November 13 - 18, 2012, at the Egyptian and Aero Theatres
Join us at the Egyptian and Aero Theatres for our annual celebration of Italian cinema, opening with Italy’s official entry Best Foreign-Language Film 2013 Academy Award® CAESAR MUST DIE, a gritty, arresting prison drama directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Also included in the lineup are Vittorio De Sica’s 1960 classic TWO WOMEN, starring Sophia Loren; Massimo Venier’s charming romantic comedy ONE DAY MORE, starring Fabio Volo and Isabella Ragonese; Daniele Vicari's hard-hitting procedural exposé DIAZ: DON’T CLEAN UP THIS BLOOD, the true story of the police assault at the Genoa G8 summit; Ivan Cotroneo’s KRYPTONITE!, about a large Neapolitan family during the politically radical 1970s, starring Valeria Golino and Cristiana Capotondi; Giuseppe Piccioni's sharp institutional satire of a Roman public high school IL ROSSO E IL BLU, starring Riccardo Scamarcio, Roberto Herlitzka and Margherita Buy; Giuliano Montaldo's THE ENTREPRENEUR, a bleak, elegant portrayal of the 1% upper classes struggling to maintain its security, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Carolina Crescentini and Francesco Scianna; Stefano Mordini’s STEEL, a clear-eyed drama of working-class life in a time of dire financial uncertainty, starring Michele Riondino and Vittoria Puccini; Pupi Avati's wonder-filled, 1930s-set romance THE BIG HEART OF GIRLS, starring Alessandro Haber, Cesare Cremonini and, Micaela Ramazzotti; Roan Johnson’s paranoid, 1970s-set comedy THE FIRST ON THE LIST, centering on a trio of bumbling leftist students so convinced that a military coup is nigh that they flee across the Austrian border; and Ferzan Ozpetek's charmingly strange comedic drama MAGNIFICA PRESENZA, starring Elio Germano as a gay pastry chef visited in his new Rome apartment by a former theater troupe of dramatic, hand-wringing ghosts (lead by Giuseppe Fiorello and Margherita Buy) and Carlo Verdone’s latest brilliant comedy A FLAT FOR THREE starring the director himself as one of the three roommates who decide to share an apartment driven by necessity.

All films in Italian with English subtitles.
Series compiled by Laura Delli Colli, Camilla Cormanni and Gwen Deglise. Program notes by Beth Hanna.

TWO WOMEN (LA CIOCIARA), 1960, Surf Film, 100 min., Dir. Vittorio De Sica. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT EGYPTIAN THEATRE

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Oscar® for Best Actress - the first ever awarded for a non-English-language performance won by Sophia Loren. In this movie, she delivers a career-defining performance as a mother struggling to protect her daughter on a journey through war-ravaged Italy. This Italian gem - superbly crafted by neorealist master De Sica - is a devastating and at times shocking portrait of a family on a quest to escape bomb-battered World War II Rome. Jean-Paul Belmondo co-stars as Loren’s young, intellectual love interest. In Italian with English subtitles.

Italy’s Official Entry Best Foreign Language Film 2013 Academy Award®! CAESAR MUST DIE (CESARE DEVE MORIRE), 2012, Adopt Films, 76 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT EGYPTIAN THEATRE

Already winner of the top prize at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's gritty look at Rome's maximum-security Rebibbia prison through the lens of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is hard-hitting drama at its finest. Real-life inmates of the penitentiary participate in an emotion-fueled audition process, and then perform lines from the classic play while behind bars, donning what bare-bones costumes they can find and enacting the timeless tale of betrayal and downfall in a recontextualized light that is at once pertinent, gripping and eye-opening. Official selection of the 2012 New York Film Festival. In Italian with English subtitles.

The evening begins at 7:00 PM with the Cinema Italian Style opening ceremony. Feature film will start at 7:30 PM. Discussion following with directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.

Double Feature: US Premiere! STEEL (ACCIAIO), 2012, Films Distribution, 95 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

Up-and-coming Italian actor Michele Riondino stars as Alessio, who works in the local steel plant of seaside city Piombino and still pines for his ex-lover (Vittoria Puccini), despite her giving him humiliating special treatment when a sweep of layovers besets the company. Meanwhile, Alessio's teenager sister, Anna (Matilde Giannini), is on the cusp of adulthood, looking ahead to a bleak future of scant job opportunities in the wake of Italy's economic crisis. Stefano Mordini's elegant, clear-eyed portrait of working-class life in a time of recession and extreme financial uncertainty was an official selection of the Venice Days program at the 2012 Venice International Film Festival. In Italian with English subtitles.

Los Angeles Premiere! IL ROSSO E IL BLU, 2012, Teodora Film, 98 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

Giuseppe Piccioni's sharp institutional satire of a Roman public high school focuses on the clash between two teachers on opposite ends of the spectrum: the idealistic, hard-headed young Prezioso (Riccardo Scamarcio), who believes he can change his students BLACKBOARD JUNGLE-style, and the grouchy misanthrope Fiorito (Roberto Herlitzka), convinced of the world's unalterable stupidity. Add strict and goofily hypocritical principal Giuliana (Margherita Buy) into the mix and you've got an honest, bittersweet comedy of (educational) errors. In Italian with English subtitles.

Double Feature: Los Angeles Premiere! KRYPTONITE! (LA KRYPTONITE NELLA BORSA), 2011, Rai Trade, 98 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

Screenwriter Ivan Cotroneo (I AM LOVE) makes his directing debut with this vividly colorful depiction of a grandiose Neapolitan family in the tumultuous and politically radical 1970s. Nine-year-old Peppino (Luigi Catani) narrates the ups and downs of his blue-collar family, centered on the boy's philandering father (Luca Zingaretti), while his older siblings experiment with bra burning, hallucinogens and lesbian love-ins, even in the wake of his mother (Valeria Golino) sinking into debilitating depression. With Cristiana Capotondi and Libero De Rienzo. Winner for Best Movie and Best Actress (Golino) at the Annecy Film Festival. Nominated for Best Comedy Award at Nastri d’Argento by the Italian film critics union (S.N.G.C.I.). In Italian with English subtitles.

Los Angeles Premiere! ONE DAY MORE (IL GIORNO IN PIU), 2011, Rai Trade, 111 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

Based on the novel by actor Fabio Volo (here in the lead role), director Massimo Venier's winning nod to classic American romantic comedies follows 30-something manchild Giacomo (Volo), freshly dumped by his exasperated girlfriend. In order to dodge the unwanted advances of his boss' daughter, Giacomo invents an imaginary relationship based on an eye-contact flirtation with a young woman he sees daily on the street car, calling her Agnese. When "Agnese" actually speaks to him one morning, revealing herself to be Michela, moving to New York the following day, Giacomo finds himself in quite a predicament. He convinces Michela to spend four days in Gotham with him, but will the love affair last after the trip is over? An official selection of the Turin Film Festival. In Italian with English subtitles.

Discussion between films with director Ivan Cotroneo (KRYPTONITE!).

Los Angeles Premiere! DIAZ: DON'T CLEAN UP THIS BLOOD (DIAZ), 2012, Fandango Portobello, 120 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

When a slew of hardboiled cops raid the Diaz school, looking for a ring of international anarchist thugs but finding hundreds of mostly peaceful protestors sleeping, the police brutality reaches a fever pitch. Based on real events in Genoa in 2001, Daniele Vicari's hard-hitting procedural exposé stars Claudio Santamaria as Max, one of the film's few good cops, Elio Germano as an unlucky journalist, Jennifer Ulrich as a German demonstrator submitted to particularly heinous police treatment, and Davide Iacopini as the organizer of the G8 Summit. An official selection at the 2012 Berlin and Karlovy Vary international film festivals. In Italian with English subtitles.

Double Feature: Los Angeles Premiere! THE ENTREPRENEUR (L'INDUSTRIALE), 2011, Rai Trade, 94 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

Factory owner Nicola (Pierfrancesco Favino) is too proud to ask his uber-wealthy wife Laura (Italian star Carolina Crescentini), or his mother-in-law (Elisabetta Piccolomini) to help refinance his direly wanting company, but his stubbornness and secrecy begin to strain his marriage. When Laura becomes friendly with a local garage attendant (Eduard Gabia), Nicola worries he'll be made a cuckold if he can't solve his financial woes soon. Enter unscrupulous lawyer Ferrero (Francesco Scianna), whose questionably legal methods only dig Nicola's problems gravely deeper. Giuliano Montaldo's cool gray portrayal of an atrophying, wintry Turin, and the 1% upper classes struggling to maintain its security in the face of a crumbling kingdom, won Best Film at the Golden Globes Italy, and received the 2011 Rome Film Festival's L.A.R.A. award for Scianna's supporting performance. In Italian with English subtitles.

Double Feature: Los Angeles Premiere! MAGNIFICA PRESENZA, 2012, Fandango Portobello, 105 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

In Ferzan Ozpetek's charmingly strange comedic drama, Elio Germano stars as Pietro, a 20-something gay pastry chef and would-be actor who happens to live with a former theater troupe of dramatic, hand-wringing ghosts (led by Giuseppe Fiorello and Margherita Buy) in his new apartment in Rome. As Pietro tries to co-exist with his Grand Guignol roommates, he learns of their unsettling history, which came to a blunt, mysterious end in 1943. Meanwhile, the spooks help him with his love life. With Vittoria Puccini. Winner of the Best Director , Best Actor (Elio Germano) Best Supporting Actress (Paola Minaccioni), Best supporting actor (Beppe Fiorello) awards at the 2012 Golden Globes Italy. Winner of the Nastro d’Argento by the Italian film critics union (S.N.G.C.I.). In Italian with English subtitles.

Discussion between films with actress Carolina Crescentini (THE ENTREPRENEUR), actor Andrea Bosca and Claudia Potenza (MAGNIFICA PRESENZA).

Los Angeles Premiere! THE BIG HEART OF GIRLS (IL CUORE GRANDE DELLE RAGAZZE), 2011, Filmexport Group, 85 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

In Pupi Avati's wonder-filled trip down memory lane, Alessandro Haber narrates in voiceover his 1930s upbringing with the older brother he ardently admired, playboy Carlino (Cesare Cremonini). When Carlino falls for Francesca (Micaela Ramazzotti), a pairing that's met with intense familial objections on both sides, he woos her into marriage but is soon back to his philandering ways when tempted by a former lover (Isabelle Adriani). A pillow-fluffy and candy-sweet romp through complications of the heart (and other body parts), this romantic dramedy is as charming and irresistible as Carlino himself. An official selection of the 2011 Rome Film Festival, Ramazzotti was awarded the Best Actress Nastro d’Argento by the Italian film critics union (S.N.G.C.I.). In Italian with English subtitles.

Double Feature: Los Angeles Premiere! A FLAT FOR THREE (POSTI IN PIEDI IN PARADISO), 2012, Intra Movies,119 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

Carlo Verdone's sharp, merciless comedy centers on divorced buddies Ulisse, Fulvio and Domenico (Carlo Verdone, Pierfrancesco Favino and Marco Giallini) who make the dubious decision to move in together to help their financial woes. But sharing a tiny apartment in Rome proves ridiculously problematic as their personalities clash, and ex-wives, young and grown-up children and frisky new sex partners drop in and out at the most inconvenient times. For his supporting turn, Favino won the Special Jury Award at the 2012 Golden Globes Italy, and the film was awarded Best Comedy by the Italian film critics union (S.N.G.C.I.).

Los Angeles Premiere! THE FIRST ON THE LIST (I PRIMI DELLA LISTA), 2011, Intramovies, 85 min. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AT AERO THEATRE

Set in political turmoil-roiled 1970s Italy, leftist students Renzo (Francesco Turbanti), Fabio (Paolo Cioni) and Pino (Claudio Santamaria) convince themselves that a military coup is near and preemptively flee across the Austrian border, a bumbling move that lands them in jail. Roan Johnson's paranoid comedy perfectly captures the heightened tension of the times, while deftly combining a light, even delightful tone of young, hilariously misguided idealism. Turbanti received a L.A.R.A. Award Special Mention at the 2011 Rome Film Festival. In Italian with English subtitles.