| Cinema Italian
Style IV 
Presented in association with Cinecittą Holding - Rome
Presented with the financial support of the
Italian Ministry for Culture - General Direction for Cinema, in collaboration with: the Italian Film Commission-Los Angeles, Alberta
Ferretti, Dainese, Valextra, Energy Power s.a., and Valente Jewels Milano, Hotel Beverly
Hilton, Diadema Wine and Champagne. Under the auspices of The Italian Consul General and
the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles.
Discuss this series with other film fans on:
http://www.myspace.com/americancinematheque
More Cinema Italian Style at the Egyptian Theatre October 10 - 21!
Dedicated Website.
For the fourth year in a row, the American Cinematheque
and Cinecitta’ Holding bring to Los Angeles a selection of some of the best new
Italian movies, both fiction and documentaries. Continuing in the tradition of such
directors as Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo
Pasolini, Luchino Visconti and Bernardo Bertolucci, contemporary Italian cinema remains
among the most vibrant and unpredictable anywhere in Europe, examining and celebrating an
Italy both ancient and modern, pastoral and urban. This week-long showcase of the best and
most challenging in new Italian filmmaking, includes Daniele Luchetti’s much-lauded
MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD (MIO FRATELLO E’ FIGLIO UNICO), co-written by THE
BEST OF YOUTH screenwriters Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli. Other films presented this
year have a large scope, ranging from a comic period piece such as NAPOLEON AND I
(with a great comedic turn by Monica Bellucci), coming of age stories, discovering
self and love in FLYING LESSONS, to maturity and reflections on life and career
with ONE OUT OF TWO), to stories about crime (THE WOLF and OUR COUNTRY).
This year we’re also featuring a complete
retrospective of the animated short films from director Ursula Ferrara, one of the
most important figures in Italian animation. Using different techniques (including hand
painting over the print), each film runs about four minutes and has no dialogue and will
be before the feature film. Filmitalia is presenting new 35mm copies of Ferrara’s
works.
"Every year Cinema Italian Style brings to the
US the very best of current Italian film production. Our industry is enjoying a remarkably
good moment, thanks to some talented young directors able to touch audiences beyond our
domestic borders. Daniele Luchetti’s intimate yet universal drama MY BROTHER IS AN
ONLY CHILD will open the 4th edition of Cinema Italian Style (CIS) at the Egyptian
Theatre, to be followed by NAPOLEON AND I by Paolo Virzi, Francesca Archibugi’s
FLYING LESSONS and Eugenio Cappuccio’s ONE OUT OF TWO, all brand new hits in Italy
and in Europe. Of pivotal importance in CIS IV are its exclusive previews, such as the
documentaries PRIMO LEVI’S JOURNEY by Davide Ferrario and Agostino Ferrente’s
THE ORCHESTRA OF PIAZZA VITTORIO, a droll portrait of a musical band from a working-class
section in the heart of Rome (the same band will perform at the Egyptian.) Los Angeles and
its audiences have always embraced us and our films with palpable enthusiasm. We are
confident that Cinema Italian Style IV will again be the best way to experience the truly
unique feelings of our cinema." -- Alessandro Battisti, President of
Cinecitta’ Holding
Thursday, October 11 - 7:30 PM
MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD (MIO FRATELLO
E’ FIGLIO UNICO), 2007, THINKFilm, 100 min. Dir. Daniele Luchetti. Accio (Elio
Germano) is his parents’ desperation: an impulsive and explosive troublemaker,
fighting every battle like a war. His brother (Riccardo Scamarcio) is handsome,
charismatic, loved by all -- but just as dangerous. In the Italian small town life of the
1960’s and 1970’s, the two brothers have opposite political beliefs, are in love
with the same woman and through endless confrontations, they live through a period of
escaping, fighting and great passion. It is a story about growing up, set against fifteen
years of Italian history, seen through the prism of adventures experienced by two very
different, yet similar brothers.
"Helmer Daniele Luchetti keeps the mood light and winning in…a micro-tale
of Italy's troubled years in the late '60s and '70s, viewed through the prism of a
politically divided family. Scripted by THE BEST OF YOUTH duo who brought the post-WWII
years into stark and moving light, pic offers a warm humor that illuminates the defiant
vista of hope even when the proceedings turn tragic." – Jay Weisberg, Variety
NOT ON DVD
Friday, October 12 - 7:30 PM
Los Angeles Premiere! Venice Film Festival
Selection:
FLYING LESSONS (LEZIONI DI VOLO), 2007, Cattleya, 106
min. Dir. Francesca Archibugi. Pollo (Miglio Risi) and Curry (Tom Angel
Kurumathy), inseparable 18 year-old friends, have both failed their last year of high
school. Curry was adopted as a baby from India and guilt trips his family into letting him
take a much-dreamed-of trip to his birthplace with his best friend, who comes from a
rigid, Jewish family. India, however, is not what they expected. Finding it poor and
dirty, they get robbed. Curry is taken for a native (he even gets arrested by the police
during a demonstration), while Pollo gets sick and meets a western doctor (Giovanna
Mezzogiorno), ten years older than him, whom he falls desperately in love with. She
takes them both to the small outpost where she works as a volunteer, and they finally find
the reason for their trip: Curry discovers his past, while Pollo finds his future. NOT
ON DVD
Los Angeles Premiere! ONE OUT OF TWO (UNO SU DUE), 2007, 01 Distribution, 101 min.
Director Eugenio Cappuccio’s drama is about a brash lawyer (Fabio Volo)
who comes face to face with mortality when a sudden blackout forces him to the hospital,
with a possible prognosis of a malignant brain tumor. Illness was certainly not in
Lorenzo’s plans, and waiting for his results, confronting his mortality, is not easy.
The one who understands him is the patient in the bed next to him, Giovanni, (Pasolini
veteran Ninetto Davoli) who provides a much-needed dose of patience and humor.
Giovanni has his problematic past: a daughter he hasn’t seen in years. And so I
gratitude to Giovanni, Lorenzo travels to Umbria to find her and bring her back to Genoa,
to see her father. NOT ON DVD Discussion between films with
director Francesca Archibugi (FLYING LESSONS) and actor Fabio Volo (ONE OUT OF TWO).
Saturday, October 13 – 4:00 PM
Los Angeles Premiere!
NAPOLEON AND ME (IO E NAPOLEONE), 2007, Cattleya,
110 min. An in-period comedy from director, Paolo Virzi. Circa 1814, Napoleon (Daniel
Auteuil) is sent into exile on the island of Elba and is enthusiastically welcomed by
the common people and the local nobles. But there is one person who is not celebrating:
the young Martino (Elio Germano), an idealist and libertarian teacher, a budding
poet and the libertine lover of the beautiful, mature Baroness Emilia (Monica Bellucci)
Martino hates the former Emperor, and every night he dreams of killing him. When he is
offered the opportunity of becoming the clerk and librarian of the new King of Elba, the
young man accepts, hoping to at last execute the murder he feels predestined to commit.
Seductions and betrayals, failed attempts and astonishing confessions ensue, up until the
mocking and surprising final disappointment. NOT ON DVD
Saturday, October 13 - 7:30 PM
Los Angeles Premiere!
SALTY AIR (L’ARIA SALATA), 2007, Rai Cinema, 85
min. Dir. Alessandro Angelini. Fabio (Giorgio Pasotti) works as a social
worker in a Rome prison, skillfully giving counseling and support to the detainees. When
he’s assigned the case of a convicted murderer (Giorgio Colangeli), who has
already spent 20 years behind the bars, Fabio shockingly realizes the man is his own
father, whom he hasn’t seen since the time of the crime. From that moment on, Fabio
has to reconsider the relationship with a father who so long ago left the family in
shambles. The man wants to win back his son’s affection, but the bitterness he has
acquired behind bars makes it a daunting challenge. An emotionally stirring study of
abandonment, remorse and longing between father and son. NOT ON
DVD
Los Angeles Premiere! OUR COUNTRY (A CASA NOSTRA), 2006, MK2, 99 min. Dir.
Francesca Comencini. In Milan, Ugo ( Luca Zingaretti) is a well known banker,
acting illegally, and Rita (Valeria Golino) is a captain of the Finance Police
Force, investigating him. Their cat and mouse relationship is complicated by the
interference of other shady characters, including prostitutes and murderers. Money runs
the city and rules their lives -- a gradual escalation of threatening ambivalence and
violence soon surrounds them at every turn. And while the characters face life and death,
Milan, the big city of foggy light, looks on… NOT ON DVD
Discussion in between films with actor Giorgio Pasotti (SALTY AIR) and actress Valeria
Golino (OUR COUNTRY).
Sunday, October 14 - 4:00 PM
Los Angeles Premiere!
DINNER FOR THEIR FIRST DATE (LA CENA PER
FARLI CONOSCERE), 2007, Medusa, 99 min. Dir. Pupi Avati. Sandro Lanza (Diego
Abatantuono) is a has-been actor, sixty years old and showing it, going through the
worst period of his career. Having lost much of his hair as well as his stamina and
self-esteem, he resorts to plastic surgery in a desperate attempt at keeping his role in a
popular TV soap-opera. Rejected, he considers suicide, though more as a way to get back
the tabloids’ attention than as a real escape. Recovering in a hospital from his
failed attempt, Sandro is visited by his three long-estranged daughters (Ines Sastre,
Vanessa Incontrada, Violante Placido), who all come from different countries. The
three sisters become comrades-in-arms and decide to look for the right woman for their
depressed father. They set up a blind date dinner with fascinating Alma (Francesca Neri),
a strong, witty, independent type that their father has always tried to avoid. Through
romantic comedy, director Avati reflects upon the world of TV and cinema, and on the many
actors who struggle on "B" projects without ever having the opportunity for more
"serious" fare. NOT ON DVD
Sunday, October 14 - 7:30 PM
Los Angeles Premiere! CARAVAGGIO, 2007, Rai Trade, 128 min. Dir. Angelo Longoni.
Made for Television this portray of the life of Michelangelo Merisi (Alessio Boni),
aka Caravaggio, one of the great Italian painters of the 17th century. A rebel aristocrat,
Caravaggio is seen in this film as a true artist, a geniuous unwilling to compromise and
more prone to swing his sward to defend his own honour as well as the week. Cinematography
is aptly provided by Vittorio Storaro, three times Oscar winner, one of the most
acclaimed director of photography in the world. "I express myself through light.
With light I write stories. Caravaggio used painting and images to tell stories. The image
is created by light and its companion, the shadow. Film does the same. Caravaggio has been
a great visionary, and a revolutionary. Through its painting he was able to tell his own
life, exactly as a filmmaker always tries to do. Just like Caravaggio with his medium, I
try to understand myself through cinematography. " Vittorio Storaro NOT ON DVD Introduction by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.
Monday, October 15 – 7:30 PM
Los Angeles Premiere!
COUTURIER TIRELLI, COSTUME DESIGNER (LA SARTORIA
TIRELLI – VESTIRE IL CINEMA), 2007, 55 minutes, Dir. Gianfranco Giagni. An
excursion through thirty years of Italian and international cinema through the work of Umberto
Tirelli (who died in 1990), the creator of material and costumes for innumerable
films, including five Oscar winners: AMADEUS, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE,
MOMENTI DI GLORIA and Fellini’s CASANOVA. Isabella Rossellini narrates the
documentary, which also includes interviews with directors like Bernardo Bertolucci
and Giuseppe Tornatore, along with some of the most important costume designers of
cinema today. NOT ON DVD
Los Angeles Premiere! BORN TO FLY (NATI PER VOLARE), 2007, Rai, 70 min. Dir. Marco
Visalberghi. Set in Sicily and the South American Andes, this documentary follows late
Italian hang-glider Angelo D’Arrigo putting extreme sport to the service of
science as he helps biologists teach a captive-born condor to survive in its native
environment. Angelo was one of the most accomplished hang-gliders in the world. In
the course of his amazing sporting career he won many championships and set countless
records, such as the longest hang-gliding trip (across the Mediterranean Sea & the
Sahara) and the highest hang-gliding flight (over the summit of Mt Everest). But Angelo
was not satisfied with trophies. His dream was to truly fly like bird, and to fly like one
bird in particular: the Andean condor. The largest and most graceful bird on earth, the
condor has a wingspan of three meters and soars to incredible heights over the Andes. In
2005/06 Angelo committed a year of his life raising a captive-born Andean condor named
Inca. He not only wanted to teach it how to fly – as he had done before with other
birds – but also to learn the secrets of high-altitude soaring from Inca. He wanted
to push the limits of human flight – to think, feel and fly like a condor. As Angelo
and Inca flew together and learned from each other, they crossed over the magic boundary
separating man and bird. Angelo described that year as the most incredible of his entire
flying career. It was also the last year of his life. The film narrates Angelo’s
physical, scientific and technological preparation for his trip to Peru and the intense
relationship between Angelo and Inca in stunning HD pictures – until Angelo’s
tragic death. But Angelo’s wife Laura and a group of friends have brought Inca to
Peru, thus fulfilling Angelo’s dream of the condors flying high in the Andes. Set
against the spectacular backdrops of Sicily and towering, snow-covered Andes of South
America, this feature-length documentary brings together a breathtaking and unique mixture
of aerial adventure, sporting spectacle and scientific journey. NOT
ON DVD
Tuesday, October 16 – 7:30 PM
Los Angeles Premiere!
THE WOLF (IL LUPO), 2007, Poker Films, 88 min. Dir. Stefano
Calvagna’s third feature is inspired by the real events in the life of Luciano
Liboni, aka "The Wolf." A freewheeling interpretation of the character, here
renamed Franco Scattoni (Massimo Bonetti), the film highlights the ups and downs of
a rough and violent man, whose behavior borders on madness and is worsened by epilepsy. Il
Lupo feels he has nothing to loose. Diving headfirst into a life of crime, he ends up
killing a gas station attendant in Perugia in 2002. He then kills a young
"carabiniere," and becomes a wanted fugitive. A case study in human
behavior’s violent patterns framed as a psychological thriller and police story, this
controversial film has been praised for the uncompromising realism of its disturbing
narrative. NOT ON DVD Discussion following with director Stefano Calvagna.
Wednesday, October 17 - 7:30 PM
Los Angeles Premiere!
PRIMO LEVI’S JOURNEY (LA STRADA DI LEVI),
2006, Cinema Guild, 92 min. Dir. Davide Ferrario. In the winter of 1945, Primo
Levi, one of the century’s greatest writers, was liberated from the Auschwitz
concentration camp. With the war still underway, he embarked on a thousand-mile journey to
his home in Turin, Italy – a strange, beguiling odyssey memorialized in his book, The
Reawakening. Sixty years later, director Davide Ferrario set out to follow in
Levi’s footsteps. Retracing his historic trip, the film weaves a path through a
modern Europe that has both changed and remained eerily the same – from democratic
rallies in the East to neo-Nazi demonstrations in the West. Narrated by Academy Award
winning actor Chris Cooper, PRIMO LEVI’S JOURNEY is a comic, frightening,
picaresque road trip through history. "Vividly impressionistic and delightfully
curious." – Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times; "…a
profound meditation on the unevenness of history, reminding us -- as Faulkner once
remarked -- that the past not only isn't dead, it isn't really past at all."
– Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.Com NOT ON DVD presented
with the contribution of Compagnia San Paolo. Discussion following with director
Davide Ferrario. Opening at the Laemmle Theatres on November 2. |
