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Showing posts from April, 2020

Stefano Cipani Wins the 2020 EFA Young Audience Award

The European Film Awards has announced a winner for the 2020 Young Audience Award and it goes to an Italian director. Stefano Cipani received the award for his debut feature film, "Mio fratello rincorre i dinosauri" (My Brother Chases Dinosaurs). The winner was selected by 12 - 14-year-olds in 55 cities across Europe. Starring  Alessandro Gassmann and Isabella Ragonese , "My Brother Chases Dinosaurs" is the story of Jack (Francesco Gheghi) and his brother, Giò (Lorenzo Sisto), who has down syndrome. As a child, Jack believed the well-intended lie his parents told him, that Giò was a special being with superpowers, as in a comic book. Now that he is about to go to high school, however, Jack no longer believes that his brother is a superhero. In fact, he is sometimes embarrassed by him, especially since meeting Arianna, his first love. Jack feels that he cannot risk making a bad impression with the girl of his dreams, and looking after his little brother with h

Marcello Fonte's Mesmerizing Transformations

Marcello Fonte in a scene from “Aspromonte: La terra degli ultimi” A gifted actor, Marcello Fonte has made a career out of effortlessly transforming himself into every character he plays. Born in Melito di Porto Salvo at the southern tip of Calabria, Fonte learned his craft on the fly while working a variety of jobs, including fruit vendor, butcher and barber. During those years of balancing day jobs with small parts, he landed roles in Alice Rohrwacher’s “Corpo celeste” (Heavenly Body) and Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York.” In 2015, Fonte stepped behind the camera to co-direct as well as act in “Asino volo” (Donkey Flies), a coming-of-age story about Maurizio, a headstrong 7-year-old who has to fight to realize his dream of playing the snare drum in the town band. He does so with the counsel and support of a wise donkey and in the face of resistance from his mother, who views music as a luxury the family can’t afford. The film made its North American premiere at Canada

Film at Lincoln Center’s Virtual Cinema

"On a Magical Night"  More great films have been added to Film at Lincoln Center ’s virtual cinema, including a new 2K restoration of Nanni Moretti’s  "Caro Diario" and "On a Magical Night" starring Chiara Mastroianni. Mastroianni is law professor Maria, whose 25-year marriage to Richard (singer-songwriter Benjamin Biolay) is ruptured when he discovers texts from Maria’s younger lover on her phone. After checking into a hotel across the street, she doesn’t exactly find herself alone with her thoughts: over the course of a hallucinatory evening, she’s visited by a series of impossible guests, including Richard’s twenty-something self (Vincent Lacoste) and the embodiment of her own free will (Stéphane Roger). Christophe Honoré’s stylish and sensual aesthetic makes for a swooning reflection on love and memory that becomes even more heartrending thanks to the brilliant cast. With stunning cinematography and quirky characters, "Caro Diario" (D

PostModernissimo's Collection of Arthouse Films & A Bellocchio Adventure

Fabrizio Falco in "Il Lotto" Recently, I discovered Postmodernissimo, a website dedicated to quality cinema, entertainment and visual arts. Named after the Modernissimo D'Essai, Perugia’s oldest cinema which had closed its doors for nearly two decades, the website came about following an effort to get the cinema back up and running. After that goal was achieved, organizers broadened the cinema’s international reach by making a rotating selection of films available online. With Italy’s country-wide quarantine, the list of films was recently expanded. Looking through the titles, I noticed a short film by Marco Bellocchio , “La Lotta” (The Fight). I watched it today. Then I watched it again, and again. I felt that I was missing something because there are so many elements and layers. I enlisted the help of our resident producer, Mauro Ianari, who produced our 2019 short about the pioneer documentarian  Luigi Di Gianni . We went through the film together and noticed a

Cinema & Cibo: The Culinary Muses of Chef Jordan Frosolone

In our ongoing series, Cinema & Cibo, we talk with the Chicago born and raised chef, Jordan Frosolone.  One of New York’s most sought after chefs,  Frosolone's  range of culinary talent is limitless. He can satisfy the most carnivorous of palates one minute and make a mind-blowing vegan truffle risotto the next.  He's been a member of New York's Gruppo Italiano since 2017 and is currently the executive chef/partner at The Leopard located inside the Upper West Side’s legendary Hotel des Artistes. He was recently recognized for one of his signature dishes there, an eggplant timballo.  Visiting Frosolone's website will give you the opportunity to step inside his world through photographs of antique pasta-making instruments and captured moments of his culinary adventures through Italy. There is also a section featuring detailed gourmet recipes.  Having enjoyed that decadent vegan truffle risotto at an event in New York last year to mark the launch o

A Conversation with Actress Lucianna De Falco

“I was born and raised on the island of Ischia, a thermal and volcanic island, to which I belong. It’s the place where I recharge myself with energy, where I am in contact with the elements of nature, magnificent and fearsome as only a volcanic island can be.” Lucianna De Falco is your quintessential southern Italian woman, reflecting the magnificent land of her origins. Beautiful, passionate and exuding strength, she is a character actress who has four decades of roles under her belt. Whether she is on stage, the big screen or television, she has an undeniable commanding presence. “I started my career as an actress thanks to the confidence my mother gave me as a child, De Falco explained. “She had a hair salon where I listened to the various idioms of her foreign clientele. I would asked her, "What language is it?" She always replied, "It's German" or It’s Russian,” making me believe that I could speak all the languages of the world, and thus giving

Musician-Turned-Actor Fortunato Verduci Adds Authenticity to Calabrian Stories

Fortunato Verduci made a name for himself in his native Calabria as a musician specializing in traditional folk songs. One day, he received a call to audition for an American production being shot on location in his region. Three years later, he is responsible for helping to create some of the most memorable scenes in television, which thanks to VOD platforms like Netflix and Amazon, represent Calabria on the international stage.  Born in the Calabrian commune of Motta San Giovanni, located on a mountain top overlooking the Ionian sea, Verduci was raised by a family of musicians. “I grew up to the sound of the tarantella and since I was a child. I’ve accompanied my father with the Motta folk group to play and dance around Italy and Europe. The dance facilitated me in acting because I was used to performing in front of the audience.” Verduci didn’t initially have plans to pursue an acting career. A few years ago, word got around that an international film crew was shooting in

A Conversation With the Man Who Played Pasolini's Christ

There have been countless cinematic interpretations of the books of the Bible, but few have stood the test of time. One that qualifies as a classic is Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 “Il Vangolo secondo Matteo” (The Gospel According to St. Matthew). Considered by the Vatican to be among the best film adaptations of one of the Gospels, Pasolini’s 1964 film was shot in the regions of Calabria, Puglia and Basilicata. In an interview with RAI television while on location in Matera, Pasolini talked about the reasons for shooting there. “I chose two or three places in Basilicata. One is Barile, a town of Albanians. I needed a place for Bethlehem. Another location is Matera because it reminded me of Jerusalem,” he explained. Pasolini’s interpretation of St. Matthews’s Gospel is pure, with no added commentary. He said that he followed the Gospel word for word without adding a single syllable. He explained in the interview that his idea to make the film happened by coincidence. “In October of 19

Antonietta De Lillo's 'The Remains of Nothing' Available to Stream Until April 11

Antonietta De Lillo 's 2005 film made its North American premiere that year at Lincoln Center's annual film series, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema. That's where I saw it at an afternoon screening and was mesmerized by the cinematic world that I became lost in. The film is now available to stream on Vimeo for three days thanks to the Marano Ragazzi Spot Festival. Set toward the end of the 17th century, an apparently fragile Portuguese noblewoman with great intelligence and determination strongly embraces the ideas of the revolution. Conscious of her own limitations and weaknesses, she decides to fight for the affirmation of her ideals. In attempting to bring Naples around to the revolutionary winds blowing through Europe at that time, at the age of 47, she ends up on the scaffold, and is killed along with hundreds of her collaborators under the fury of the Bourbon dynasty. This woman is Eleonora Fimentel de Fonseca, poet, writer, journalist and courageous intellectual.