Alberto Bona (born 7 November 1978) is an Italian

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

Biography

Alberto Bona started his career as a

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, before moving to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he started to work within

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

productions. He wrote and starred in the

surrealistic Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

''Salvador!'' staged at the

Barons Court Theatre Barons Court Theatre is a small theatre of 52 cinema-style seats located in the basement of ''The Curtains Up'' public house in Comeragh Road in West London. Founded in 1991, the Barons Court Theatre features a programme of short-run plays and aft ...

in 2004, where he played

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

. This play led the photographer Marco Sanges to ask Bona to pose for a series of portraits. It began a creative collaboration culminating with the

art film An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

''Circumstances'', awarded as 'Best Art Film' at the

Portobello Film Festival The Portobello Film Festival is an independent international film festival based in London, which annually premiers over 700 new films, including features, shorts, documentaries, music films, and animation. Additionally, workshops and talks wi ...

in 2008. With Sanges, Bona co-directed ''Pondering of a lonely wonderer'' and ''La Sonnambula''. Together, they have also worked at the

Hackney Empire Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by ''The Guardian'' as ‘the most beautiful theatre in Lon ...

devising the surrealistic art exhibition Big Scenes. Bona wrote and starred in the play " Tremamondo - The Angel of Fencing", directed by

Giampaolo Zennaro Giampaolo Zennaro (born October 19, c. 1940) is an Italian Opera director and stage designer. Biography Zennaro started working with Teatri Emiliani ATER in 1967, following his apprenticeship with Gianrico Becher. He directed over one hundred oper ...

, staged at the Teatro Carlo Goldoni (Livorno) in

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

. In 2014, Bona produced a film about Rachmaninoff's The Isle of the Dead.

Opera, documentaries and music videos

Bona has worked with

opera director Crossbreed is an American industrial metal band from Clearwater, Florida, United States, formed in 1996. They were signed with Artemis Records before being dropped from the label in 2003. The band released two EPs and three full-length albums b ...

, both as his assistant and a

video artist Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. ...

. Together they staged

La fanciulla del West ''La fanciulla del West'' (''The Girl of the West'') is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by and , based on the 1905 play '' The Girl of the Golden West'' by the American author David Belasco. ''Fanciulla'' followe ...

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had cont ...

in Almeria,

Cavalleria Rusticana ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play b ...

and

Traviata ''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own ...

. Classical music has also inspired him to make

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

, including ''Story of a Luthier''. Bona directed the music video for the song "Meet me in Winter". The track and the video were produced by Ian Dean.

Filmography

Actor

*Agatha and the storm (Agata e la tempesta) (2004) *Dermo sluchaetsa (2006) *Cat's smack (2007) *The scrupulous torment of the polite man (L'uomo garbato) (2008) *Pondering of a lonely wonderer (Pensieri di un viandante solitario) (2008) *Circumstances (2008) *L'Assenza (2013) *My Trigger (2016) *Sugar (2018) *Piercing Stillness (2019) *The Darkness: Jussy's Girl (2021)

Director

*The scrupulous torment of the polite man (L'uomo garbato) (2008) *Pondering of a lonely wonderer (Pensieri di un viandante solitario) (2008) *The sleepwalking girl (La sonnambula) (2009) *Story of a luthier (Storia di un liutaio) (2009) *So in Love (2010) *Elgar Cello Concerto (2011) *Meet me in Winter (2011)

References

External links

Official Website
*
BBC Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bona, Alberto 1978 births Living people Italian male actors Italian film directors Italian documentary filmmakers