Italian Cinema Today

Lucano filmmaker Nicola Ragone will present his latest film "Urli e risvegli" at the Bari International Film Festival.  The film is a  portrait of Carmine Donnola, a bearded and silent man with wide eyes full of life lived. As a young man he wanted to be an actor, but no one ever believed in his talent. Today he is in his '60s and lives in his hometown of Grassano, a small town in Basilicata. Through travel notes between ancestral places among the infinite landscapes of Lucania, Ragone takes us on an intimate adventure full of paradoxical encounters and grotesque characters that make up the fresco of a mythical civilization in conflict with modernity. Watch the trailer... 

Season two of the popular Italian television series Gomorrah is set to hit American airwaves on April 26. Based on Roberto Saviano's best-selling book about the Neapolitan mafia, the series centers on Genny Sevastano and his family's world of organized crime. Set in Naples, the show has come under criticism for depicting the city as a dangerous, crime-infested town. Those criticisms have not hampered the show's popularity. The action-packed compelling episodes are watched and praised all over the world. Primo Magazine recently gave a detailed recap of Season one and what's ahead for Season two. Click here to read the article. Last year, I sat down with one of the show's directors Claudio Cupellini who was in New York promoting his latest film Alaska at Lincoln Center's annual Italian film series- "Open Roads: New Italian Cinema." We talked about his films and also about the Gomorarah series: its popularity and its criticism. You’re from ...

Tribeca Film Festival goers will be treated to an important history lesson this weekend in the form of a beautiful, moving short film made by director Marta Savina. Viola, Franca is the true story of a young Sicilian woman named Franca Viola who was raped and nearly forced to marry her attacker, which before the 1980s, was common place in Italy. Viola defied society and rebelled against this absurd practice by refusing to marry the young man. That defiance led to the law being abolished. In researching the details behind the making of this film, I thought it would be poignant to hand this story over to a young, ambitious Sicilian journalist  Maria Ilenia Crifò Ceraolo who grew up near Viola's hometown. I interviewed Maria Ilenia back in 2015 when I reviewed  Marco Turco's film about Oriana Fallaci . She gave a moving account of Fallaci and her legacy on women journalists, so I thought it would be fitting for her to review this story of female resistance so bea...

The Cannes Film Festival just unveiled its 2017 lineup, which includes just one Italian film-  Sergio Castellitto 's  Fortunata  starring Jasmine Trinca and Alessandro Borghi. The film will be shown  out of competition. This story of hope follows the film's namesake character who is struggling to achieve her goals while trying to be a good mother and deal with an emotionally-charged relationship with her ex-husband.  After the War  by Annarita Zambrano will be shown in the  section- Un Certain Regard.  Set in 2002 as the murder of a labor-court judge reopens old political wounds between Italy and France, a journalist and former left-wing activist  ( Giuseppe Battiston )  takes refuge on the other side of the Alps with his 15-year-old daughter. The move sets events in motion that will change their lives forever. Here is the complete list of films included in the lineup. If you know of a film that is n...