Italian Cinema Today

Vittorio De Sica’s 1970 drama “Sunflower” (“I girasoli”) is an emotionally charged and ultimately heartbreaking meditation on the lasting effects of war. Co-written by Tonino Guerra and De Sica’s decades-long collaborator, Cesare Zavattini , the film tells a profoundly human tale that grapples with love, loss and difficult choices. Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni star as Giovanna and Antonio, a young Italian couple who marry quickly during World War II in the hopes of delaying Antonio’s deployment. After only a few weeks together, Antonio is sent to the Russian front anyway. When he does not return after the war, Giovanna refuses to accept his presumed death. Her determination to uncover the truth leads her from Italy to the Soviet Union, where she traces his footsteps and discovers that her gut feeling was right. De Sica shows that war’s impact extends far beyond the battlefield. Antonio’s absence is a pain that never goes away, and Giovanna cannot make peace with it. Her des...

The 2016 documentary, “Water and Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, The Colours of Life” is a portrait of an artist told through memory, sincere admiration, and respect. Directed by Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Fariborz Kamkari, the film pays homage to Carlo Di Palma , one of Italy’s most influential and beloved cinematographers, whose work helped define photography in both European art cinema and American independent filmmaking. The documentary is deeply moving and thought provoking because rather than following a traditional style of biography, the story unfolds gently, almost conversationally, the viewer hears from the collaborators, friends and family that shaped Di Palma’s life and work. Kamkari structures the film around interviews with those who knew Di Palma best: directors, collaborators, friends, journalists, and, most poignantly, his wife, Adriana Chiesa Di Palma, who travels the world revisiting the landscapes of his career. Her conversations are unhurried, allowing reflections to emerge ...

Andrea De Sica is the grandson of neorealist legend Vittorio De Sica and the son of famed movie composer Manuel De Sica. He may have been handed a golden ticket at birth, but the 39-year-old has paid his dues while charting his own cinematic course. He attended film school at Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, was an assistant to Bernardo Bertolucci and made numerous short films before his feature directorial debut in 2016. It should come as no surprise that growing up in such a creative family had a profound impact on him. In our 2017 interview , De Sica credited his upbringing with laying his filmmaking foundation. “I come from a family of cinema. I had my first experience on set when I was 10 years old. I don’t have a single memory that is not attached to cinema,” he explained.   De Sica pursued a decidedly dark path early in his career. Made in 2007, his first short, “L’inferno sono gli altri,” opens on a student as he is studying. After responding to a knock at the...

Update.. Christian De Sica will be at Maratha's "Giornate del Cinema Lucano".. Click here to see the lineup. Christian De Sica was the guest of honor during Canada's 2017 Italian Contemporary Film Festival. A press conference took place at the Italian Cultural Institute of Toronto. Members of the international press in attendance asked a number of questions about his current films, future projects and beloved father Vittorio De Sica . Below are a few responses that I found interesting. Please pardon my wobbly camera.. I was not using a tripod.  The video clips are in Italian and the copy is the English translation. I'll start by posting Christian De Sica's answer to my question, since I listed this post as an interview in the sidebar.  I asked him about the reception of his father's neorealist films in America when they were first shown here, if they were used as a history lesson to show the aftermath of post-war Italy ...