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Showing posts from January, 2017

An Intimate Portrait of Stanley Kubrick's Right-Hand Man

S is for Stanley opens in New York today. If there ever was a must-see documentary film, this is it.  S is for Stanley, the 2016 David di Donatello winner for Best Documentary ,  is an intimate story of friendship. It’s the story of the Italian behind the genius of Stanley Kubrick. Without giving the captivating twists and turns of the film away, director Alex Infascelli introduces Emilio D’Alessandro as a young Italian who moves to London to his life-changing introduction to Stanely Kubrick and then the lifetime of working as Kubrick’s right hand man from giving his opinions about actors (was not of fan of Jack Nicholson) to returning a jacket with a broken zipper to feeding the zoo of stray animals on Kubrick’s property to making a cameo role in the last film that Kubrick would make. If you are familiar with Kubrick’s work, this is a fascinating account of how his films came together. If you are not familiar with his work, this is a moving story of friendship a

Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name is Headed to Berlin

Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name will be the only Italian film in this year's Berlin Film Festival, and will be screened out of competition.  According to the film's distributor, Sony Pictures Classics,  Call Me By Your Name  is based on André Aciman’s acclaimed novel of the same name. Directed by Guadagnino and co-written by James Ivory, Walter Fasano and Guadagnino, it will have its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival in the Premieres section.  Starring Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg,  Call Me By Your Name  explores the  vital and cultivated Elio (Chalamet), the only child of the American-Italian-French Perlman family, who is facing another lazy summer at his parents’ villa in the beautiful Italian countryside when Oliver (Hammer), an academic who has come to help with Elio’s father’s research, arrives. Sony Pictures Classics describes the film as "Visually rich, stunning, deeply emotional and sensual,  Call Me By Your

10 Films Shot in Basilicata are in the Running for a David di Donatello Nomination

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 behin

Sara Serraiocco: Shooting Star Shining Bright

She’s just in her mid-20’s but actress Sara Serraiocco has quickly become one of Italy’s leading ladies. Born in the region of Abruzzo in 1990, Serraiocco got her start performing as a dancer. At the age of 20, she set her sights on acting, and moved to Rome to study her craft at the legendary Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Just three years later, she made her feature film debut in Salvo , Fabio Grassadonia’s and Antonio Piazza’s dark tale of a hit man who falls for his rival’s blind sister. The film is complex with little dialogue, but strong, powerful silences. The role of Rita proved that Serraiocco was born to be a performer. Her subtle but powerful expressions and mannerisms heightened the suspense of the film when the scenes were carried solely and silently by the young actress. Salvo is a story of hope for the hopeless, a last shot at love, if only in the final breath of life. Salvo Mancuso, played by Saleh Bakri, is a hit man, a hired assassin. After killing his