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Showing posts from December, 2017

A Conversation with "8 Giugno '76" Actor Giovanni Andriuoli

In the late 1960s through the 70s, a number of “ultraleft” political groups were formed in Italy. They vehemently protested conservative policies and the politicians behind them. In 1974, magistrate Mario Sossi had the members of the ultraleft political movement XXII Ottobre (October 22) tried and convicted. Not long after, a Red Brigades commando kidnapped Sossi. Although he was set free a month later, at the time of the kidnapping, Genovese judge, magistrate Francesco Coco refused to negotiate with the kidnappers. On June 8, 1976, 12 days before an important election, magistrate Coco and his two police escorts were gunned down. The murders are known as the first politically motivated assassination of the left-wing movement. That day, three men were murdered. Magistrate Coco was shot near his house along with the escort agent Giovanni Saponara. Not far away, a second group fired at the magistrate's driver who was waiting for him, killing the policeman, Antioco

Laura Bispuri's New Film in Competition at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival

The first seven films in competition at the Berlin Film Festival have been announced. Representing Italy is Laura Bispuri’s new film Figlia mia (My Daughter), the story of a 9-year-old girl torn between the loving mother who raised her and the biological mother who wants her back. Starring Alba Rohrwacher and Valeria Golino as the mothers and newcomer Sara Casu, the film was shot in rural Sardegna, which has vast landscapes that contrast the film being set in the present.  In an interview with Variety, Gregorio Paonessa of Vivo Film called the plot a “very contemporary theme.” He said the film is "totally in line with Laura’s journey as a director” explaining, "her films have always been meditations on the female condition. In the first one it was gender identity, now she is taking further a step and tackling the theme of maternity.” Bispuri has said that American writer A.M. Homes’s memoir The Mistress’s Daughter was her inspiration behind the film.

Guest Post: Lucia Grillo Interviews Director Marco Danieli

Inspired by a story related to him by an acquaintance, Marco Danieli’s "Worldly Girl" is a rare account of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Italy. Besides winning Best New Director at the Davide di Donatello Awards, Danieli won the Venice Film Festival’s Brian Award, established by the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics and named in homage to the Monty Python film, "Life of Brian." Sensitively executed, "Worldly Girl" deftly and astonishingly portrays the devastating realities of class and religious oppression. Afforded a lengthy interview with the director in the buzzing press room of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Lincoln Center, Danieli and I talked about creating a film from an atheist perspective. What Danieli reveals about this way of looking at the world might provide some insight to those unfamiliar with secularism and I am glad to be able to share this aspect of our conversation, in which Danieli also touches upon the recent spik