Italian Cinema Today

Flavio Bucci has passed away. Bucci was a masterful character actor who rose to fame in the late 1970s with roles in Dario Argento’s Suspiria and the successful television series Ligabue and Martin Eden . He worked steadily through the decades dividing his time between the stage, film and television.  In 2008, he played the role of Franco Evangelisti in Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo and in 2016, starred in Antonio Andrisani and Pascal Zullino’s satire shot in Matera, Il vangelo secondo Mattei . I met him in 2015 while he was shooting that film. We met at a cafe with the crew and he seemed so happy with his aperitivo being adored by these young filmmakers who were so honored to have this maestro in their film.  In 2018, those filmmakers along with Marco Caldoro and Riccardo Zinna, made a documentary film about Bucci’s life that premiered at the 2018 Rome Film Festival. The film, Flavioh , is a labor of love by a group of filmmakers paying homage to one of their id...

The people of Basilicata, Lucani, possess many admirable qualities like strength, integrity, and creativity. However, the quality I admire most is their sense of humor. For years, their region has been the subject of unfounded criticism. In one recent article, a Rome-based foreign journalist described the region as “dying mountain towns.” Since Matera was named the 2019 European Capital of Culture just over a year ago, travel agencies worldwide have designed tours, bringing thousands upon thousands to see the Sassi of Matera, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Throughout the years, Hollywood and Cinecittà have transformed this so-called dying region into movie sets for films like "The Passion of the Christ," "Ben Hur," and Edoardo Leo’s award-winning "Noi e La Giulia."   Matera The Lucani have thick skin and usually laugh off empty criticism. However, they have been facing a serious issue for the past couple of years.  A 2014 report released by th...

She's been called the "Queen of Scream" and it's a nickname well-deserved. Coralina Cataldi -Tassoni was born in New York City in 1971. She comes from a creative background, to say the least. Her father was a stage director in the opera world and her mother, an opera singer. Cataldi -Tassoni has followed in those footsteps as a true renaissance woman. She's an accomplished visual artist and singer. But she is best known for her haunting roles in the films of Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento, two of Italy's most notorious horror film directors. Cataldi -Tassoni is a self taught actress who gained much of her experience as a child performing on stage, at times alongside her father. She spent her childhood traveling with her family between Italy and New York City. Her father had an opera company in New York, so whenever a role came up for someone fitting her age bracket, he would call on her to participate. She was just a child when she landed her first sin...