Italian Cinema Today

We all know Campari for its iconic Italian apéritifs. Over the last few years, the brand has teamed up with Rome’s Cinecittà Studios to create enchanting short films to promote its cocktails.  The series, Red Diaries , consists of short films by contemporary Italian directors Matteo Garrone ("Gomorrah”), Stefano Sollima (“Suburra”) and Academy Award winner Paolo Sorrentino (“The Great Beauty”). Each inspired by a specific Campari cocktail, the films are psychological thrillers that contain a strong element of mystery.  Clive Owen in Killer in Red Click on the links below to watch the films.. Killer in Red by Paolo Sorrentino The Legend of Red Hand  by Stefano Sollima Entering Red by Matteo Garrone Campari's website also features recipes for its cocktails, including the infamous Negroni and Americana as well as the Campari story with past art and film campaigns. So make yourself a cocktail and check out these intriguing work...

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.” - Federico Fellini In the June 2006 issue of Rochester, New York's Italian American Community Newspaper, we published an article about the homegrown Italian-American musician, Joe Lana. It is with profound sadness that 13 years later, we are publishing his obituary. Joe Lana suffered a massive heart attack on February 7, 2019. He was 56-years-old. Joe was a musician and music instructor in Rochester for four decades, performing with his bands Iron Cross, Highwire, East Coast Connection, Uncle Plum, Heaviest Thing and Significant Other. He collaborated in the studio and on stage with fellow Italian-American musicians Don Mancuso, Phil Naro, Lou Gramm and many others. He was a mentor to young musicians including his son who is also a drummer. In 2009, he wrote a book titled “Organized Time,” which consists of graphs illustrating a method that he came up with to keep time. He used th...

Magari Nine Italian films are in the lineup of this year's Locarno Film Festival. Among them is the festival opener- Ginevra Elkann's Magari (What If), which will be shown in the famous Piazza Grande. Starring Riccardo Scamarcio and Alba Rohrwacher, the film has been called an emotional comedy telling the story of three very close siblings – Alma, Jean and Sebastian. As children, they live in Paris with their Russian-orthodox catholic mother in a bizarre yet secure upper-class environment. However, they will soon embark on a journey to join Carlo, their absent Italian father. The complete Italian selection is as follows: L'APPRENDISTATO di Davide Maldi: Concorso Cineasti del presente THE COLD RAISING THE COLD di RONG Guang Rong: Concorso Cineasti del presente LA FAMOSA INVASIONE DEGLI ORSI IN SICILIA di Lorenzo Mattotti: Piazza Grande - Special Family Evening HOGAR di Maura Delpero: Concorso internazionale INCOMPIUTA di Samira Guadagnuolo...

A brand new exhibit at the Casa del Cinema in Rome tells the story of screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, a boundless creative force behind the rise of the neorealism movement. Zavattini was born in the region of Emilia-Romagna in 1902. He earned a degree in Law but instead devoted his time to writing. In 1930, he moved to Milan to work at the Rizzoli publishing company. Five years later, he met Vittorio De Sica . They would go on to make 20 films together, including the iconic neorealist films "Shoeshine" (1946), "The Bicycle Thief" (1948), "Miracle in Milan"   (1951) and "Umberto D." (1952). During his career, Zavattini made around 80 films and worked with many of the great directors of Italian cinema, including Michelangelo Antonioni , Federico Fellini , Pietro Germi , Alberto Lattuada, Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Roberto Rossellini, the Taviani brothers and Luchino Visconti. The exhibit features excerpts from his writings, a documentar...

Actress Valentina Cortese has died at the age of 96. She’s appeared in films with the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and Audrey Hepburn, and starred in films by such masters as Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, and François Truffaut. Last year, she was the subject of Francesco Patierno’s documentary, Diva! . Born in Milan on New Year’s Day in 1923,  Valentina Cortese’s mother, an up and coming musician who had just earned her degree and did not want the birth revealed, placed her in the care of another family. Patierno’s  documentary, which made its North American premiere at Lincoln Center’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, explains Cortese’s childhood growing up among the “marvelous, strong people” of farming communities in the Lombardia region of northern Italy. Those early years of her life shaped the independent, honest woman she became. Cortese describes her childhood as “poor but warm.” Although she seldomly saw her real mother, she ...

A new platform has recently been launched that promotes the work of Italian Americans in film and television. The brains behind the initiative is a young, passionate woman who is taking the support that she received early on in her journey and paying it forward. With origins in Basilicata and  Campania , Taylor Taglianetti is a proud Italian American from Brooklyn, New York. She is currently a senior at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in January 2020. She is majoring in Film and Television and minoring in the Business of Entertainment, Media and Technology.  Taglianetti  aspires to be a feature film producer and bring great stories to the big screen. In addition to running NOIAFT, she is currently a Development Intern with Silver Pictures, the production company that produced the Lethal Weapon and The Matrix series. Last summer, she was a development intern with Maven Pictures, the Academy-Award winning production company behind Still Alice and The Kids Are...