Three Italian Films at the Palm Springs International Film Festival

The 27th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival is underway and will run through 11 January. Three Italian films are featured in this year's program: "Mia Madre" by Nanni Moretti, "Il Viaggio" by Adriano Valerio and "The Other Side" by Roberto Minervini. For information about "Mia Madre", click here to read our original post. The screenings for "Mia Madre" in Palm Springs are already sold out. The descriptions of the following two films are from the festival's website.

Il Viaggio
(Banat)
Director: Adriano Valerio

A random encounter with a stranger can sometimes set our lives on a different path. And so it is with Ivo and Clara. As Clara arrives unannounced in Ivo’s apartment one afternoon. He is moving out and she is moving in. Only he was supposed to have left days ago for a job in Romania. She has an easy disposition (and a secret), so they chat while he packs his remaining things, and when it becomes clear that he’s dragging his cold feet, they go for a walk... And walk and walk and chat and chat. You think this is leading somewhere and maybe it is – but maybe not where you think. Ivo leaves and Clara finds herself wanting to reconnect. After weeks or perhaps months she packs up and heads to Romania where Ivo is ensconced in a farming community. The secret is unwrapped.

Unfortunately, this film was already shown today and there are no more scheduled screenings. Check the festival's site for any possible programming changes.

Producer: Mario Mazzarotto, Emanuele Nespeca
Editor: Catalin Cristutiu
Screenwriter: Ezio Abbate, Adriano Valerio
Cinematographer: Jonathan Ricquebourg
Music: Assen Avramov
Principal Cast: Edoardo Gabbriellini, Elena Radonicich, Piera Degli Esposti, Stefan Velniciuc, Ovanes Torosian
Filmography: Debut Feature
Print Source: EZ Films

The Other Side
Director: Roberto Minervini
This will be the American premiere of "The Other Side". It was shown at the Toronto Film Festival last September.

The title presumably refers to “the tracks,” this being a disquietingly graphic portrait of America’s dirt poor, subsisting on a diet of beer, tobacco, heroin and crack in trailer homes in Louisiana and Texas. Brace yourself: Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini will not flinch. You get more than a hint of what’s coming in the film’s opening scene, when a man wakes up in the bushes stark naked. This is Mark, and we’ll be seeing a lot more of him: shooting up, screwing, dealing, breaking into a school and shooting up some more. For all that, Mark’s a likeable guy, mostly. Which is more than can be said for the militia that pops up later, avowed libertarians training for the forthcoming revolution. Uninterested in (or oblivious to) documentary ethics or the supposed demands of narrative fiction, Minervini is carving out his own truth here. It’s an unpalatable one, to be sure, alternately pathetic and alarming, but you won’t doubt its authenticity, or its validity. This is the other side of the American Dream: the human detritus, angry, abandoned, high as a kite.

The first screening n 8 January is already sold out. Tickets are still available here for the 9th.

Producer: Paolo Benzi, Muriel Meynard, Dario Zonta
Editor: Marie-Hélène Dozo
Screenwriter: Roberto Minervini, Denise Ping Lee
Cinematographer: Diego Romero Suarez-Llanos
Music: Bertrand DeFosse

Comments

The Legend of Alberto Sordi - Rome's Eternal Son

′′They will always judge you, whether you behave well or if you behave badly. So screw it and live as you want but above all don't listen to anyone.′′ - Alberto Sordi By giving his fellow Italians something to laugh about during tumultuous times, he emerged as his generation’s King of Comedy. One of Italy’s best-loved personalities, Alberto Sordi played a pivotal role in Italian cinema from the end of World War II to the postwar economic boom of the 1950s. During those tumultuous years, he gave his countrymen a hearty laugh when they might have otherwise cried. Former Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi perhaps said it best: “Alberto Sordi interpreted the feelings of Italians, especially in their most difficult and tough moments.” Born in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome in 1920, Sordi grew up in a creative household. His mother was an elementary school teacher and his father, a professional musician for the Rome Opera House. A young Sordi joined the children’s choir o...

Alessandro Gassmann: Born to Act

Alessandro Gassmannin his directorial debut "Razzabastarda" Alessandro Gassmann is the son of the iconic Italian actor/director Vittorio Gassman and French actress Juliette Mayniel. He was born in 1965 and grew up around cinema royalty. He made his cinema debut in 1982 at the age of 17 in his father's autobiographical film, "Di padre in figlio." He went on to study his craft under his father's direction at the Theatre Workshop of Florence. Vittorio Gassman was very active in theater and seemed just as comfortable on stage as he did in front of the camera. Known for his powerful interpretations of Dante's "Inferno" and "Paradiso," it is no surprise that he nurtured his son's acting aspirations on stage before he launched his career in television and film. One of Gassmann's strong qualities, which he undoubtedly inherited from his father is his incredible range and ease in going from genre to genre. He can play ...

Luminous Legacies: Yoichi Ohira’s Murano Glass at Magazzino Italian Art

A new exhibition in Cold Spring, New York, is bringing the luminous legacy of Murano glassmaking into focus through the work of Japanese artist Yoichi Ohira. “Yoichi Ohira: Japan in Murano” is on view at Magazzino Italian Art until February 2027. The exhibit showcases the work of Ohira, who became a leading figure in the design of Venetian glassworks on the island of Murano. The exhibition features works that highlight the uniqueness of Ohira’s art across the decades of his career. Ohira’s earliest Murano works blend Venetian glass techniques with his own style. These pieces show balanced shapes, clear surfaces, and striking color combinations. His Venezia e l’Oriente (Venice and the Orient) decanters reflect Venice’s ties to the East, creating vases inspired by Marco Polo’s tales with a modern twist. The exhibition shows Ohira’s respect for Murano’s glass masters, displaying objects alongside preparatory drawings that map ideas to the final works of art. It also explores ho...

The Sweetness and Genius of Giulietta Masina

Fellini and Masina on the set of "La Strada" As open-hearted and sunny as Federico Fellini was dark and complex, they were perfect counterpoints during a half-century of marriage and professional collaboration. Nicknamed a “female Chaplin” and described by Chaplin himself as the actress who moved him most, Giulietta Masina confronted the tragedy of her characters with an eternal innocence and enthusiasm that gave Italians hope in the most challenging of times. Born in 1921 in San Giorgio di Piano, a commune north of Bologna, Masina was the oldest of four children born to a father who was a music professor and violinist and a mother who was a grade-school teacher. Her parents sent her as a child to live in Rome with her widowed aunt while she attended school there. As Masina took an early interest in gymnastics, her aunt saw in her a passion for performing and encouraged her to pursue acting. So after high school, Masina attended Rome’s La...

Federico Fellini: A Look into the Life and Career of an Icon

A Fellini family portrait “The term became a common word to describe something on the surface you can say is bizarre or strange, but actually is really like a painter working on a film,” said Martin Scorsese when asked to define “Felliniesque,” an adjective inspired by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The oldest of three children, Federico Fellini was born in the seaside town of Rimini in 1920. His father was a traveling salesman, so his mother was left to do the bulk of raising the children. One can argue that Fellini was born for his destiny. “You could tell that even as a child, he was different and unique. He was very intelligent, well above average. He was always the one to organize things, direct the others, make up games. He could control the other kids with just a look, said Fellini’s sister, Maddalena, in an interview with journalist Gideon Bachmann. Not only was Fellini directing the children, but he was also putting on shows and charging ...

Italian Cinema Today

Search This Blog