The Italian Film Festival opens in Auckland tomorrow, before making its way around the country. The 17th edition of the festival brings us plenty of touching dramas, some riotous comedies and a couple of insightful documentaries – with loads of Italian flair and a true Italian classic thrown in for good measure.
All the film previews are here and we share with you our top picks for the festival.
Italy has produced some brilliant filmmakers and exceptional films. Now it’s time discover the latest batch.
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Here’s where the Italian Film Festival is playing near you:
Auckland (Newmarket): Rialto Cinemas – September 26 to October 14
Auckland (Northcote Point): Bridgeway Cinemas – September 27 to October 14
Wellington: Paramount Cinemas – October 10 to October 28
Christchurch: Hollywood Cinema – October 17 to October 31
Dunedin: Rialto Cinemas – October 24 to November 7
Nelson: Suter Theatre – October 31 to November 14
Hawke’s Bay: Cinema Gold – November 7 to November 21
Tauranga: Rialto Cinema – November 14 to November 18
Hamilton: Lido Cinemas – November 15 – November 28
Check out the ‘Calendar’ section of the Italian Film Festival website for the full list of screening times.
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Here are all the films:
(Note: Not many of the trailers have English subtitles. But I’m sure the actual films will.)
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18 YEARS LATER (18 anni dopo)
Drama | 2010 | 106 minutes | Director: Edoardo Leo
2010 Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival: Winner – Audience Award for Best Film
Mirko (Edoardo Leo) and Genziano (Marco Bonini) haven’t spoken since their mother’s tragic death in a car accident 18 years ago. While Genziano is a successful London stockbroker, Mirko is still in Rome helping out at the family mechanics business. When their father dies, the two brothers are reunited and forced to hit the road together in a vintage Morgan car, driving their father’s ashes to Calabria as specified in his will.
Along the way this charming film provides plenty of adventures, laughs and insights about family relations and settling old scores. The brothers have to cope with a broken down car, strange motels and hitchhiking, as well as years of suppressed anger, jealousy and resentment. Meanwhile, a subplot unfolds in Rome as their grandfather (Gabriele Ferzetti) reveals what he knows about the unspoken story of his daughter’s death to Mirko’s wife, Mirella (Sabrina Impacciatore). The magical ending provides the answer to the 18 year-old mystery and a renewed understanding between brothers.
Cast: Marco Bonini, Eugenia Costantini, Sabrina Impacciatore, Edoardo Leo, Gabriele Ferzetti
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20 CIGARETTES (20 sigarette)
Drama | 2011 | 91 minutes | Director: Aureliano Amadei
2010 Venice Film Festival: 7 awards including Controcampo Italiano Prize, Pasinetti Award – Best Film, Young Cinema Award – Best Italian Film; 2011 Nastri d’Argento: Best Sound, Best Supporting Actress; 2011 David Di Donatello: Best Producers, Best Editor, Best Visual Effects, ‘Young David’.
Based on director Aureliano Amadei’s 2003 experiences in Iraq, 20 Cigarettes is the gripping story of a twenty-eight year old anarchist and anti-war activist who receives an offer to fly to Iraq as assistant director on a film about the Italian military peace mission.
Thrust into the middle of a military world he doesn’t approve of, Aureliano (Vinicio Marchioni) is surprised to discover brotherhood and shared values amongst the people he meets. Before Aureliano has the chance to finish a packet of cigarettes he finds himself a victim of a suicide truck bombing at the Italian army base and, as the sole civilian survivor and witness, becomes an unlikely hero.
http://youtu.be/ZdUJu0sGUa4
Cast: Vinicio Marchioni, Carolina Crescentini, Giorgio Colangeli
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A FAMILY ON THE VERGE (La bellezza del somaro)……ADMIT ONE PICK
Comedy | 2011 | 104 minutes | Director: Sergio Castellitto
Sergio Castellitto and Laura Morante star as architect Marcello and psychologist Marina, hosting an eclectic array of friends and family for the weekend in their Tuscan country home. All is thrown into chaos when their spoiled and rebellious daughter arrives with her new boyfriend in this hilarious update of the classic film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
The weekend deteriorates into utter madness. Marcello and Marina, continually challenged by the erratic behaviour of long-time friends, patients, children, and even a despotic housekeeper, are forced to confront their personal and professional values, long held beliefs about parenting and armchair approach to non-conformity.
Cast: Laura Morante, Sergio Castellitto, Marco Giallini, Barbora Bobulova
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A SECOND CHILDHOOD (Una sconfinata giovinezza)……ADMIT ONE PICK
Drama | 2010 | 92 minutes | Director: Pupi Avati
2011 Nastri d’Argento: Special Nastro Argento Award for Pupi Avati.
Lino (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) and his wife Chicca (Francesca Neri) lead a happy life, satisfied with their marriage and their careers – he as a sports editor and she as a professor of romance philology. Their only regret is not having children, but even that seems to have strengthened their partnership.
Unexpectedly, Lino’s memory problems become worse and worse until he is diagnosed with a degenerative illness affecting his brain cells. So begins the slow process of a man separating from the present and regressing to his childhood. Throughout Chicca stands by her husband, both sharing in his suffering and nursing him as the child they never had.
Cast: Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Francesca Neri, Serena Grandi
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ANOTHER WORLD (Un altro mondo)……ADMIT ONE PICK
Drama | 2010 | 109 minutes | Director: Silvio Muccino
Silvio Muccino (My Best Enemy) directs and stars as Andrea, a wealthy 20-something who is pulled away from his slacker lifestyle in Rome to visit his dying father – a man who abandoned his son and now wants to reconnect before he dies – in Nairobi.
When he arrives in Kenya however, Andrea finds his father is in a coma. He also learns he has an 8-year old half-brother, Charlie (Michael Rainey Jr.). Andrea’s girlfriend, played superbly by Isabella Ragonese (Her Whole Life Ahead) who delivers a touching and nuanced performance, is unimpressed by the responsibilities this discovery is going to add to their carefree lives. Italian-English actor Greta Scacchi is brilliant as Andrea’s icy mother.
Cast: Silvio Muccino, Isabella Ragonese, Maya Sansa, Greta Scacchi, Michael Rainey Jr.
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BASILICATA COAST TO COAST
Comedy, Romance, Music | 2010 | 101 minutes | Director: Rocco Papaleo
2011 David di Donatello: Best New Director, Best Music, Best Original Song; 2010 Golden Globes Italy: Best First Feature; 2010 Nastri d’Argento: Best New Director, Best Score.
When Nicola (Rocco Papaleo) enters his unassuming band in a music festival on the other side of Basilicata, he comes up with the idea of walking there in 10 days – partly as a publicity stunt and partly as an opportunity to bond! This trip would normally take less than two hours by car but his motley crew is willing: sweet-natured Salvatore (Paolo Briguglia), his hipster ex-TV celeb cousin, Rocco (Alessandro Gassman), and amiable mute Franco (singer Max Gazze in his screen debut). Assigned to document the adventure is apprehensive local journalist Tropea, expertly played by Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Vincere), who displays her flair for comedy in this charming role.
Cast: Rocco Papaleo, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Alessandro Gassman, Max Gazzè
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CINEMA PARADISO……ADMIT ONE PICK
Comedic Drama | 1988 | 125 minutes | Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
1990 Oscar Academy Awards: Best Foreign Film; 1991 BAFTA awards: 5 awards plus 5 more nominations; 1989 Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prize of the Jury.
Cinema Paradiso’ is one of the most famous and most awarded of recent Italian films. Based on the life and times of screenwriter/director Giuseppe Tornatore, the film offers a nostalgic look at cinema and the effect it has on a young boy who grows up in and around the village movie theater.
The story begins in the present as a Sicilian mother pines for her estranged son, Salvatore, who left many years ago and has since become a prominent Roman film director. He finally returns to his home village to attend the funeral of the town’s former film projectionist, Alfredo, and, in so doing, embarks upon a journey into his boyhood post-WWII.
In the dark confines of the Cinema Paradiso, the boy and the other townsfolk try to escape from the grim realities of post-war Italy. One day, Salvatore saves Alfredo’s life after a fire, and then becomes the new projectionist. Thirty years later, Salvatore has come to say goodbye to his life-long friend and father figure, who has left him a little gift in a film can.
Cast: Philippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Antonella Attili
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ESCORT IN LOVE (Nessuno mi puo’ guiudicare)
Romantic Comedy | 2011 | 93 minutes | Director: Massimiliano Bruno
2011 David di Donatello: Best Actress; 2011 Nastri d’Argento: Best Comedy, Best Actor.
Alice (Paola Cortellesi), cast as the snobbish and intolerant housewife and mother to nine-year-old Filippo (Giovanni Bruno), revels in her luxurious home and lifestyle in a posh part of Rome. When her husband dies in a car accident she is left with a massive debt and the risk of losing her son. Desperately in need of cash, and with no skills, Alice turns to the oldest profession in the world.
Realising she is totally out of her depth Alice looks to another escort, Eva (Anna Foglietta), for guidance and soon she goes from awkward amateur to seductive professional. Meanwhile Alice and her son move to her former butler’s neighbourhood, and discover a new world of working-class folk – including a love interest in Giulio (Italian heart-throb Raoul Bova).
Cast: Paola Cortellesi, Raoul Bova, Rocco Papaleo, Anna Foglietta
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ITALY: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT?……ADMIT ONE PICK
Documentary | 2010 | 75 minutes | Director: Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi
Milano Film Festival: Best Film & Audience Award; Festival di Annecy: Youth Jury Award.
Luca and Gustav are two young Italians who over the past few years have witnessed the exodus of many of their friends to Berlin, London, Barcelona or New Zealand; creative, talented people who cannot see a future in their country. They’re fed up with the high cost of living, the lack of job security, the feudal university system, reactionary attitudes and a general consensus that you won’t get anywhere on merit alone.
Gustav believes the time has come for them to go abroad too, while Luca wants to convince him that there are many good reasons to stay. Agreeing to give themselves six months to make their decision, they embark on a journey across their boot-shaped land in an old Fiat 500, the symbol of Italy’s economic miracle. Negative images are countered by optimism such as the commitment of Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri, who declares that to flee is no less than desertion. We are carried along on an ironic, self-reflexive journey peppered with clever animations and archival footage.
Featuring: Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi
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MANUAL OF LOVE 3: AGES OF LOVE (Manuale d’amour 3)
Romantic Comedy | 2011 | 121 minutes | Director: Giovanni Veronesi
Director Giovanni Veronesi has created three stories to illustrate the three ages of man – ‘Youth’, ‘Maturity’ and ‘Beyond’ – all connected by a taxi driving cupid (Emanuele Propizio). There’s Roberto (Riccardo Scamarcio) the city lawyer who is ready to marry Sara (Valeria Solarino) until he meets country girl Micol (Laura Chiatti). Then there’s Fabio (Carlo Verdone), a married newsreader who is seduced by a crazy stalker, Eliana (Donatella Finocchiaro). Finally there’s Adrian (Robert De Niro, speaking Italian), who reconnects with his youth thanks to his doorman’s ebullient daughter, Viola (Monica Bellucci).
Cast: Robert De Niro, Monica Bellucci, Carlo Verdone, Michele Placido, Emanuele Propizio, Riccardo Scamarcio, Valeria Solarino, Laura Chiatti, Donatella Finocchiaro
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MARTINO’S SUMMER (L’estate di Martino)
Drama with Romance | 2010 | 81 minutes | Director: Massimo Natale
2011 Cannes Junior; 2010 Rome Film Festival: Alice in the City, In Competition.
The summer of 1980 was a tragic one in Italy with the shooting down of a DC9 aircraft in the skies over Ustica and the terrorist bombing in Bologna’s train station. An unexpected intersection of these two events provides the backdrop for the film. About the friendship between Martino (Luigi Ciardo), an introverted Italian teenager, and Jeff Clark (Treat Williams), an American captain and Martino’s first love.
Martino’s teenage angst at the beginning of summer is rooted in his mother’s death, his father’s anger and an attraction to his older brother’s girlfriend, Silvia (Matilde Maggio). When Martino sees American soldiers from a nearby NATO base surfing he is intrigued, and after some dogged persistence he convinces Jeff to teach him to surf. Martino and Jeff both have lived through recent tragedies and over their time surfing together, they slowly learn to leave their ghosts in the past.
Cast: Treat Williams, Pietro Masotti, Luigi Ciardo, Matilde Pezzotta, Matilde Maggio
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SIX VENICE (Sei Venezia)
Documentary | 2010 | 88 minutes | Director: Carlo Mazzacurati
2010 Venice Film Festival: Out of Competition.
Carlo Mazzacurati’s Six Venice premiered to critical acclaim at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. This wonderful documentary asks the question – what makes a city? The buildings, the culture and the people are all essential elements, as well as an overarching feeling that is difficult to define. ‘Six Venice’ goes in search of that feeling, travelling through beautiful and complex Venice and its iconic lagoon with a freshness that defies stereotypical representation.
The film looks for answers in the stories of six Venetian locals: a hotel cleaner, an archaeologist, a pensioner from Mestre, a painter/fisherman, a burglar and a young boy. With pathos and humor this wonderful collection of six lives portrays life in Venice in all its forms. Their daily rituals, hopes and disappointments add layers to the city portrait. They highlight the many contrasts but also the essence of Venice.
http://youtu.be/Xqy_bcanurY
Featuring: Giovanni Galeazzi, Roberta Zanchin, Ernesto Canal, Carlo Memo
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THE FIRST ASSIGNMENT (Il primo incarico)……ADMIT ONE PICK
Drama | 2010 | 86 minutes | Director: Giorgia Cecere
2010 Venice Film Festival: Controcampo Italiano (New Trends in Italian Cinema)
Left in limbo after her boyfriend Francesco (Alberto Boll), who seems to sincerely care for her, has not yet asked for her hand in marriage, Nena is forced to leave her family home to take up her first teaching position in another town. But it is the 1950s and being an unmarried woman, living alone, means that Nena comes under intense scrutiny from her inquisitive and judgmental neighbours.
Cast: Isabella Ragonese, Francesco Chiarello, Alberto Boll
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THE IMMATURE (Immaturi)
Romantic Comedy | 2011 | 108 minutes | Director: Paolo Genovese
Giorgio, Lorenzo, Piero, Luisa, Virgilio and Francesca were classmates and friends twenty years ago. Over the years the inevitable has happened; the group has broken up and gone their separate ways in life. But now the Ministry of Education has audited their school results and discovered some irregularities thereby invalidating their high school graduation! They will have to re-sit the examination (called ‘maturity exams’ in Italy) all over again. So the gang hit the books; it’s just like old times – only with more wrinkles, less hair and the weight of some unresolved emotional issues from the past.
http://youtu.be/kMYtJ5v5Q6o
Cast: Ambra Angiolini, Raoul Bova, Barbora Bobulova, Anita Caprioli
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THE JEWEL (Il gioiellino)
Drama | 2011 | 104 minutes | Director: Andrea Molaioli
2011 Nastri d’Argento: Guglielmo Biraghi Award & Best Sound.
The great scandal of Parmalat SpA Italy was Europe’s Enron and still holds the dubious record of being the largest European bankruptcy with a debt of 14.3 billion dollars. Director Andrea Molaioli (The Girl by the Lake) changes the names and focuses on the human side of this story and the subordination of individual interests to the demands of the family.
The founder, Amanzio Rastelli (Remo Girone), inherited a sausage factory and by the 1980s had turned it into multinational food conglomerate and dairy producer, Leda. It’s the “little jewel” that ends up struggling to stay afloat when chief financial officer Ernesto Botta (a cunning and irascible Toni Servillo) convinces Rastelli to take the company public. A desperate fight for survival leads to international fraud, suicide and ruin.
Cast: Toni Servillo, Remo Girone, Sarah Felberbaum, Fausto Sciarappa
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THE PASSION (La Passione)
Comedy | 2010 | 103 minutes | Director: Carlo Mazzacurati
2011 David di Donatello: Best Supporting Actor; 2011 Nastri d’Argento: Best Supporting Actor; 2010 Venice Film Festival: In Competition.
A big box office hit in Italy, ‘The Passion’ is the story of Gianni (Silvio Orlando), a washed-up director who is blackmailed into staging a Tuscan village’s Passion play.
A leak in Gianni’s apartment has ruined the 16th century fresco of the church next door and the village mayor (Stefania Sandrelli) and her partner (Marco Messeri) threaten legal action unless he agrees to resurrect the town’s long-dormant Good Friday pageant, just five days away. The retelling of the Passion is a tradition that still occurs in small towns all over Italy but Gianni’s task is a monumental one with no script, talent or costumes. Worst of all he has a deadpan local weatherman playing Jesus.
Ex-con Ramiro (Giuseppe Battiston) joins the production as an assistant director, and things are bound to get a whole lot worse – or could he be a savior?
http://youtu.be/UmYtrPDXXV4
Cast: Giuseppe Battiston, Silvio Orlando, Cristiana Capotondi, Kasia Smutniak, Stefania Sandrelli, Marco Messeri
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THE THIN MATCH MAN (L’uomo fiammifero)……ADMIT ONE PICK
Drama | 2010 | 84 minutes | Director: Marco Chiarini
2010 Giffoni Film Festival: Official Selection.
Eleven-year-old Simon (Marco Leonzi) is forced to spend the entire summer indoors with a volatile widowed father (Francesco Pannofino) keeping track of him via a long string. Sweet adventure beckons outside, but through his enforced confinement Simon learns to entertain himself with stories of the thin-match man, a figure his mother once created who lights the way for children facing difficulties.
Simon is determined to find the thin-match man, but first he must overcome his father and the evil plotting of his spoiled neighbour, Rubin. When thirteen year-old, green eyed Lorenza arrives in town, Simon finds a new ally and so begins an unforgettable summer where real and imaginary encounters will change his life forever.
Cast: Francesco Pannofino, Marco Leonzi, Greta Castagna
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THE WOMAN OF MY DREAMS (La donna della mia vita)
Romantic Comedy | 2010 | 92 minutes | Director: Luca Lucini
2010 Monte Carlo Comedy Film Festival: Official Selection.
Longtime Italian cinema star Stefania Sandrelli (The First Beautiful Thing) is Alba, the mother of two very different adult sons. While Giorgio (Alessandro Gassman) is a playboy who constantly cheats on his wife, Leonardo (Luca Argentero, Eat Pray Love) is always unlucky in love. Leonardo finally meets the woman of his dreams, Sara (Valentina Lodovini), and he brings her home to meet the family… but it appears this is not the first time that Sara has met Giorgio…
Cast: Luca Argentero, Alessandro Gassman, Valentina Lodovini, Stefania Sandrelli
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WELCOME TO THE SOUTH (Benvenuti al Sud)……ADMIT ONE PICK
Comedy | 2010 | 103 minutes | Director: Luca Miniero
2011 David di Donatello Awards: Winner Best Supporting Actress; 2011 Nastri d’Argento Awards: Winner Best Screenplay.
Alberto (Claudio Bisio) is a postal worker hoping to transfer to Milan, the city of his dreams, but instead he is sent to Castellabate in the south. He arrives with preconceptions, prejudice and a bullet proof vest firmly in place. His wife, Maria (Angela Finocchiaro), is too terrified to accompany him to what she imagines is a hot and dirty hilltop town swarming with mafia.
Soon, however, Alberto falls for the natural beauty and the charming locals, including the postman (Alessandro Siani) and a postal clerk (Valentina Lodovini), who introduce the northerner to the joys of southern life. The spirit of this feel-good Opening Night selection is captured in the wise words of one of the characters: “When an outsider comes to the south, he cries twice – when he arrives and when he leaves.”
Cast: Claudio Bisio, Alessandro Siani, Angela Finocchiaro, Valentina Lodovini
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WHATSOEVERLY (Qualunquemente)
Comedy | 2011 | 99 minutes | Director: Giulio Manfredonia
2011 Berlin Film Festival: Panorama.
After a prolonged ‘holiday’ in South America, ‘businessman’ Cetto La Qualunque returns to his hometown in Calabria with a new girlfriend and daughter in tow and introduces them to his long-suffering wife and straight-laced son. But Cetto has been away far too long and he is horrified to discover that since he left, the locals have become unexpectedly law-abiding!
This is not good for the way Cetto likes to do business. Determined to fight for the good of his town, Cetto decides to enter the political race for local mayor with the dubious campaign slogan: “I have no dream, but I like a bit of tail.”
Cast: Antonio Albanese, Sergio Rubini, Lorenza Indovina
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So which of these Italian gems will you be seeing?
