’89 domande a Alexandra Cabral – Filmmaker & Photographer

Name? Alexandra Cabral (@alexandra_cabral_).

What’s your job? I’m an artist, working in film and photography.

What did you study? I went to art school. 

If you were a character of a movie which one would you be? Norma Desmond. A life of glamour and delusion. 

Can you talk us about your last film The Story of Eve? What is about? The Story of Eve follows an actress who, after decades in the spotlight, is cast out of Hollywood. The starlet is forced into exile and retreats to a remote island with her young lover. The film explores that shift—from being a public figure to fading into obscurity. 

The film will be premiering at festivals this year.

What and/or who inspired it? The vision for the film was really shaped by a book I was given by a friend for my birthday—Private Lives by Daniel Angeli. It’s a collection of grainy black-and-white paparazzi photographs from the 70’s, showing celebrities on vacation.

There are images of Italian princes you’ve never heard of naked on their yachts, Romy Schneider sunbathing with her young lover, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton… and it just goes on.

The off duty glamour really struck me—the freedom and the voyeurism. 

What is your picture that you are most attached to? Why? I think the image I’m most attached to is a photograph I took in Rio de Janeiro. I shot the model from a low angle, which gives her this really powerful, commanding presence. She’s wearing a thong bikini by my favorite designer Rudi Gernreich, who introduced that silhouette in the late ’60s. The image carries a sense of freedom and boldness that I’m really drawn to.

Can you tell us an anecdote behind one of your pictures? There’s a series I shot in Venice during the Venice Film Festival last year that I love. I wanted to introduce my friend Eva Yelmani to Abel Ferrara—I could completely imagine her in one of his films. Abel and I had grown close over the past year since we both work with the same editor in Rome, Leonardo Bianchi, so I arranged for us to meet at the Hotel Excelsior.

When he arrived, the lobby felt too loud, so we decided to take a walk along the pier just out front of the hotel. At some point, I drifted just slightly ahead of them, holding my camera at my waist, and started shooting. Time completely slowed down, the soft sound of the sea and Italian children playing in the sand. Abel, who is truly one of the most charismatic people I’ve ever met, had us entranced with a story of making his film New Rose Hotel. 

Then, almost unrealistically, when I mentioned how much I admire Willem Dafoe, Abel FaceTimed him. Unbeknownst to us Willem happened to be staying at the Excelsior—he stepped out onto his balcony in a bathrobe, waved down to us from above, and invited us up.

The whole sequence felt suspended in time. The images of them walking together have this quiet, cinematic quality—it reminds me a bit of La Jetée by Chris Marker.

The most rock and roll thing happened during a shooting? Haha. I don’t know. Any shoot involving Zumi Rosow and Cole Alexander from the Black Lips. 

You were in a band, can you please tell us how that influenced your actual works? For four or five years I played in Escape-Ism with Ian Svenonius who was my partner at the time. I really believed in the message of the band, it felt folk in that way. I was proud to go around the world backing him up and sharing what we had to say. 

Ever since I moved to Los Angeles as a teenager, I’ve been out at shows almost every night. My love for music has completely shaped my life. Ian just encouraged me to pick up an instrument.. He was like …you have the attitude, you don’t really need to know how to play.. just hit the keyboard. And so I did. 

The band gave me a certain confidence that I bring to filmmaking, photography, painting.. anything. You don’t need permission or training. You just do it.

Can you tell us something about you that nobody knows or very few people know? That I’m an avid painter. 

What is the first thing you would like to change about today’s society? I’d like to stop technological progress, take it back 50 years and leave it there forever. I don’t trust anything from the twenty-first century. 

Also ban take out food. It’s disgusting, lazy and wasteful. Also ban the production of plastic. Also ban sweatpants. And bring world peace. 

Can you give us a definition of art? Beauty.

Your favorite style icons? Anita Pallenberg and Elmyr de Hory, the famous art forger who appears living in Ibiza in Orson Welles F for Fake. He looks so cool.

What is your motto? Sea, sex and sun. 

The most handsome guy you know? The ghost of Marlon Brando. He visits me in my dreams. 

What about the girl? My mother. 

Who do you think is the best band right now? Crush.

For how much money would you shoot porn?  I’d shoot it for nothing! If I’m directing. I’ve been dying to make one for years. 

If you were not in your profession what work would you have wanted to do? I would like to be a hairdresser for men. I love cutting men’s hair. 

Can you tell us when you think a person is cool and when they are not cool? I think charisma is everything. I like individuality, kindness. I like intelligence.

I’m very bored by people who are all image. 

What’s your favorite show business character? Elizabeth Taylor.

If you could choose which historical era to live in, which would you choose? I think being born (in the female body) in the 1950s would’ve been perfect. Teenager in the 60s, twenty in the 70’s and die right about now. 

If you could spend a day with an historical figure, who would you choose? Orson Welles. 

Who are the people that inspired you the most? My grandparents… They were actors, bohemians and artists who dedicated their lives to spirituality and beauty.

If you could choose a famous person for a night, who would it be? To spend the night with? Mick Jagger.

A song you wish you had written? Ummm. Gloria. 

What is the thing you like most about Italy?  The people. The drama. The humor. And the coffee. 

And one you don’t like? I got too much attention in Naples once (I would say bullied) for the way I was dressed. I guess it was strange to them. That was really unpleasant. 

Where are you going on vacation now? I love Greece. Ibiza…. Nice… St. Tropez 😉 

Have you ever been in love? Yes. 

Where do you live?  Between Paris & Los Angeles. 

Which neighbourhood? In Paris I live in Saint Germain des Pres and in Los Angeles I live in Hollywood. 

Favorite movies? Blow Up. La Collectioneuse. Streetcar Named Desire. 

Favorite directors? Orson Welles. Antonioni. Luis Buñuel. Eric Rohmer. 

Favorite artworks? I love the paintings of Sonia Delauney.I love color and abstraction. I often go and sit in front of her paintings at the Pompidou and Musee d’Art Modern in Paris. 

There are more and more models who do not respond to the “classic” aesthetic canons, do you think that brands really try to change the social dynamics or do you think they are choices dictated by marketing reasons to exploit the politically correct? No, these brands have no morality. 

If you had the possibility to remove social networks from the world, would you delete them? Yes. 

And what about globalization? I started crying the other day because I feel the world is just too small. We are losing the magic, the ability to be impressed by nature.  

What’s your favorite historical character? Cleopatra. 

If you were an animal which one would you like to be? A lion. 

What’s your favorite city in the world? Rio de Janeiro.

What’s the first thing you would do if you win the lottery? Make a film. 

How important is it for you to be rich from 1 to 10? It’s important for me to have enough money to eat well, live in the sun and make art. 

And fame? It’s important for me to have a community of people to communicate with. I don’t care about fame, aside from that it brings the opportunity to create more. 

How important are fame and money to impress a partner? Talent, intelligence, style and drive are important to me.

And what about beauty? A taste for beauty is very important. 

And intelligence? The most important. Someone told me recently I’m a sapiosexual.

The most precious material thing you own? I love my jewelry. But I couldn’t survive without paint. 

Best party you’ve been to? Probably my own birthday party on a summer night in the Hollywood Hills.

What’s the item of clothing you spent the most money on? A Rudi Gernreich dress that I bought from my neighbor in Los Angeles at her garage sale. She’s this amazing designer named Bonnie Strauss, she has pink hair and is always wearing a silk robe. It was her dress she bought at Rudi’s store in Beverly Hills back in the sixties. 

Your ideal holiday? Mediterranean. Living on the sea. Painting everyday. Dancing at night. Hot, hot, hot weather. Sleeping naked with sand in the sheets.

Do you think that if there were no hypothetical partners to impress, human beings would pursue success so spasmodically? Wow. Good question. Probably not. I’m American. We never relax.

Do you think that in certain environments, especially those in which we find fame and money, there is a lack of certain values? I think intellect and originality aren’t valued enough. At this moment it’s so much about image, but without any meaning. There’s no poetry. 

What do you think about the cancel culture? I absolutely loath it. 

Is rock and roll still alive? Yes. 

What do you think about ChatGPT and artificial intelligence? I hate it. 

What do you think is the biggest problem of artificial intelligence? People losing the joy of creating art and thinking for themselves. 

If you could choose a person you know to read this interview, who would it be? Richard Hell.