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Nick Knight and Brad Pitt

Freedom Of Love

Nick Knight used André Breton’s poem 'Freedom of Love' as the guiding text for this short film of Brad Pitt, created while shooting the actor for Vanity Fair in 2004. Devising a number of scenarios for Pitt to engage the actor in deliberately self-reflective performance, the film is set against a soundtrack of Pitt reciting Breton’s one stanza, sixty-line homage to the poet’s wife

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Editorial Gallery

Nick Knight's cover editorial featuring Brad Pitt, from Vanity Fair, June 2004







About

Nick Knight used André Breton’s poem Freedom of Love as the guiding text for this short film of Hollywood star Brad Pitt, created while shooting the actor for a special issue of Vanity Fair magazine in 2004. During the shoot, Knight created a number of intriguing scenarios for Pitt to perform, so as to engage the actor in deliberately self-reflective performance.

The shoot began in a photo booth set up in a studio in Los Angeles, where Knight asked Pitt to take his own passport photograph and then write over the resulting prints, which were blown up to 3 x 4 metres. Knight then filmed Pitt energetically painting onto the huge blow-up of his own face and adding captions while reciting Breton’s poem, a one stanza, sixty-line homage to the poet’s wife.

A meditation on image and celebrity, and on an actor’s response to the way he is seen by others, the film is presented alongside the original June 2004 Vanity Fair editorial and the text of Breton's verse.

Credits / Contributors

  • Nick Knight Nick Knight
    Film Director
  • Brad Pitt Brad Pitt
    Actor
  • Narration: Brad Pitt
  • Direction & Film: Nick Knight
  • Motion Image Design and Edit: Adam Mufti
  • Production: Stardust Visions
  • Set Design: Bill Doig
  • Styling: Alister Mackie
  • Special thanks to Isabella Blow and Cindy Guagenti

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