Cinema Made In Italy 5 – 9 March 2014
Held at Ciné Lumière by Istituto Luce – Cinecittà’s promotional department in Rome (Filmitalia), and the Italian Cultural Institute in London.
We are falling in love with Italian cinema again. On the back of the critical success of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty winner of a Golden Globe, BAFTA and nominated for the Oscar as best foreign film. An event that for the 4th year in a row is celebrating Italian film is Cinema Made in Italy 2014 will kick off on 5 March at Ciné Lumière. The event, which has become an annual fixture for film buffs and Italophiles alike, is organised by Istituto Luce Cinecittà/ Filmitalia and the Italian Cultural Institute and offers a 5-day showcase of the best recent Italian productions. The packed festival’s programme includes 10 brand new Italian films and one documentary: a selection of eight titles made by Titta Fiore, film critic and Head of the Arts & Culture Section of Italian broadsheet Il Mattino, and a special choice of two films by Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London. The screenings will be followed by Q&A sessions with directors and actors. The Italian Cultural Institute says that “This is a unique chance to see Italian films that have not yet had exposure in the UK and a rare opportunity to catch up with brand new, cutting edge Italian cinema.”
During the first day of Cinema made in Italy, Wednesday the 5th, the programme will present Roberto Andò’s Viva La Libertà starring Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, a political dramedy where the leader of Italy’s opposition party drops out of sight and is replaced by his bipolar identical twin, fresh from the madhouse.
Another film showing is The Third Half ( Il Terzo Tempo), starring Stefania Rocca, Stefano Cassetti, Lorenzo Richelmy and special guest Pier Giorgio Bellocchio. A social worker who used to be a rugby champion pushes a youngster just released from juvenile jail to vent his rage playing rugby: an efficient mix of social drama and inspiring sports story from Italian director Enrico Maria Artale.
On Thursday the program includes Alessio Cremonini’s deeply moving portrait of contemporary Syria. In Border, starring Dana Keilani and Sara El Debuch among others two sisters learn that a member of their family has decided to desert the Syrian Army and join the Free Army so they must embark on a hazardous journey to Turkey.
The Referee (L’Arbitro), dir Paolo Zucca. Was chosen as a pre-opener to the 10th edition of the Critic’s Week Venice Days, at the 70th Venice Film Festival. It shows the rise and fall of a corrupt referee. The story of two football teams alternates with that of the spectacular rise of Cruciani played by Stefano Accorsi, an ambitious referee who shoots to the highest levels on the international scene, only to get an unpleasant surprise: an up-and-coming Italian filmmaker´s first film with an auteur comedy that in a surreal way condenses down all the virtues and vices of the modern world.
On Friday you can catch The Human Factor (La variabile umana), where a weary-eyed Milanese police inspector and his gun-toting teenage daughter are in for a bumpy ride. The debut of Italian documentary director Bruno Oliviero, starring Silvio Orlando and Giuseppe Battiston: a father-daughter drama with the superficial trappings of a police thriller and film noir.
The First Snow (La Prima Neve) directed by Andrea Segre. Revolves around Dani, a refugee coming to Italy from Togo. He is taken in by a refugee home in Pergine, a small village in the mountain of Trentino. Where he is invited to work in the workshop of Pietro. Where he gets to know Michele. Michele’s father has died a short time ago, leaving a big hole in the young boy’s life. Thanks to the arrival of snow, in the silence of the wood, Dani and Michele learns to listen to each other.
On Saturday we will be introduced to the highly anticipated How’s strange to be named Federico! (Che strano chiamarsi Federico) a Biop of Fellini, released on the 20th anniversary of the great director’s death. Of which Variety says:
“Ettore Scola’s affectionate tribute to Federico Fellini is a magical trip through history and memory, recounting the decades shared by these two deities of cinema.”
In this brief film Scola would like to evoke the privilege of knowing him and the emotions Fellini provoked in all who listened to him with his irony and his thoughts on “life as a party”.
The same evening Off Road (Fuori Strada), directed by Elisa Amoruso, will screen, which is about Pino a mechanic and a rally car champion who decides to become a woman. This love story is a ride through the life of a very unconventional family, living in a very conventional Italy.
Finally Daniele Lucchetti will have a Q&A on his film Those happy years (Anni Felici). The film, set in the Seventies, tells the story of Guido, played by Kim Rossi Stuart, a wannabe avant-garde artist who feels trapped by convention and tells a story about domestic life.
During the last evening of Cinema made in Italy, there’ll be a presentation by the actor Elio Germano and the director Giovanni Veronesi of The Fifth Wheel (L’Ultima Ruota del Carro), a story about Ernesto, a simple man who tries to follow his dreams without ever losing sight of the real values of life. by the actor Giuseppe Battiston and the director Matteo Oleotto “Zoran, my nephew the Idiot”. This movie is about Paolo, an arrogant 40 years old weighing 150 kg and who finds himself in an unsatisfying job spending his days drinking one day Zoran, Paolo’s eccentric nephew, appears.
Drm.am will be reporting from Cinema made in Italy, and bring you interviews and photos.
Book your tickets through Institut-Francais’s Ciné Lumière website.
Images provided by Premier Comms
