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Showing posts from April, 2019

Destination Monte Vulture

"Wine to Love" Monte Vulture is a magnificent dormant volcano, which houses two small lakes. Surrounded by towns known for their vineyards and olive groves, the rich soil of Vulture produces high-quality local products. The surrounding land is home to the highly regarded wine, Aglianico del Vulture, which was awarded the DOC quality assurance label in 1971 and the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) status in 2011. The ancient origins of Aglianico del Vulture date back to the 6 th century BC.   Among the towns that produce Aglianico del Vulture are Barile, Lagopesole, Melfi, Rapolla, Rionero in Vulture, Ripacandida and Venosa. Each town is unique for its own cuisine, customs and ornate churches and monuments. Lagopesole and Melfi are home to famous medieval castles while Venosa is home to ancient Roman baths and Jewish catacombs. Numerous films have been shot in the area, including Domenico Fortunato’s 2018 "Wine to Love" star

A Look at the Sacred Architecture of the Sassi of Matera

To mark the beginning of Holy Week, I made a video highlighting the sacred architecture of the Sassi of Matera, the 2019 European Capital of Culture and natural set for numerous films, including the next James Bond film. The video shows the the Sassi of Matera and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches. Below is my script, which I put together as a result of my research on various websites including UNESCO . Most of the pictures were taken by me during my trips to Matera. I grabbed a few extras on Wikipedia to fill the five minute running time of the video. According to UNESCO, the Sassi of Matera and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches is the most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte settlement in the Mediterranean region. Located in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera consists of a complex of houses, churches, monasteries and hermitages built into natural caves. The area was first occupied during the Pa

The History Behind a Key Scene in Francesco Rosi's 'Christ Stopped at Eboli'

(Andate sotto per leggere la nostra intervista in Italiano) In Part Two of our series on the release of Francesco's Rosi's complete uncut version of Christ Stopped at Eboli, we are looking into a key scene in which Carlo Levi talks with Gagliano's mayor about the briganti freedom fighters and the peasants' never-ending struggles with red tape and government. He referenced the Siege of Melfi where he believes it all began, because up to that point, the region of Basilicata or the South for that matter had its own wealth. He went on to explain that the battle had a far-reaching effect on Lucania because not only were the riches taken and the city of Melfi destroyed, but the people were also killed. How does a culture recover when much of the population is wiped out? Today, when we speak of poverty in the South of Italy, it is worth noting that even though it was a few hundred years ago, the Siege of Melfi forever changed the region of Basilicata and impacted the

Dustin Hoffman and Toni Servillo Shooting a film at Cinecittà Studios in Rome

Two contemporary classics are teaming up for an upcoming Italian film. Dustin Hoffman and Toni Servillo are currently in Rome shooting Donato Carrisi's  L'uomo del labirinto (Into the Labyrinth) , the follow up to his successful 2017 feature debut,  La ragazza nella nebbia (The Girl in the Fog). Shooting began on March 18 and is expected to last for seven weeks. The story has been described as centering on a young woman, played by actress  Valentina Bellè,  who wakes up in a hospital bed. She has a broken leg, she is also disoriented and can’t remember anything. The room she is in has no windows, only a huge mirror lining one wall, although she can’t see her reflection in it.  With her is a man who introduces himself as a criminal profiler. He explains to the girl that her name is Samantha, that she has been kidnapped and kept prisoner, but managed to escape, and that his job is to find the kidnapper. However, the hunt will not take place in the outside world, but in Sam

Matteo Garrone's 'Dogman' Opening in Theaters Across America

Edoardo Pesce (left) and Marcello Fonte in a scene from Dogman Marcello (Marcello Fonte) is an animal lover who runs a neighborhood dog grooming business. He adores his pre-teen daughter and takes her on scuba diving expeditions. The two dream of visiting exotic places like the Red Sea, Hawaii, and the Maldives. Marcello also has a frailty about him and sometimes seems to feel inferior. He doesn't speak up on his own behalf, and people take advantage of him, especially the local bully, Simone (Edoardo Pesce). Marcello goes along with Simone's antics and even saves his life after he was hit during a drive-by shooting. However, things start spiraling out of control, and Simone makes a demand that Marcello strongly opposes. After Simone roughs him up and makes it clear that he won't take no for an answer, Marcello caves and ends up taking the fall for Simone. When he finishes doing time for the crime he didn't commit, he finds himself a changed man. Prison opened his

Four-Part, Uncut Version of 'Christ Stopped at Eboli' Opens in New York

The story and landscape of Lucania are in the spotlight during the month of April. A rare, uncut version of Francesco Rosi ’s 1979 film "Christ Stopped at Eboli" is being shown at the Film Forum in New York City’s West Village. The screenplay was adapted from the book by Carlo Levi, a doctor, writer and painter from Torino who was exiled to the southern region of Lucania (today, Basilicata) because of his political beliefs. The year was 1935 and Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party was in power. Levi was forced into exile due to the silencing of those who spoke out against fascism.  The uncut version is divided into four parts and lasts approximately four hours. The most striking difference from the two hour version is the visual decadence. The cinematographer, Pasquale De Santis, brother of director Giuseppe De Santis (Bitter Rice) , was Rosi's longtime collaborator. It's obvious from the composition of the shots and the slow pans of the unique Lucanian landsca

The Film Society of Lincoln Center Pays Homage to Ermanno Olmi Following Open Roads

Following the 2019 edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, which will run June 6 -12, the  Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Istituto Luce Cinecittà will present a retrospective dedicated to the work of director Ermanno Olmi. The lineup will include films from his career that spanned more than six decades.  "Updating the stylistic hallmarks of Italian neorealism to craft fiction films full of light and dignity, Olmi time and again captured the experience of work and family and expressed the churn of history with humor and grace. Known for his commitment to working with nonprofessional actors and to capturing the specific textures of the locations in which he filmed, Olmi, who started out as a self-taught documentarian, drew inspiration from his Catholic faith and from the social and cultural preoccupations of his native Lombardy region—personified by peasants in rural farming communities or by white-collar workers in the provincial capital of Milan. But Olmi, who pass