CINEMA ITALIAN STYLE 2017
CIS 2017
Cinema, fashion, food excellence and social commitment will be protagonists at the 13rd edition of Cinema Italian Style, the Los Angeles showcase for the best Italian movies of the year, supporting the Italian entry to the Academy Awards® 2018 – Best Foreign Language Film, A CIAMBRA, writer-director Jonas Carpignano’s propulsive drama digs a little deeper into one of the characters from his earlier MEDITERRANEA, a street-smart Romani 14-year-old named Pio.
In a 10 day marathon full of events, Los Angeles public will have the possibility to be immersed in the Italian culture by discovering digitally restored masterpieces like BLOW UP and RED DESERT (Deserto rosso) by Michelangelo Antonioni (to remember 10 years of his passing). Both these screenings are part of the official AFI FEST 2017 presented by Audi program.
Ten titles, selected by Artistic Curator Laura Delli Colli with American Cinematheque’s Director of Programming Gwen Deglise, will then be presented as part of the official program of Cinema Italian Style 2017 at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, at the presence of directors and actors.
This year’s films include many outstanding performances. Jasmine Trinca, awarded Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival “Un Certain Regard” and best Italian actress 2017 the Nastri d’Argento Awards, will introduce her riveting turn in the title role of FORTUNATA, playing a soon-to-be-single mom struggling to realize her dreams. And Renato Carpentieri (best italian actor 2017- Cinematographic press award Nastri d’Argento) is unforgettable as a retired lawyer in failing health who feels closer to his neighbor’s kids than his own children in Gianni Amelio’s HOLDING HANDS.
Young people are the focus of Andrea De Sica’s (nephew of Master Vittorio De Sica and son of composer Manuel) and Roberto De Paolis’ feature debuts, as De Sica will explain in occasion of the screenings of CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT, in which two friends try to shake the wide-ranging restrictions of their boarding school, and PURE HEARTS, when chaste teen Agnese falls hard for Stefano, a young security guard, though the relationship soon gets bumpy.
No survey of Italian cinema could be complete without a little romance. Silvio Soldini in EMMA, explores the feelings between a beautiful but blind osteopath (Valeria Golino) and a womanizing ad agency man (Adriano Giannini). Manetti Bros. will introduce the couple at the center of their musical and dramatic love story, that faces even bigger obstacles – he’s a hit man and she’s a witness he’s been assigned to kill. Set in the beautiful Bay of Naples, LOVE AND BULLETS is not only an action thriller but also a romantic comedy with music that ranges from Neapolitans songs to rap.
Andrea Molaioli’s SLAM, based on the successful novel by Nick Hornby, is the story of a skater dreaming California, facing the most exciting and at the same time frightening of the experiences for a teenager: growing up!
Mismatched couples are played for laughs in two recent Italian comedies. In Francesco Amato’s LET YOURSELF GO, an austere psychoanalyst (Toni Servillo’s THE GREAT BEAUTY leading actor in his first comedy ) tries to lose some weight with the help of a more outgoing personal trainer. Francesco Bruni will explain his central idea in FRIENDS BY CHANCE, in which a tempestuous 22-year-old slacker is forced to tend to 85-year-old (Alzheimer’s sick) wonderful poet (Italian Master Giuliano Montaldo, here excellent actor). In the latest film by comic Italian very popular tv and comedy stars Ficarra & Picone, box office hit comedy IT’S THE LAW!, a small Sicilian village experiences culture shock when its new mayor renounces corruption.
The series also includes short films selected also in collaboration with Rome Creative Contest Festival. Acclaimed actor Claudio Santamaria will introduce his directing debut THE MILLIONAIRS, short film inspired by the graphic novel by Thomas Ott. Other appointments will explore the link between cinema and cuisine, as many different activities in Los Angeles will be part of worldwide events organized for the second edition of the EXTRAORDINARY ITALIAN TASTE – Italian Cuisine in the World Week. Laura Delli Colli, Artistic Curator of Cinema Italian Style, will be introducing her book Bread, Love and Dreams – The taste of Italian cinema, over fifty years of Italian cinema in a tasty journey through images, recipes, memories and backstage stories, on November 15th at the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, followed by the opening of the photographic exhibition “Food and Film Stories”, produced by Istituto Luce Cinecittà with images from the archives of Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
Cinema Italian Style, created in 2004 by Gwen Deglise, Dennis Bartok (American Cinematheque) and Camilla Cormanni (Luce Cinecittà), is co-presented by the American Cinematheque and Luce Cinecittà, under the auspices of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, in collaboration with the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles, the Italian Trade Agency and the Italian Cultural Institute. Supported by The Leading Hotels of the World. Media partner: Variety.
PROGRAM
November 13rd
U.S. premiere of the 4k digital restored version of Blow Up and Red Desert (Deserto rosso) by Michelangelo Antonioni. The restoration of Blow Up was curated by The Criterion Collection, Cineteca di Bologna and Istituto Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with Warner Bros and Park Circus. The restoration of Red Desert was curated by CSC-Cineteca Nazionale and Istituto Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with RTI-Mediaset.
The screenings at the Egyptian Theatre is in partnership with AFI FEST 2017 presented by Audi.
November 15th
The day begins with a morning press conference to introduce the delegation of talents from Italy to the Los Angeles press. Talents include: directors Francesco Bruni (Friends by a chance), Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra), Andrea De Sica (Children of the night), Manetti Bros. (Love and Bullets), Claudio Santamaria (short film The millionairs) and actress Raffaella Lebboroni (Friends by a chance).
In the evening, Laura Delli Colli, Artistic Curator of Cinema Italian Style, will be introducing her book Bread, Love and Dreams – The taste of Italian cinema, over fifty years of Italian cinema in a tasty journey through images, recipes, memories and backstage stories, at the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, followed by the opening of the photographic exhibition Food and Film Stories, produced by Istituto Luce Cinecittà with images from the archives of Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. These events are invitation only and are part of the week dedicated to Extraordinary Italian Taste. Italian Cuisine in the World Week program.
November 16th
The opening night of Cinema Italian Style, will start at 6:00 pm, with the Italian cast on the red carpet at the Egyptian Theatre. Confirmed talents include: directors Francesco Bruni (Friends by a chance), Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra), Andrea De Sica (Children of the night), Manetti Bros. (Love and Bullets), Claudio Santamaria (short film The millionairs) and actress Jasmine Trinca (Fortunata and Slam) and Raffaella Lebboroni (Friends by a chance).
At 6:30 pm: screening of A Ciambra by Jonas Carpignano, the Italian Entry – Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards®, in partnership with AFI FEST 2017 presented by Audi.
From November 17th to 21st
Screenings of some of the best Italian films of the year at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, introduced by Italian directors and actors.
A selection of the best short films of this year will be screened together with the film program, in collaboration with Roma Creative Contest.
SCREENINGS
November 16 – 21, 2017 at the EGYPTIAN and AERO Theatres
Co-presented with AFI FEST: Italy’s Official Oscar® Submission A CIAMBRA, 2017, Sundance Selects, 117 min. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, this keenly observed drama from Jonas Carpignano revisits characters from his debut, MEDITERRANEA. At its center is Pio Amato, a 14-year-old boy living on the poor side of a Calabrian town, where frictions between Italians, gypsies and African immigrants run high, and petty crime is a way of life. Carpignano elicits terrific performances from the predominantly nonprofessional cast, aided by Tim Curtin’s fluid cinematography. “A coming-of-age drama with a stealthy emotional charge that further enhances the writer-director’s reputation as a gifted practitioner of Italian neo-neorealism.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter. In Italian with English subtitles. Discussion following with director Jonas Carpignano.
Double Feature: CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT (I FIGLI DELLA NOTTE), 2016, Reel Suspects, 85 min. Dir. Andrea De Sica. Giulio (Vincenzo Crea), a 17-year-old from a well-to-do family, is sent to an isolated boarding school in the Alps, where iron-clad rules limit all contact with the outside. He finds a kindred spirit in the rather odd Edoardo (Ludovico Succio), with whom he frequently escapes the grounds when security becomes lax after dark. The two discover a nightclub hidden in the forest, where they befriend a prostitute, Elena (Yuliia Sobol) – and ultimately discover that the school’s reach is much greater than they had imagined. In Italian with English subtitles.
PURE HEARTS (CUORI PURI), 2017, The Match Factory, 114 min. Dir. Roberto De Paolis. After her devout mother confiscates her cellphone, 17-year-old Agnese (Selene Caramazza) tries to steal one but is caught by Stefano (Simone Liberati). The young security guard lets Agnese go and is fired thereafter; when the two cross paths again, they begin a relationship that seems destined for trouble. “Mining tensions as varied as the rise of evangelical fervor in economically depressed modern Italy and the country’s relationship to its itinerant gypsy population, this delicately handled romance never comes off as didactic, chiefly by keeping its focus firmly on its two appealing leads.” – Harry Windsor, The Hollywood Reporter. In Italian with English subtitles.
Program begins with the Italian short THE MILLIONAIRS (2017, True Colors, 14 min., Dir. Claudio Santamaria). Discussion between films with CHILDREN OF THE NIGTHS director Andrea De Sica and THE MILLIONAIRS director Claudio Santamaria.
5:00 PM
SLAM, 2016, Netflix, 100’. Dir Andrea Molaioli. Based on the successful novel by Nick Hornby, Slam is all twists and turns and heelflips, it’s the story of a young boy facing the most exciting and at the same time frightening of the experiences for a teenager: growing up! A slam is a hard fall in skateboarding. Samuele (16) spends his days skating with his friends, doing jumps and tricks, and taking the odd spill; he also nurtures a completely imaginary friendship with his hero, Tony Hawk the best skater of all time. He would love to go to university, to travel, maybe even to live in California and pursue the dream of becoming a professional skater. But more than anything, he would love to be the first in his family not to fall into the trap of having a baby at 16, which ended up happening to both his mother and his grandmother.
7:30 PM
Double Feature: FORTUNATA, 2017, True Colors, 103 min. After the international success of DON’T MOVE, director Sergio Castellitto returns with this suburban fairy tale of female empowerment. On the verge of a divorce from her contentious husband and with a young daughter in therapy, Fortunata (Cannes “Un Certain Regard” Best Actress winner Jasmine Trinca, in a star-making performance) is struggling to stay afloat, her dream of owning a beauty salon seemingly impossible – until a new love brings hope into her life. In Italian with English subtitles.
LOVE AND BULLETS (AMMORE E MALAVITA), 2017, Rai Com, 133 min. Dirs. Antonio Manetti, Marco Manetti. This music-filled romp from the Manetti Bros. earned a Golden Lion nomination at the Venice Film Festival. Ciro (Giampaolo Morelli) is among the most feared men in Naples, one of two killers at the service of crime boss Don Vincenzo (Carlo Buccirosso), “the King of Fish.” One night a young nurse, Fatima (Serena Rossi), finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and sees too much; Ciro is given the job of getting rid of her. But when the two end up face to face, they recognize each other as childhood sweethearts. Set in the beautiful Bay of Naples, the movie is a musical, an action thriller but also a romantic comedy with scores from Neapolitans songs to rap.
In Italian with English subtitles.
Discussion between films with FORTUNATA and SLAM actress Jasmine Trinca and LOVE AND BULLETS directors Manetti Bros.
5:00 PM
LET YOURSELF GO (LASCIATI ANDARE), 2017, Menemsha Films, 102 min. Dir. Francesco Amato. Psychoanalyst Elia (THE GREAT BEAUTY’s Toni Servillo) is a pure Freudian whose austere and detached manner holds his patients in awe, even though he lives alone in a flat on the same floor as the ex-wife he still secretly pines for. After a minor illness, Elia’s doctor prescribes an iron-rich diet and physical activity to lose some weight … which is how he chances upon Claudia (Verónica Echegui), a personal trainer well versed in the cult of physique but not that of the mind. In Italian with English subtitles.
7:30 PM
Double Feature: FRIENDS BY CHANCE (TUTTO QUELLO CHE VUOI), 2017, Rai Com, 106 min. Dir. Francesco Bruni. Alessandro (Andrea Carpenzano) is a tempestuous young slacker and a source of endless frustration to his father. Giorgio (Giuliano Montaldo) is a former poet in the early stages of Alzheimer syndrome. The two live within a stone’s throw of one another, but their paths have never crossed … until Alessandro is forced to accompany the old man on his afternoon walks. Bruni received a Nastri d’Argento Award for Best Screenplay for this heartwarming dramedy. In Italian with English subtitles.
IT’S THE LAW! (L’ORA LEGALE), 2017, True Colors, 92 min. Dirs. Salvatore Ficarra, Valentino Picone. In the small Sicilian village of Pietrammare, a mayoral election is approaching; the town has been led for many years by the crooked Gaetano Patanè (Tony Sperandeo), who will use any deception necessary to hold onto power. It’s business as usual for the townspeople until Pierpaolo Natoli (Vincenzo Amato) emerges as the mayor’s opponent. An upstanding 50-year-old professor, Natoli is a political novice full of courage and ideals – and, against all odds, he wins. But are the citizens of Pietrammare ready for a new age of legality and respect for the rules? The Ficarra and Picone team are at their hilarious best in this insightful comedy. In Italian with English subtitles.
Discussion between films with FRIENDS BY CHANCE director Francesco Bruni.
EMMA (IL COLORE NASCOSTO DELLE COSE), 2017, Celluloid Dreams, 116 min. Dir. Silvio Soldini.
Teo (Adriano Giannini) holds a creative position at a trendy ad agency and is an inveterate womanizer. Beautiful and vibrant, Emma (Valeria Golino) is an osteopath though she has been blind since the age of 16. When they first meet, Teo is mesmerized by her sexy voice and intrigued, never having been with a blind woman. The two go out on a date but when Emma proves too sharp to succumb to his charms, Teo is hooked. In Italian with English subtitles.
Program begins with the Italian short THE LEGIONNAIRE (2017, CSC production, 13 min., Dir. Hleb Papou).
HOLDING HANDS (LA TENEREZZA), 2017, Rai Com, 103 min. Dir. Gianni Amelio.
Renato Carpentieri won the Italian Golden Globes Best Actor award as retired lawyer Lorenzo, a self-centered grouch with a heart of gold. His health failing and estranged from his family, Lorenzo grows close to the new family next door – but the neighboring household is not as happy as it seems, and catastrophe awaits. Amelio’s adaptation of Lorenzo Moreno’s prize-winning novel The Temptation to Be Happy is both a powerfully acted character study and an evocative portrait of middle-class Naples. In Italian with English subtitles.
Program begins with the Italian short SCIENCE PILLS (2017, 3 min., Dir. Alessio Lauria, Francesco Lettieri).
FILMS
CIS EXHIBITION 2017
FOOD AND FILM STORIES
From November 16th, 2017 to January 26th, 2018 at Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles
In the process of pursuing reality which has marked a large part of Italian cinema, the table and food have always presented a privileged viewpoint from which to observe customs, traditions and record the changes underway in society.
Conviviality was the word in the typical postwar trattorie where it was as if the diners, sitting side by side, formed a large family. Over time this has changed, the identity has broken down. Present-day cinema screens now portray selective restaurants, with their very much separate tables, the mirror of a society that favors detachment or dining at home with friends. The change is significant, from the interaction of patriarchal families, united around large tables, to the break-up of the family unit, from never-ending lunches preceded by time-consuming preparation, to simple food eaten quickly in the street.
These developments are highlighted by this evocative collection of photos, created entirely from images from the Cineteca Nazionale photo archive. The gallery revolves around three places that have always been connected to food: the street, the kitchen, and the table.
These black-and-white images, featuring the faces of the great names in Italian cinema, revive our childhood memories of the kitchen, the fireside, simple situations lived with great intensity, and those culinary skills shared by our grandmothers.
The photos bring back sensations and values, we rediscover the sweet warmth, the sense of intimacy of the wooden benches where we would once sit to meditate, make bread, iron and devote ourselves to those little everyday actions. Back then, desks were a privilege of the few.
These are details that only the art of photography can freeze in time, as it captures the slow progression of the seasons, but also the persistence of objects, kitchen utensils and the lives that they enclose.
Altogether, this panorama takes us to the heart of the Italians’ great passion for food, showing the social role it has always played, in every era.
The exhibition Food and Film Stories is produced by Istituto Luce Cinecittà with images from the archives of Fondazione Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
CIS SHORTS
November 17th – 21st at Aero Theatre
Friday November 17th at Aero Theatre
Monday November 20th at Aero Theatre
Tuesday November 21st at Aero Theatre
MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI
Istituto Luce Cinecittà dedicates CIS 2017 to Michelangelo Antonioni, commemorating the 10th anniversary of his passing, by presenting the US premiere of the digital restoration of BLOW UP and RED DESERT at AFI FEST 2017 presented by Audi.
Tickets and information:
Michelangelo Antonioni was born on 29 September 1912 in Ferrara, an old city in the Po Valley, North of Italy. In 1935, he graduated from the University of Bologna with a degree in Economics, and in the early 1940’s moved to Rome to attend the prestigious film school “Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia”, which he had to abandon after only six months, to serve under the army for WWII.
He starts writing film reviews for the local paper, II Corriere Padano, which he quit for political issues with Mussolini’s nephew, who had a leading role in it, and later, when he was in Rome, for the important magazine Cinema. He collaborated on the script of Roberto Rossellini’s Un pilota ritorna (A Pilot Returns). In 1942, the production company Scalera hired him as scriptwriter and assistant director for Enrico Fulchignoni’s I due Foscari (The Two Foscaris), then sent him to France as co director of the Italo-French coproduction of Marcel Carne’s film Les Visiteurs du soir (1942). Carné was not happy with the decision as it was the time of the German/Italian occupation in France, the relationship between the two never grew up and Antonioni came back before completing the film.
Returning to Italy to serve the army again, Antonioni shot his first documentary People of the Po Valley, completed only in 1947, after the war. After directing several other documentaries, in 1950 it was finally the time for his first feature film, Story of a Love Affair presenting topics that will be a constant presence in his works the “crisis of emotions and of moral values” within the Italian bourgeois society. With L’avventura (1960)–and the next two films: La notte (196I) and The Eclipse (1962), Antonioni established himself as one of the most talented and innovative Italian filmmakers.
He experimented the use of colour as a key element in the portraying of characters and landscapes in Red Desert (1964). From the mid-1960s on, he explored different cultures and societies. After the London success of Blow-Up (1966), he obtained an MGM contract for shooting Zabriskie Point (1970), then in 1972 he completed Chung Kuo: China, a documentary on Chinese society and in 1974 he shot The Passenger; an international coproduction starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider.
Antonioni’s interest in technical innovations brought him to The Mystery of Oberwald, (1980), a film based on a play by Jean Cocteau whilst with Identification of a Woman (1982), he returned to his homeland. In 1995, after years of silence due to illness, he co directed with Wim Wenders his “comeback” film, Al di là delle nuvole (Beyond the Clouds). In the same year, he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his lifetime commitment to the cinema. Antonioni’s final film, made when he was in his 90s, was a segment of the anthology film Eros (2004), entitled “Il filo pericoloso delle cose” (“The Dangerous Thread of Things”).
Antonioni died aged 94 on July 30, 2007 in Rome. He was buried in his home town of Ferrara on August 2, 2007.