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Showing posts from June, 2020

"Terra Lucana" - video poetry that pays homage to Basilicata

Poetry that crosses images and becomes cinema - By Sergio Ragone Born from an idea by Sergio Ragone and Omar Gallo, and created by the award-winning director Giuseppe Marco Albano , in collaboration with photographers Mariano Silletti, Federica Danzi, Raffaele Contini, Pierangelo Laterza and Michele Lategana, with the original music by Robert G. Pellegrino , the texts by Sergio Ragone , the voices of Omar Gallo and Andrea Ramolo (for the international version), the video "Terra lucana" is an artistic homage to Basilicata, to its natural beauty and its humanity. "We chose to make this video - Albano, Gallo and Ragone jointly declare - to try to give a new story to Basilicata. The choice of the shots of talented photographers, combined with the poetry of the words and the original music composed precisely for this work, has allowed us to overcome the usual and by now consummate narration of Lucanian places through the use of canonical images of Lucanian land

"Roma 11:00" – The Tragic True Story of Desperation in a World of Poverty

There couldn’t have been a more perfect couple than Lucia Bosè and Raf Vallone in Giuseppe De Santis’ 1952 “Roma 11:00.”  A tragic story based on true events, the film follows several young women in post-WWII Rome as they answer a job listing for a typist. When 200 women are in line on one staircase over several floors, a crack leads to the collapse of the entire staircase. Dozens were injured and one was killed. The tragedy spoke to the poverty and desperation that existed for so many Italians in the early 1950s before the ‘58 industrial boom began.  Cesare Zavattini was one of the screenwriters. Elio Petri was the assistant director who interviewed many of the victims and cast a few in supporting roles. In addition to Bosè and Vallone, the film stars Carla Del Poggio, Massimo Girotti, Maria Grazia Francia, Lea Padovani and Delia Scala. The film is set in Largo Circense 37, while in reality the collapse took place in via Savoia 31, in the Salario district, on January 15

Actor Giancarlo Giannini Gets His Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Hollywood, CA. June 17, 2020 — Hollywood Walk of Fame Class of 2021 Announced by Walk of Fame Chair Ellen K and Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Rana Ghadban A new group of entertainment professionals in the categories of Motion Pictures, Television, Live Theatre/Live Performance, Radio and Recording have been selected to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by the Walk of Fame Selection Panel of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. These honorees were chosen from hundreds of nominations at a meeting held on June 15, 2020 and ratified by the Hollywood Chamber’s Board of Directors.  The new selections were revealed via the Walk of Fame Facebook page beginning at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 18. “The Walk of Fame Selection Panel is pleased to announce 35 new honorees to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Selection Panel, made up of fellow Walk of Famers, hand-picks a group of honorees each year that represent various genres of the entertainment world,” said Chair and Wal

Celebrate the International Day of Italian Cinema with us!

Fellini's "Amarcord" Today is the International Day of Italian Cinema and I’m sharing it via Zoom with three Americans of Italian origin who have been influenced by the culture and cinema of Italy. Each of us has gone to Italy to explore our origins and those trips have inspired our work. Everyone is New York City-based, except for me. I am in western New York closer to Toronto than New York City. My guests are:  Taylor Taglianetti , the founder of The National Organization of Italian Americans in Film & Television (NOIAFT) Giò Crisafulli , a filmmaker and Chief Entertainment Critic for the NOIAFT Lucia Grillo, an actress and filmmaker  Our common ground is that we’ve spent extended periods of time in Italy exploring the land of our origins and really taking in and learning about the good and the bad of our culture.. the bad being the difficult past that our ancestors faced, not just in the South but in all of Italy from the pandemics in the North

The Ancient Heart of Basilicata Post-Covid

Sergio Ragone in Matera "In the ancient heart of Basilicata, there is the future of Italy after Covid 19" - By Sergio Ragone Cinecittà Studios announced today that a new chapter of the infamous Rome film school, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, will open in the ancient stone city of Matera, located in the region of Basilicata. So I thought this would be a good time to share a thoughtful commentary by journalist and author Sergio Ragone whose work we have featured often throughout the years. He writes about the coronavirus pandemic and how it impacted his region and what must be done to continue the progress the Lucani have made in the past decade to build and promote Basilicata. There is an Italy that the narrative of this pandemic has cut out, useless to deny it. It is the Italy of small villages, of provincial cities, far from the red areas and from Milan that has lived, lives and suffers because of the Coronavirus. It is the Italy of small communities, o

Federico Fellini: A Look into the Life and Career of an Icon

A Fellini family portrait  “The term became a common word to describe something on the surface you can say is bizarre or strange, but actually is really like a painter working on a film,” said Martin Scorsese when asked to define “Felliniesque,” an adjective inspired by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The oldest of three children, Federico Fellini was born in the seaside town of Rimini in 1920. His father was a traveling salesman, so his mother was left to do the bulk of raising the children. One can argue that Fellini was born for his destiny. “You could tell that even as a child, he was different and unique. He was very intelligent, well above average. He was always the one to organize things, direct the others, make up games. He could control the other kids with just a look, said Fellini’s sister, Maddalena, in an interview with journalist Gideon Bachmann.  Not only was Fellini directing the children, but he was also putting on shows and charging admission

Celebrate the International Day of Italian Cinema from Anywhere in the World

Rai Play is offering a great opportunity to celebrate June 20, the "International Day of Italian Cinema." All the David Di Donatello nominees plus numerous other cinema commemorations, including masterclasses and tributes to Federico Fellini, will be available to watch worldwide online until June 21, as part of the annual cultural event, Fare Cinema (Making Cinema). Pictured is Veronica Spedicati’s David di Donatello nominated short film, “Il Nostro Tempo” starring Celeste Casciaro, Emanuela Minno and Franco Ferrante. One of the most beautiful contemporary films I've seen in a while, Veronica Spedicati's "Il Nostro Tempo" is a story about an unspoken bond between a father and daughter. Shot in an olive grove in southern Italy, the film perfectly captures the atmosphere of gentle breezes and dog days of a Pugliese summer near the sea. The film is available worldwide with Spanish and French subtitles. English subtitles will be added soon, although the s

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

Ettore Scola's 'Trevico-Torino. Viaggio nel Fiat-Nam'

In 1972, Ettore Scola made a docu-fiction about the living conditions southern Italians were forced to endure upon relocating to the FIAT company’s Torino manufacturing plant. The title is, “Trevico-Torino. Viaggio nel Fiat-Nam,” which is a pretty harsh title giving its take on Vietnam.  The film follows a young man, Fortunato Santospirito, from Trevico in the region of Campania to Torino in the region of Piedmont. Once he begins his new job, he is met with hostility there and in his home life, too.  I found a trailer for the film on the AAMOD’s website (Audiovisual Archive Foundation of the Workers' and Democratic Movement), which has become a new fascination of mine after discovering it for the first time in April. This clip is too epic not to translate and post. I wanted it to be under a minute so that I could post it in my IG feed, so I had to cut the original. This clip includes directors Gillo Pontecorvo and Mario Monicelli along with Alberto Sordi recommending