DANTE FERRETTI

At the Musei di San Salvatore in Lauro, Dante Ferretti. Con i miei occhi offers a glimpse into the imagination behind some of cinema’s most memorable worlds. The exhibition celebrates the three-time Academy Award-winning production designer whose career has stretched across more than six decades, from Italian cinema to major international productions.

Rather than focusing only on finished film sets, the exhibition looks at the process behind them. Original sketches, oil paintings and preparatory materials reveal how Ferretti develops a cinematic world first on paper, transforming drawings and visual references into architecture, atmosphere and space.

His collaborations read like a history of modern cinema, spanning filmmakers including Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Martin Scorsese. Across films such as The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Shutter Island and Hugo, Ferretti’s sets have never simply provided a background; they help establish the entire character and rhythm of a film.

What makes Con i miei occhi particularly interesting is seeing just how closely production design sits between fine art and architecture. A small drawing can eventually become an entire street, room or imagined city. In Ferretti’s hands, the set becomes part of the storytelling itself.

Set within historic Rome, the exhibition feels especially fitting: a celebration of the craftsmanship, illusion and imagination that allow cinema to build worlds from nothing.