2011, Elle Driver, 88 min.

While fishing in the sea near their home island of Linosa, Sicily, aging fisherman Ernesto (Mimmo Cuticchio) and his 20-year-old grandson Filippo (Filippo Pucillo) spot a dinghy packed to the gills with illegal immigrants in transit from North Africa. Afraid that some of the men and women on the floundering raft will drown, Ernesto offers help, and ultimately welcomes a young Ethiopian boy and his pregnant mother back to his home - at the risk of being found out and arrested by the police. With this particularly timely drama, director and co-writer Emanuele Crialese (RESPIRO, GOLDEN DOOR) sheds light on the current hot-button issue of illegal immigration in Italy, and on the often horrific civil injustices that have arisen from the conflict. With Beppe Fiorello and Donatella Finocchiaro. In Italian with English subtitles.

The evening will begin at 7:00 PM with the Cinema Italian Style ceremony and the Tribute to Dino DeLaurentiis, followed by the introduction with director Emanuele Crialese, and cast members Filippo Pucillo, Donatella Finocchiaro and Guiseppe Fiorello. Terry Gilliam and cast members of the Cinema Italian Style series will be introduced. Feature film will start at 7:45 PM.

Minerva Pictures Group, 100 min. Dir. Giuseppe Gagliardi.

Champion boxer and ex-convict Michele (Clemente Russo), nicknamed “Tatanka,” flees to Berlin after his old mobster associates lean on him to fight a dirty match. Once in Germany, Michele starts training with Coach Vinko (Rade Serbedzija) to get back to his peak form pre-incarceration - but escaping one's past is never easy, and Tatanka's hardest fight proves to be outside of the ring. In Italian with English subtitles.

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2011, 108 min. Dir. Paolo Genovese.

Twenty years after the dissolution of their social circle, child psychologist Giorgio (Raoul Bova), realtor Lorenzo (Ricky Memphis), mother and manager Luisa (Barbora Bobulova), chef and rehabilitated sex addict Francesca (Ambra Angiolini), radio DJ Piero (Luca Bizzarri) and Virgilio (Paulo Kessisoglu), whose lie was the catalyst for the group’s breakup, are all on the brink of turning 40. When the Ministry of Education informs them each separately that their SAT scores have been voided and they will need to re-take the test, the ex-friends are forced to meet again. A winning comedy about continued immaturity well into adulthood. Nominated for 4 National Italian Union of Film Journalists Awards, including Best Comedy and Best Supporting Actor (Ricky Memphis). In Italian with English subtitles.

Discussion between films with actress Barbora Bobulova (THE IMMATURE & CHILL) – schedule permitting. 

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2011, Celluloid Dreams, 114 min.

Single mother Marina (Claudia Pandolfi) and her 2-year-old son Marco are sojourning in the small mountain town of Macugnaga for a month-long holiday, setting up camp in the most remote house in the village. This seemingly bucolic ideal quickly turns sour when Marco refuses to stop crying, and, after an accident that requires the little boy to get stitches, the misanthropic house owner and mountain guide Manfred (Filippo Timi) is convinced that Marina is a neglectful and possibly abusive mother. So begins Cristina Comencini's (DON'T TELL, Academy Award nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film in 2006) thoughtful drama about parenthood and its effects, as Marina and Manfred must confront each other's shortcomings - while also facing their growing attraction to one another. Nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. In Italian with English subtitles.

 

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2010, Intra Movies, 110 min.

Rome native Diego (Alessandro Gassman) and Arab Walid (Amr Waked) meet while taking their disabled young sons to the same rehabilitation clinic. As Diego spends more time with Walid due to his strained marriage, he realizes he knows very little about his new friend. When Walid suddenly disappears and the Secret Services interrogate Diego, he becomes mixed up in a web of crime and intrigue that reaches from Rome to Syria. Director Ricky Tognazzi's breathless thriller combines international mystery with a message of cultural fraternity, and was an official selection of the 2010 Rome Film Festival. In Italian with English subtitles.

Discussion following with composer Carlo Siliotto.

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2011, Rai Trade, approx. 120 min.

With this recently re-cut version from his original 2010 epic, director Mario Martone's (NASTY LOVE, DEATH OF A NEAPOLITAN MATHEMATICIAN) historical mythbuster follows the real events surrounding Italy's unification in the 19th century, from the nation's stormy birth in the 1820s to its solidification in the 1870s. Edoardo Natoli and Andrea Bosca star as Domenico and Angelo, two commoners loosely based on minor historical figures from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies who dream of a unified Italy. Over the course of decades, the two transform into very different types of revolutionaries - Domenico siding with the populist movement, with Angelo becoming a violent nihilist willing to murder friends and enemies. With Luigi Lo Cascio (THE BEST OF YOUTH) and Francesca Inaudi (AFTER MIDNIGHT). For lovers of Luchino Visconti's THE LEOPARD, this is a must-see! In Italian with English subtitles.

 

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2011, Film Movement, 98 min.

In director Alice Rohrwacher's assured debut feature, 12-year-old Marta (Yile Vianello) has moved to her native Calabria, a heavily Christian, working-class province in the south of Italy, after having lived in Switzerland for ten years. Feeling like an alien in her new surroundings, Marta self-consciously bumbles her way through catechism classes, tries to make friends and grapples with the loathsome, lofty village priest Don Mario (GOMORRAH's Salvatore Cantalupo). Official selection of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. "Almost a street-level and youth-centered counterpart to vet helmer Nanni Moretti's Cannes competish title WE HAVE A POPE about a pontiff in crisis, Rohrwacher's pic offers a Dardennes-esque look at a working-class teen's growing pains in a backwater parish in southern Italy." –Variety. In Italian with English subtitles.

Introduction by actress Francesca Inaudi (WE BELIEVED) – schedule permitting.

 

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2011, Rai Trade, 95 min.

In writer Francesco Bruni's charmingly funny and endlessly crowd-pleasing directorial debut, Fabrizio Bentivoglio (THE FAMILY FRIEND) stars as an apathetic retired schoolteacher whose life is thrown off-kilter when he discovers he has a 15-year-old son. With Barbora Bobulova (COCO CHANEL) as a former porn star who becomes mixed up in the father-son bonding. Official selection and recipient of the top prize in the Controcampo Italiano section of the 2011 Venice International Film Festival.In Italian with English subtitles.

 

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2011, Intra Movies, 107 min.

In actor-director Sergio Castellito's (DON'T MOVE) romp-like farce of aging and family dynamics, successful architect Marcello (played by Castellito) is approaching the half-century mark with stress and neurosis. He and psychologist wife Marina (Laura Morante) plan to celebrate the looming event at their Tuscan country home with a few close friends and family, but when the couple's daughter Rosa (Nina Torresi) shows up with her T.S. Eliot-quoting new boyfriend, who is Marcello's senior by decades, the "quiet" weekend goes berserk. In Italian with English subtitles.

Discussion between films with actress Lidia Vitale (LOVE & SLAPS) – schedule permitting.

 

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2011, IFC Films, 102 min. Dir. Nanni Morretti.

Luis Bunuel favorite Michel Piccoli stars "with consummate brilliance" (Variety) as Cardinal Melville, who fears being elected as the new pope after appointment by his co-cardinals in the Sistine Chapel (perfectly reproduced at Cinecitta). With filmmaker Nanni Moretti (THE SON'S ROOM, IL CAIMANO) in a hilarious turn as the shrink summoned to get to the bottom of Melville's mental stability and papal potential. Official selection of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. In Italian with English subtitles.

 

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2011, Zeitgeist, 90 min.

Filmmaker Gianni Di Gregorio's follow-up to his sleeper hit MID-AUGUST LUNCH centers on Gianni (played by Di Gregorio), an aging retiree who spends his time either being treated as an errand-boy by his wife and elderly mother or bemoaning his waning attractiveness to the opposite sex. When Gianni's friend Alfredo (Alfonso Santagata) comes up with a philandering scheme for them to both find younger girlfriends, Gianni is reminded of the thrills of meeting beautiful women - and of the nagging suspicion that such trysts may be paper-thin, plaintive daydreams. "[An] intimate comedy that blows fresh air around a topic long made banal by less sincere helmers… There's a wistfulness here, a gentle self-mockery that realizes that dreams can be delightful but will remain only a fantasy." –Variety. In Italian with English subtitles.

 

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Series compiled by Laura Delli Colli, with the assistance of Gwen Deglise.
Program notes by Beth Hanna.