Paolo Roversi presents 2020 Pirelli Calendar “Looking for Juliet”

Paolo Roversi’s 2020 Pirelli Calendar, “Looking for Juliet”, has been presented to the public at Verona’s Teatro Filarmonico.

Drawing inspiration from Shakespeare’s timeless drama, Paolo Roversi tapped into the “Juliet that exists in every woman”, with Claire Foy, Mia Goth, Chris Lee, Indya Moore, Rosalía, Stella Roversi, Yara Shahidi, Kristen Stewart and Emma Watson  as the protagonists for this 47th edition of The Cal™.

“I was looking for a pure soul, someone full of innocence that combined strength, beauty, tenderness and courage,” observed Roversi. “I found this in the glimmer of an eye, in the gestures and words of Emma and Yara, Indya and Mia and in the smiles and tears of Kristen and Claire…in the voices and chants of Chris and Rosalía. In Stella we have the innocence. There’s a Juliet in every woman,” he concluded, “and I will never stop looking for her.”

This year is the first time that the calendar has merged photography with cinema, as it is accompanied by a short film. In the 18-minute film, Paolo Roversi plays himself as a film director who is interviewing candidates for the role of Juliet. The ladies pass, in turn, in front of the director’s lens to give their own portray of Juliet’s multifaceted character and show a broad range of emotions and expressions.

The scenario unfolds in two phases. In the first, the protagonists are shown arriving at the set, without makeup or costume. They sit and talk with Roversi about the project, each vying to be chosen, and telling the director about their personal experiences and how they envisage Juliet. In this way, the actresses reveal their intimate, personal side. In the second phase they put on costumes devised to transform them for their personal interpretation of Shakespeare’s heroine. The idea is to portray a story in which reality and fiction dovetail and their distinctions blur, as in a hazy photograph.

The photo-shoot took place in May, and this 2020 Pirelli Calendar is the first to be created by an Italian photographer. He chose Verona for the setting, the city indelibly tied to the young woman’s fate; but also, Paris, where he has lived for the past forty years.

As a passionate opera-lover of long standing, Roversi wanted to create an object with a unique graphic design, deeply inspired by the opera libretto. The 2020 Calendar comprises 132 pages, with the monthly calendar on the cover, along with sections of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and 58 photos, in both colour and black-and-white, capturing the story’s protagonists and the city of Verona. The cover opens to reveal a drawing of a firmament, which represents the universe and, ideally, contains and envelops the story of Juliet, making it eternal. The front and back covers are emblazoned with the gilded letters of the calendar itself, highlighting the date of Juliet’s birth, her first meeting with Romeo, their wedding, and their deaths. These dates are complemented by the birth dates of the stars of the Calendar, whose names are scattered on the cover, among the constellations, creating a kind of poetic firmament.

The many behind-the-scenes moments during the photo-shoots and filming, along with the characters and backstage stories of the 2020 Pirelli Calendar can be found online at the dedicated site pirellicalendar.com, which also offers the chance to explore the more than fifty-year history of The Cal™ with films, interviews, photographs, and hitherto unpublished texts.

Source: Pirelli