Italian Cinema Today

Director Michele Diomà's new film,  Dance With Me Again Heywood! , starring novelist James Ivory, made its world premiere in New York as a Special Event at the 2019 edition of N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events) in November. The story centers on Heywood, a poet who works several jobs to make ends meet. He lives a lonely life with two homeless men as his only friends until an expected encounter changes everything. One morning, he meets a woman suffering from "Moon Butterfly Syndrome”, a condition that makes her invisible to everyone except carriers of the syndrome, such as himself. The two start seeing each other, often to dance the waltz on a Manhattan rooftop. At the same time, Heywood starts wondering whether he'll be able to ignore the prejudice cast upon him by people who could only see a man talking to himself on the streets, while in fact he was with this invisible woman. Heywood's challenge to muster up the courage to be himself and not worry about the opin...

It's just been announced that director Michele Diomà' s new film, "Dance With Me Again Heywood!," will make its world premiere in New York as a Special Event at the 2019 edition of N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events). Featuring novelist James Ivory, the film follows Heywood, a poet who works several jobs to make a living. He was a florist for a while and he's been working as a video editor ever since he moved to New York. Heywood lives a lonely life with two homeless men as his only friends until an expected encounter rocks his world. One morning, he meets a woman suffering from "Moon Butterfly Syndrome,” a condition that makes her invisible to everyone except carriers of the syndrome, such as Heywood. The two start seeing each other, often to go waltzing in secret on a Manhattan rooftop. At the same time, Heywood starts wondering whether he'll be able to ignore the prejudice cast upon him by people who could only see a man talking to himself in the s...

I remember reading a beautiful article by the New York Times in October of 2016 when playwright Dario Fo passed away. It was one of the most comprehensive obituaries I had ever read and it sparked my curiosity about Fo's life and what inspired him to write such moving, controversial works. The Times article stated that Fo was "best known for two works: "Accidental Death of an Anarchist" (1970), a play based on the case of an Italian railroad worker who was either thrown or fell from the upper story of a Milan police station while being questioned on suspicion of terrorism; and his one-man show "Mistero Buffo" (Comic Mystery), written in 1969 and frequently revised and updated in the decades that followed, taking wild comic aim at politics and especially religion.  After a 1977 version of "Mistero Buffo" was broadcast in Italy, the Vatican denounced it as 'the most blasphemous show in the history of television.'  The c...