Italian Cinema Today

Actor Raoul Bova recently presented two of his films in Canada at the Italian Contemporary Film Festival and the Niagara Integrated Film Festival: Carlo Vanzina’s time travel comedy "Rewind and Reboot" (Torno Indietro e Cambio Vita) and the romantic comedy "All Roads Lead to Rome," which he presented alongside cinema legend and co-star Claudia Cardinale . Bova’s acting career spans more than two decades and it has been a joy to watch him grow and evolve as an actor. He’s not afraid to take on complex characters like Lorenzo in Ferzan Ozpetek’s  "Facing Windows" while he seems to embrace and have fun with lighter storylines like the two he just presented.    I had the great pleasure of meeting Raoul Bova in Niagara Falls where he presented "All Roads Lead to Rome" with Claudia Cardinale. He had a full schedule lined up that day with very little time for interviews, but I managed to slip in three quick questions and he was graceful eno...

Born in Calabria but raised in the northern region of Emilia Romagna, Paola Lavini is making her mark in Italian cinema and television as a diverse actress whose passion is telling real stories through sincere, carefully-developed characters.   Lavini is no stranger to American audiences. If you followed the HBO series Rome , you saw her in the very first episode in 2005 portraying a snobby, ill-mannered trophy wife named Phyllis. When I interviewed Lavini back in October, she told me about one scene in particular in which her character was feasting on the Roman delicacy, porchetta. Since Phyllis was rich, spoiled and uncouth, she ferociously ate the porchetta, throwing any class right out the window. The American producers weren’t expecting this beautiful, petite woman to eat with such gusto and authority. They were thoroughly impressed and later remarked on how brilliant she was while doing that scene.   More recently, Americans watched Lavini on the big screen in Fr...