“L’Italie” (2012) is a short fiction film by Arnold Pasquier. It was shot in the 13th district of Paris  

"Paolo wants to go to Italy to get over his heartache. Arthur proposes to him a surprising shortcut: do all roads lead to Rome ? ".  

Taken from Arnold Pasquier’s conference, "Ce que l'architecture me fait",  presented to the Paris-Belleville school of architecture on Thursday, March 28th, 2019 :  

"One night in February 2008, as I left a restaurant in the rue Nationale,  Paris, our car drove up the rue des Terres au Curé and I spotted the silhouette of a building with a pleated façade. I cried out as its porches brought to mind Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture. Intrigued, a few days later I undertook a visit that began in the ZAC Masséna, with the aim of reaching the district of Les Olympiades. I discovered the recent Paris/Val de Seine school of architecture, other new buildings, and the district alongside the old “Petite Ceinture” railway track. I found the building I had glimpsed. It was an office of the Ministry of Education built by Jacques de Brauer in 1971. I pursued my path, cutting across the bucolic passageways of the rue Nationale and reached the esplanade of Les Olympiades. I wandered round this district with its voluntarist architecture, its locked-off stairways, and its abandoned street furniture, as though all this formed a contemporary relic within the city. The film’s story was thus inspired by this walk. I was struck by the appearance of buildings featuring a style that was rare in the capital. I loved this landscape, its mixes, its clashes, its lack of qualities at times. I found a stage there, which made me think of both Brazil and Italy through a play of formal correspondences and poetic analogies. I translated these encounters into a sequence of events that kept this principle of discovery. “L’Italie” was shot solely in the street. The crossing through of the different districts along the way contributes to the dramatic progression of the film. The ZAC Masséna is a mineral world of brand new buildings where there’s not a soul in sight. The area surrounding the “Petite Ceinture” features a landscape between two worlds, in the process of reclassification due to the installation of the tram. The rue Régnault, more Parisian, is in opposition to the passage Bourgoin that offers the contrast of its working-class homes. The fiction ends on the esplanade of Les Olympiades."  

Arnold Pasquier was born in Paris in 1968. After studying visual arts and cinema, he made tests in Super 8 and video, in which he developed a world of filmed newspapers and fictions. At the age of twenty, he approaches contemporary dance and collaborates with choreographers as documentarist and dancer. This experience marks the realization of a work where dance holds an important place.
From 1997 to 1999, he was received as a resident artist at the Fresnoy (Tourcoing, France) where he designed the installation "C'est ici que j'avais des baisers" (1997-1999) and produced about twenty short films, four radio design workshops For France Culture and dance performances capturing. In 1999, he presented the show "C'est merveilleux" in the Grande Nef du Fresnoy. He is the author of numerous films (fiction, documentary, video art), staged shows, scenographies, radio broadcasts. His work is articulated at the crossroads of these different disciplines. Winner of a residence Villa Médicis Hors les Murs (outside the wall) in Sao Paulo in 2004, he dances for Julie Desprairies in "La danse en accès accès", "Vue sur la mer" and "Là commence le ciel". He co-signs with her the video-dance installation "Les 3 contents", the result of the residence of the choreographer at the Manufacture de Sèvres (France). 

Source: Website of the Compagnie des prairies  
More information https://arnoldpasquier.com