary, Spike Island and Anita B.

Vincenzo Amato, ERNESTO. Vincenzo is known for his work with italian director Emanuale Crialese on Nuo-vomondo (2006) and Respiro (2002). He has recently worked with Angelina Jolie on her film Unbroken (2014). He was nominated for a David of Donatello Award in 2007 for Nuovomondo.

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Current Status The film is currently in the final stages of post-production with a planned festival release in Summer 2016

with an Italian and a UK theatrical release to follow. The international cast should have appeal across sev-

eral countries. Noel Clarke pulls in the urban audiences in the UK and Francesca Neri has a loyal following

in Italy and in Spanish-speaking countries.

We primarily aim this film at a sophisticated audience, prevalently feminine, who will be attracted by the

themes and the attractive stars but also, secondarily, to a young urban audience who will be engaged by

the role (and the unusual circumstances) of Ian’s character. While the primary audience will be reached via

a press and PR campaign on the following what we hope will be a successful festival life, the secondary,

younger audience will be engaged via a multi-platform campaign on which writer and director have won

multiple awards.

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Insight8


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Mirko Pincelli. Director Mirko is an award-winning feature and documentary

director, with an extensive photography and photojournalism

background. Mirko has shot and directed two feature docu-

mentaries and dozens of web-series, shorts, commercials

and music videos in the UK, across Europe and the US. Mirko

has also extensive experience as a photographer (working with

iconic photographer Donna Trope and photographing celebri-

ties including Gordon Ramsey and Cheryl Cole). His first feature

doc ‘Uspomene 677’ about contemporary Bosnia, premiered at

Raindance Film Festival 2011 where it was nominated as ‘best

micro-budget feature’ and sold worldwide. He followed it with

‘My words and I’ about an Italian stuttering school, released in

Cinemas in Italy in Turin and Rome. In late 2012 he shot and pro-

duced his third feature documentary ‘Conversations with Fish-

ermen’, a documentary about globalisation shot in the Croatian

island of Hvar. Mirko and Enrico are also in development with

other scripts, including ‘The tears list’ a co-production with US

and a number of documentaries.

Enrico Tessarin. Writer-Producer Enrico Tessarin is a graduate of London Film School with ten

years’ experience working on feature films, documentaries,

commercials and shorts. In 2006, Enrico was selected for train-

ing by European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE). Between

2007-09, he worked on ‘Sofia’s Diary’, the first interactive web-

series for Sony Television Europe, which successfully trans-

ferred to television on Channel Five’s new digital channel Fiver.

Enrico has just completed ‘The Knot’, his first feature film as a

producer and is developing two more features. In 2010, Enrico

was one of only five producers selected for the ‘Guiding Lights’

mentoring scheme run by UKFC and Skillset and spent a year

being mentored by Allan Niblo, co-founder of Vertigo Films

(Streetdance 3D, Monsters, and Oscar winning documentary

The Cove).

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CRISTIANO BORTONEORISA PRODUZIONI. Italian Co-Producer ORISA PRODUZIONI was started in 1998 by

producer/director Cristiano Bortone. Its films have been

showing at major international festivals and received a number

of recognitions. Among them, popular films like Marina

co-produced by the Dardenne Brothers and “Maria, he doesn’t

like it!” by N. Vollmar co-produced with CWP and Constantin

(Germany) that topped home box office with more than 1,5M

admissions and art-house successes like “Red like the sky”

by Cristiano Bortone (2007) winner of an Italian Film award

and Best film at more than 25 international festivals; “Saimir”

by Francesco Munzi (2005) Special mention at Venice

Festival, Italian Silver Ribbon and candidate at the EFA.

Production Company. PINCH MEDIAPinch Media is an award-winning, London-based production company, set up by Director Mirko Pincelli and

Producer Enrico Tessarin. The company focuses on feature films and documentaries with a strong online

emphasis. In 2011 Pinch produced its first feature film, ‘The Knot’, featuring BAFTA-winner Noel Clarke as

well as Hollywood stars Mena Suvari, Talulah Riley and Matthew McNulty. The film sold to Universal in the

UK and opened in October 2012. Enrico and Mirko followed ‘The Knot’ with ‘Uspomene 677’, their first fea-

ture documentary selected for Raindance 2011, nominated for an award and sold to 7 countries. Their sec-

ond feature documentary ‘My Words and I’ was released in cinemas in Italy in July 2012. In 2013 they have

already co-produced two more feature films. One is already sold to five countries even before completion.

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Documents

‘The Habit of Beauty’, · Nick Moran, ADAM. He is an actor and writer, known for Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)