It’s Oscars night, and the Italian-American actor Alessandro Nivola is getting ready in his Hollywood hotel room. This short film (commissioned by ZEGNA and directed by Boramy Viguier) captures that poignant moment before the big event, a time of preparation — both psychical and emotional.
Alessandro’s latest project, The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet, is up for Best Film. The epic drama, which follows a visionary architect in a tale of personal transformation, legacy and identity in post-war America, shares parallels with Alessandro’s own family story.
While methodically assembling a Kapla tower in his room, Alessandro reconstructs his grandfather, Costantino Nivola, the son of a stone mason and a talented sculptor, who left Italy for New York with his wife, Ruth, just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
The couple settled into the artistic community on Long Island along with the definitive artists of their era, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. Le Corbusier, considered the proto-brutalist, was a close friend. He spent a summer there, and Alessandro recalls the frescos he painted on the wall of the family home.
Piece by piece, the actor is reminded of the time and skill it takes to create something extraordinary, be it a building, a bespoke suit or one’s own legacy.
“I can see that sculpture, architecture, and tailoring share a common thread: they’re about scale, craft, and precision. About realizing something that is greater than the sum of its parts; without compromise," Alessandro says, as he dons his single-breasted, made-to-measure black wool Zegna tuxedo before heading out for the evening. “That’s what ‘Made in Italy’ means to me. When I put on a jacket that fits like this one, that is made with exceptional quality, I feel good."
