Italian Cinema Today

Italy’s first female documentary filmmaker, her films were gritty and unpolished, but they brought attention to the plights of marginalized people. Born in Mola di Bari on July 31, 1927, Cecilia Mangini relocated with her family to Florence  at the age of six, and then moved to Rome in 1952. There, she worked for a film club where she made personal and professional connections that would lay the foundation for the course of her life.    In the late 1950s, she partnered with Pier Paolo Pasolini for a trio of short documentaries that spoke of the poor living in desolation in the shadow of the industrial revolution.   The 1958 film, “Ignoti alla città” (Kids in the slums of Rome), documents the children of poor families living on the outskirts of Rome as they spend their days getting into mischief and searching for items of value in garbage dumps. An outspoken advocate for the poor, Pasolini wanted to show the other side of Italy's stereotypical image of its 1960s post-...

Directed by Saverio Costanzo and adapted from Elena Ferrante's novel My Brilliant Friend , HBO’s new television series is enchanting, mystical, suspenseful and full of drama. A young veteran of contemporary Italian cinema, Costanzo brings to the table his modern style of filmmaking with nostalgic echoes of Italy's Golden Age of cinema. Set in 1950s working-class Naples, the films of Vittorio De Sica instantly come to mind.  Then add the subtle yet powerful performances by its two young stars, Elisa Del Genio and Ludovica Nasti, non-professional actresses, and Costanzo endearingly, perhaps even subconsciously, pays homage to the neorealist genre that De Sica was key in creating. The development of a close friendship between Elena (Elisa Del Genio) and Lila (Ludovica Nasti) is the basis of the first episode, which introduces us to the harsh reality and flawed characters that surround them. The two girls are top in their class and while their teachers encourage thei...