Skip to main content

The New Generation of De Sica

Recently through social media, I've discovered there's a whole new generation of De Sica filmmakers on the rise. Both grandsons of the great Vittorio De Sica, Andrea and Brandon are making films on both sides of the Atlantic.

Andrea De Sica's father was the composer Manuel De Sica, who worked on a number of films, including Michele Soave's 1994 dark comedy "Cemetary Man". He passed away in 2014. Andrea De Sica made his first short film in 2007 and has been quite prolific in his work ever since. He has spent the last few years directing television series. Just recently, it was announces that he was awarded funding by to make his first feature film. Cineuropa announced a few weeks ago that De Sica's new project "I figli della note" (The Children of the Night) was the only Italian movie selected during the latest Eurimages conference granting support for film production. Shooting began in early March in South Tyrol, located in the northern Italian region of Alto Adige. Although young, he has already worked alongside Bernardo Bertolucci, Ferzan Ozpetek and Vincenzo Marra since graduating from the Experimental Film Centre in Rome.

Brando De Sica is the son of Christian De Sica. He studied cinema at the University of Southern California and then returned to Italy where he began his career as an assistant to Pupi Avati. He made his directorial debut with the docu-film " Parlami di me", which was selected for the Rome Film Festival. Four years later, he directed and produced the short film, "La donna giusta", a personal tribute to the work of Roger Corman on Edgar Allan Poe, which was presented at the Taormina Film Festival. The following year, he collaborated with Massimo Gaudioso, Ugo Chiti and Edoardo Albinati on the screenplay of "Racconto dei racconti" by Matteo Garrone. In 2014, he made a fashion video for the handbag label Chaterinelle, later acquired by Rai Cinema and presented at last year's Cannes Film Festival. The film received many accolades, including a Nastro d'Argento for best director, a nomination for the Davide di Donatello award, and a Best Advertising award at the Diane Pernet ASVOFF, a Shaded View on Fashion Film. His latest film, "Not Without Me" will be shown at the New York City Independent Film Festival on April 27. Check here for more information.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New faces of Italian cinema

Angelo Iannelli With the 2012 film festivals just about wrapped up, we saw a big emphasis this year on newly emerging and independent filmmakers. This was most notable in the Venice Film Festival's Horizon's program, which gave these filmmakers an unprecedented amount of visibility as the program reached out to people all over the world via the internet.  To mark this current trend, I recently caught up with two independent filmmakers in Rome: Angelo Iannelli and Vito Napolitano. Each filmmaker has experience on both sides of the camera. Their origins are based in the south of Italy but they are now living in Rome. Angelo Iannelli was born in Benevento in the region of Campania, while Vito Napolitano is from Lecce in Puglia. What I enjoyed the most about our conversation is the passion with which the two young filmmakers speak about cinema. They are so enthusiastic and about their craft, they reel you right into their dreams. The three of us recently met up at the Li

The Timeless Talent of Stefania Sandrelli

On screen since the tender age of 14, she has captivated audiences for more than 50 years with a compelling combination of strength and vulnerability. She achieved stardom at just 14 years old playing the angelic cousin of a love-struck Marcello Mastroianni in Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style.” More than half a century later, she is still going strong and remains one of Italy’s most esteemed actors. Stefania Sandrelli was born on June 5, 1946, in Viareggio in the province of Lucca in northern Italy. As a child, she studied music and dance. Then in 1960, she won a beauty pageant and was featured on the cover of Le Ore magazine. Her purity captivated the country and shortly thereafter, movie offers began pouring in. Just one year later, she made her cinema debut in three feature films: Mario Sequi’s Gioventù di notte , Luciano Salce’s The Fascist, and Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style . She instantly became a star and before long was a key figure in Italy’s legendary

Anna Foglietta: Actress and Activist with Old School Elegance

One look at actress Anna Foglietta in her any of her roles, and the Golden Age of Italian cinema comes to mind. Among Italy’s most sought-after actresses today, Foglietta brings to the table a classic eloquence of yesterday while representing Italy’s modern woman. Born in Rome in 1979, Foglietta began her career in 2005 with a role in the RAI television series La squadra . Her character Agent Anna De Luca had a two-year run on the series as she was transitioning to cinema with Paolo Virzì’s 2006 ensemble project 4-4-2- Il gioco più bello del mondo . Since then, she has become one of Italy’s most diverse actresses, transforming herself into interesting, layered characters for comedies and dramas alike. Aside from a small part in Anton Corbijn’s 2010 film The American starring George Clooney, Foglietta’s work began reaching mainstream American audiences in 2015. As Elisa in Edoardo Leo’s 2015 comedy Noi e la Giulia , Foglietta showed her funny side playing a goofball pregn

"Cinema saved my life" - A Portrait of Claudia Cardinale

Update May 9, 2016 It's just been announced that Claudia Cardinale will present her latest film, "All Roads Lead to Rome" in Niagara Falls, Canada on June 18, 2016 at the Niagara Integrated Film Festival   connecting with Canada's annual Italian Contemporary Italian Film Festival . In these times of reality television, internet streaming and 15 minutes of fame, there are few legends living among us. Actress Claudia Cardinale is one of those few. A truly unique and special person, Cardinale was born in Tunisia in 1938 to Sicilian parents. Her maternal grandparents were originally from the Sicilian island of Trapani, but settled in La Goulette, Tunisia, where there was a large Italian community. Her early life seems something of a fairytale but success brought its share of problems. As a young girl, Cardinale attended elementary school in the ancient city of Carthage. Her first cinematic experience came when she participated in the making of a short film with her

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 Sapienza Universit