<<< October 10 - 21,  2007 >>>

Cinema Italian Style IV

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

See More Cinema Italian Style at the Aero Theatre thru October 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

Wednesday, October 10 – 7:00 PM

Los Angeles Premiere!

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 a saga 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 introduction by director Daniele Luchetti and co-star Riccardo Scamarcio. Cinema Italian Style Award presentation from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM, the film will be starting at 7:30 PM.

Thursday, October 11 – 7:30 PM

Italian Music Documentary + Live World Music Event!

THE ORCHESTRA PIAZZA VITTORIO (L'ORCHESTRA DI PIAZZA VITTORIO), 2006, Netflix/Vitagraph Films, 93 min. Dir. Agostino Ferrente. An award-winning Italian film that chronicles the realization of an ambitious dream -- to create a unique, multi-ethnic orchestra that would fuse cultures, tradition and sounds from around the world. With 250 concerts behind them in Europe and two CDs, the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio makes their West Coast debut with a post-screening live concert at the Egyptian.

The film features musicians from: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, India, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Sengal, Ungheria and the United States. This is the first Orchestra founded on the support of people trying to provide meaningful employment and residency for 25 professional musicians. These musicians are living proof of the different ways in which music, cultures and religions work together and their on-stage performance delivers the powerful message of brotherhood and peace in a way that no declaration, rally or television debate could.

NOT ON DVD Members of the International Orchestra of the Piazza Vittorio will be on hand specifically to perform some of the music in the film in front of the Egyptian’s live audience. Presented in association with Red Envelope Entertainment. Filmmaker Agostino Ferrente in person. See performance footage: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3

THE WOLF (IL LUPO), 2007, 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

CINEMA ITALIAN STYLE [Spielberg]

Double Feature:

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

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 gain the attention of the tabloids, 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

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 only 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 in gratitude to Giovanni, Lorenzo travels to Umbria to find her and bring her back to Genoa, to see her father. NOT ON DVD

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…

CINEMA ITALIAN STYLE [Spielberg]

Double Feature:

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

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 already has 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