Italian Cinema Today

With so much buzz about  Paolo Sorrentino ’s premiere of “The Hand of God” (È stata la mano di Dio) at the upcoming Venice Film Festival and on Netflix, I’m sharing an opinion piece that I wrote last year about both of his HBO series, “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope.” The article was published in the January, 2021 issue of Fra Noi Magazine .  Sorrentino’s acclaimed HBO series “The Young Pope” and “The New Pope” are visually stunning fantasies of the mysterious world behind the Vatican walls. It was announced last year that a third and final series will round out the trilogy. This fascination surrounding the enigma of Catholicism has been present throughout the director’s career but came to a head in his 2013 Oscar winner, “La grande bellezza” (The Great Beauty). If there was a prelude to the HBO series, it would be that film.   From the opening hymns to the main character, Jep Gambardella ( Toni Servillo ), curiously gazing into a parochial school, the l...

In the late 1960s through the 70s, a number of “ultraleft” political groups were formed in Italy. They vehemently protested conservative policies and the politicians behind them. In 1974, magistrate Mario Sossi had the members of the ultraleft political movement XXII Ottobre (October 22) tried and convicted. Not long after, a Red Brigades commando kidnapped Sossi. Although he was set free a month later, at the time of the kidnapping, Genovese judge, magistrate Francesco Coco refused to negotiate with the kidnappers. On June 8, 1976, 12 days before an important election, magistrate Coco and his two police escorts were gunned down. The murders are known as the first politically motivated assassination of the left-wing movement. That day, three men were murdered. Magistrate Coco was shot near his house along with the escort agent Giovanni Saponara. Not far away, a second group fired at the magistrate's driver who was waiting for him, killing the policeman, An...

The big news coming out of Basilicata this week is that a whopping 10 films shot in the region are among the possibile nominees for the prestigious David di Donatello award, Italy's equivalent to the Oscar. The list will be finalized in April, but these films are under consideration to make the ballot.  In the category Best Italian Film ... Set in the 1950's to the present day,   A diecimilalire   i s a story of immigration, specifically of an 11-year-old boy who flees his small town in Basilicata to join his brother in Rome. He begins this new life by working at a local coffee shop while attending school. Fast forward 15 years, he is married and enjoying Italy's post-war economic boom. However, that economic growth did not trickle down the Italian peninsula to his parents in the south. Through a series of unfortunate events, he returns to Basilicata at the bedside of his dying father. Now back in his hometown, he is faced with all the childhood memories he left beh...

For decades Massimo Gaudioso has given voice, personality, idiosyncrasies and life to some of the most memorable and fascinating characters in Italian cinema. His 17-year collaboration as a screenwriter with director Matteo Garrone resulted in contemporary classics like Gomorrah , Reality and Tale of Tales .   According to Gaudioso, their fateful meeting took place two decades go at the Torino Film Festival where they were debuting their films. They had a lot in common- in particular the desire to make a self-produced, independent film, which did not follow the usual guidelines, instead was made solely out of their enthusiasm and passion. The exchanged ideas on cinema and immediately found common ground. They vowed to work together someday. “We then made a short film together for a tram in Rome that ran through the city. Matteo asked me if I wanted to help him write his third film Estate Romana (Roman Summer) and since then, we have been together and we’ve developed this beaut...