Three top Italian film producers will attend the launch of the Italian Film Festival which runs at Cinema Nouveau screened by Jameson in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban from 5 to 21 October.
Audiences will be able to see some of the most successful Italian films of all time as well as the latest Italian contemporary cinema. Entrance to the films is free.
Among the line-up of classics is Federico Fellini’s 1960 “La Dolce Vita’ (“The Sweet Life’) as well as a Sophia Loren/Marcello Mastroianni retrospective – they star in three films “Una Giornata Particolare’ (“A Special Day’); “Ieri, Oggi E Domani’ (“Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’) and “Matrimonio All’Iitaliana’ (“Marriage Italian-Style’).
New Italian releases include this year’s “Notturno Bus’ (“Night Bus’); Moshen Melliti’s acclaimed “Io, L’Altro’ (“I, The Other’) and the poignant and haunting “La Masseria Delle Allodole’ (“The Lark Farm’).
The producers attending the festival are Massimo Vigliar (“Marriage Italian-Style’) who restored Carlo Ponti’s original version; Grazia Volpi, (“The Lark Farm’) and Maurizio Santarelli (“I, The Other’).
Says Vigliar: “I am proud to present my picture at this South African screening of Italian cinema. It is also memorable that “Marriage Italian-Style’ will be presented a few days later in Rome to open the Rome Film Festival. On the same day – October 19 – Sophia Loren will receive the honourable award of the 2007 Rome Film Festival. She has chosen this film for the opening gala because she considers the role of Filomenta the best of her illustrious career.’
Volpi says of “The Lake Farm”: “It was presented for the first time in Armenia at the beginning of July this year. I’ve always tried to embark on projects with a social commitment and am proud of this film which focuses on the Armenian genocide. It is our duty to tell the younger generations what happened, just as it was important after the fall of Nazism or during the genocide in the Balkans or the present hell raging in Africa, which is the subject of my latest film project.’
Says Elisa d’Onofrio, director of the Italian/South African Cultural Centre and an organiser of the festival: “We are thrilled with this year’s line-up which is full of true gems of world cinema. Classics are shown along with some of Italy’s best contemporary cinema.’
The Italian ambassador to South Africa Alessandro Cevese adds: “The festival gives a rare opportunity to keep in touch with the richness of Italian cinema and it is particularly appropriate in a time when in both Italy and South Africa a renewed and strong interest for cinema is arising. This year the two countries have entered into a bilaterial agreement for film co-production that will encourage further collaboration among associations and producers.’
The Italian Film Festival runs at Cinema Nouveau screened by Jameson in Rosebank, Johannesburg from October 5 to 11; Cinema Nouveau screend by Jameson at the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town from October 12 to 14 and at Cinema Nouveau screend by Jameson Gateway in Durban from October 19 to 21.
Entrance is free and tickets are available from the box office two hours before the film starts. More details from www.sterkinekor.com.
The full Italian Film Festival line-up (all films are screened in Italian with English sub-titles):
FILM: Armata Brancaleone (For Love and Gold; 1966)
CAST: Vittorio Gassman, Catherine Spaak and Gian Maria Volonte
DIRECTOR: Mario Monicelli
(Screened in Joburg on October 5 at 5.30pm; Cape Town on October 12 at 5.30pm; Durban on October 19 at 5.30pm)
A knight is robbed by brigands and left in a ditch. One of the assailants talks his friend Brancaleone into taking up the knight’s identity. Brancaleone becomes the brigands’ commander but the road to Aurocastro is full of perils and unexpected adventures.
FILM: Notturno Bus (Night Bus; 2007)
CAST: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Valerio Mastrandrea and Ennio Fantastichino
DIRECTOR: Davide Marengo
(Screened in Joburg on October 5 at 8.15pm and on October 9 at 8.15pm)
Franz is a bus driver waiting for his big break in life but he’s unable to get rid of his addiction to poker that is costing him a fortune. Then Leila, a beautiful and intriguing woman but also a money forger, storms into his life…
FILM: Io, L’Altro (I, The Other; 2007)
CAST: Raoul Bova, Giovanni Martorana and Mario Pupella
DIRECTOR: Moshen Melliti
(Screened in Joburg on October 6 at 5.30pm and on October 8 at 8.15pm; Cape Town on October 14 at 5.30pm; Durban on October 21 at 5.30pm)
On the fishing boat Medea, the only means of communication with the outside world for Giuseppe and Yousef is a radio. Giuseppe is an unsociable and crusty Sicilian fisherman, Yousef a playful Tunisian immigrant. Their relationship is broken by an announcement regarding the authorities’ hunt for a certain Yousef, a terrorist responsible for the Madrid tragedy.
FILM: La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life; 1960)
CAST: Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg
DIRECTOR: Federico Fellini
(Screened in Joburg on October 6 at 8.15pm; Cape Town on October 14 at 8.15pm; Durban on October 21 at 8.15pm)
Marcello is a journalist who writes celebrity articles for a tabloid magazine. His lifestyle is very similar to that of the celebrities he writes about. At the same time he swings from one relationship to another with indifference. The arrival of an American actress is the chance for another adventure.
FILM: Le Rose Del Deserto (The Roses of the Desert; 2006)
CAST: Michele Placido and Giorgio Pasotti
DIRECTOR: Mario Monicelli
(Screened in Joburg on October 7 at 5.30pm, Cape Town on October 13 at 5.30pm; Durban on October 20 at 5.30pm)
During the summer of 1940, a medical unit of the Italian army camps out at an oasis in the Libyan desert. The atmosphere in the camp is relaxed: the commander spends his time writing passionate love letters to his young wife while an Italian friar involves the Italian soldiers in helping the local population. But the conflict taking place in the North Africa has an unexpected twist.
FILM: Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day; 1977)
CAST: Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni
DIRECTOR: Ettore Scola
(Screened in Joburg on October 7 at 8.15pm, Cape Town on October 13 at 8.15pm; Durban on October 20 at 8.15pm)
In 1938, a fascist Rome is celebrating Hitler’s visit to Mussolini. In a working class tenement, Antonietta, wife to a fervent “black shirt’ fascist, cherishes a photographic album filled with Mussolini’s pictures and famous words. Then she meets a neighbour who has lost his job because he is a homosexual.
FILM: Ieri, Oggi E Domani (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow; 1963)
CAST: Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni
DIRECTOR: Vittorio De Sica
(Screened in Joburg on October 8 at 5.30pm; Cape Town on October 12 at 8.15pm; Durban on October 19 at 8.15pm)
In Naples Adelina smuggles cigarettes in order to support her family and unemployed husband. In Milan, a rich woman starts a relationship with a man of modest origins out of boredom. In Rome, Mara, a young prostitute, has to talk her neighbour’s nephew into going back to the seminary after he has madly fallen in love with her.
FILM: Matrimonio All’Italiana (Marriage Italian-Style; 1964)
CAST: Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni
DIRECTOR: Vittorio De Sica
(Screened in Joburg on October 9 at 5.30pm and on October 11 at 8.15pm)
In a bordello during the war, Domenico Soriano meets Filumena Marturano, a middle-aged woman of humble origins. After falling in love with her, Domenico and Filomena move in together. After 20 years, during which Filumena has never stopped behaving as a dedicated wife and geisha, Domenico still fails to marry her and is actually thinking of putting an end to their relationship by marrying a younger woman who works as a cashier in one of his shops.
FILM: La Masseria Delle Allodole (The Lark Farm; 2007)
CAST: Paz Vega and Moritz Bleibtreu
DIRECTOR: Paolo e Vittorio Taviani
(Screened in Joburg on October 10 at 5.30pm)
It’s 1915 and the Great War is at its start. Turkey is shaken by the conflict and numerous soldiers are planning an ethnic cleansing against the Armenian minority communities living in the country. The Avakian family is celebrating the funeral of its patriarch and also bravely trying not to be defeated by a recurring rumour regarding a possible deportation.
FILM: La Seconda Notte Di Nozze (The Second Night of the Honeymoon; 2005)
CAST: Antonio Albanese and Katia Ricciarelli
DIRECTOR: Pupi Avati
(Screened in Joburg on October 10 at 8.15pm and on October 11 at 5.30pm)
At the end of World War 2, a widow, Liliana, is forced to leave her beloved Bologna with her son Nino. They move to Apulia into the farmhouse of her brother-in-law Giordano, the brother of Liliana’s deceased husband, who in his youth had been madly in love with her.
