From the Film Maker...

I was inspired by the flamboyant personality and the affected pose of the boy in the painting. He's a very theatrical character and I drew inspiration from his dramatic pose.

The film reveals someone wearing a similar costume to the one in the painting. Caravaggio shows someone ‘bitten' by love; I wanted to reveal someone who was ‘bitten' by delusion.

Like the man in the painting, I've made the man in the film a slightly effeminate, exaggerated character. In the painting, the bared shoulder and the rose behind the boy's ear may indicate excessive vanity and a wish to be seen and admired. The short shows an aging actor who is under the illusion that he is constantly admired.

The short reveals someone who is dramatic not only in attitude but in lifestyle. He is an actor and his life is full of drama. His life is collapsing but he lives in his own world, completely ignoring reality, as I feel the character in the painting also does. Caravaggio used regular people to represent gods. In the short, the protagonist is a regular guy who's under the illusion that he is a god-like creature.
Carmen Unger