Italian Cinema Today

Gianni Di Gregorio's "Lontano Lontano" (Citizens of the World) premiered at the Torino Film Festival in November and opened in Italy on February 20. The film marks Ennio Fantastichini's last role. The actor passed away on December 1, 2018. "Lontano Lontano" follows three Italians in their seventies, all dealing with their own problems, who suddenly decide to quit their community life to settle abroad. The Professor, retired after teaching Latin his whole life, is getting bored. Giorgetto, one of the last true Romans, struggles every month to make ends meet. Attilio, a hippie antique dealer, wants to experience the emotions of his youth again. The only decision is where to settle. Inspired by conversations which led to the publication of the anthology Stories from the Eternal City , Gregorio cowrote the screenplay and made sure to pay homage to his beloved hometown of Rome. We'll keep you posted on the film's availability in the U.S. 

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...

I've been seeing so many posters on social media promoting Giuseppe Bonito's new film Figli (Children), which will open in Italy on January 23. The film stars two of my personal favorites, Paola Cortellesi as Sara and Valerio Mastandrea as Nicola, a happily married couple with a 6-year-old girl daughter, Anna. The arrival of their second child, Pietro, upsets the balance of the whole family, giving rise to hilariously tragic situations. Extravagant grandparents, friends on the verge of nervous breakdowns, and unlikely babysitters will not help them. Between moments of happiness and situations of despair, Sara and Nicola do all they can to cope and stay together. The release of the film will undoubtedly be a bittersweet experience for the cast and crew because the writer, Mattia Torre, passed away after losing his battle with cancer in July of last year at the age of 47. In a director's note, Bonito stated that he feels Figli is a film by Torre because he didn't s...

Istituto Luce Cinecittà presents FELLINIANA Ferretti dreams Fellini Cinecittà Studios presents a permanent exhibition-installation dedicated to the Maestro Federico Fellini curated by his production designer Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo. January 20, 2020, marks the 100 th  birthday of Fellini. To mark the event, Cinecittà will present him with a gift, Felliniana - Ferretti dreams of Fellini.  The exhibit will be housed in Cinecittà studios within the historic 'Palazzina Fellini'. The work bears the signature of Dante Ferretti, the Oscar-winning scenographer who for Fellini was one of the magical architects of his visions, an artist-craftsman capable of giving shape to his dreams, and Francesca Lo Schiavo, a close associate of Ferretti, and an internationally acclaimed scenographer and set decorator. The exhibition offers full immersion into Fellini's imagination as well as the dreamlike and suggestive story of an artistic partnershi...

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...

Igor Mitoraj's Tindaro Screpolato in the Boboli Gardens Enjoy one of the world’s most renowned collections of paintings without leaving the comforts of home. Your online hub for everything you’ll want to know about Florence’s Uffizi Galleries can be found on the gallery’s official website.  Read the latest news, browse through past, current and upcoming exhibitions or plan your next trip amid stunning images and videos of magnificent locations like   Palazzo Pitti , the   Boboli Gardens   and   Corridoio Vasariano . Click on the   Digital Archive   tab, where you’ll have access to 600,000 images.  Click here  to browse the Uffizi's collection in English.

She studies cinema and television production at the  Accademia Delle Belle Arti Di Napoli but even before enrolling, she was well on her way to becoming a gifted storyteller and filmmaker. Born in Naples in 1996, Angela Bevilacqua knew early on that she had a passion for cinema and she didn’t waste any time exploring it. She made her first short film when she was just 17-years-old. Il teatro dei ricordi (The Theater of Memories) stars Alessia Alciati and veteran French actor Jean Sorel who is known for his role opposite Claudia Cardinale in Luchino Visconti's 1965 Sandra . An ambitious first effort, the film premiered as a Special Event at the 2014 Giffoni Film Festival . Il teatro dei ricordi is an enigmatic tale of a tormented woman looking for a temporary escape. The film opens in a dense forest as a young woman is walking around looking dazed and confused. She starts to run as if in a panic while a violin resounds. Shortly thereafter, she finds herself in an theater with...