Italian Cinema Today

  Manuela Filomena was born in a small town in Irpinia called Ariano Irpino, located in the region of Campania. Her bringing up contributed to her choice of professions. “Like most Italian families, Sunday has always been a holiday to share with grandparents, aunts and uncles. Perhaps hearing their stories, sharing the work week, and exchanging ideas unknowingly fed my imagination and pleasure in storytelling,” she told me in a recent interview.  That pursuit led her down a long and varied path of international education, which began in England at Loughborough University where she studied art and design. During those years, she took film classes and discovered that editing was the part of the process she enjoyed most. She also developed an interest in writing. Her final project was a short film on environmental issues called “ A prayer for Earth,” which was shown at the university.   While pursuing an M.A. in film and television at the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa ...

Cesare Zavattini on the set of Vittorio De Sica's "L'oro di Napoli" The Audiovisual Archive Foundation of the Workers' and Democratic Movement (AAMOD) was established in the late 1970s. Filmmaker Cesare Zavattini oversaw operations during its first 20 years with the main goal of researching, collecting and storing historical audiovisual documents such as cinema, newsreels and multimedia. Much of the content includes documentaries and video essays covering numerous topics such as social movements, catastrophic events, post-war conditions and culture. In 1983, the archive was declared a place of “considerable historical interest” by the superintendent of the region of Lazio. Over the last decade, many clips have been uploaded to YouTube. Although most of the clips are in Italian without English subtitles, the site is worth looking through if only to see actual video of life in Italy over the last century captured by photojournalists documenting history. Go to...

The 2019 Venice Film Festival is officially underway.  One highly anticipated film is  Scherza con i fanti by Gianfranco Pannone and Ambrogio Sparagna.  The documentary covers over a hundred years from the Unification of Italy to the present to illustrate the varied relationship Italians have had with the military and power in general. The film combines rare stock footage with traditional folk songs and four diaries kept by a soldier for the Kingdom of Italy in the 1800s, a fighter in Ethiopia in 1935, a female resistance fighter during World War II and a sergeant in the Italian Navy in the Kosovo.  The film will be shown in the Sala Perla on August 31 as a Special Event in the program, Giornate degli Autori.    Click here for details on the screening.  Check out the trailer... 

A documentary film that premiered to a standing ovation at the 2016 Festa del Cinema of Rome is gaining momentum as it's being shown all over Italy. Gianfranco Pannone's "Lascia stare i santi" (Leave the Saints Alone) is a mesmerizing portrait of catholic tradition in Italy. From the southern region of Basilicata all the way up to isolated communities in the mountains of the North, Pannone's documentary takes us on a cultural tour along with some of Italy's most ancient traditions. Through music, processions, worship and firsthand accounts, Pannone creatively explores faith and the deeply sentimental rituals used to express it.  Watch the trailer.. Narrated by two of Italy's most esteemed actors, Fabrizio Gifuni and Sonia Bergamasco, who remind us that we are watching actual events because at times, the ceremonies seem so surreal, it feels like you're watching a fictional movie. Composer Ambrogio Sparagna wrote the powerful music score, wh...

The history of the Vatican's Swiss Guard can be traced back to the 16th century. In 1512, Pope Julius II declared the troops "Defenders of the Church's Freedom." Since then, they have been stationed at the Vatican to protect each and every pope.   Gianfranco Pannone’s documentary “The Smallest Army in the World" (L’esercito più piccolo del mondo) explores the training that goes into preparing the Swiss boys to become soldiers of the Vatican.  Pannone begins in Switzerland where the journey commences for the young recruits. He continues inside Vatican City as they are trained and fitted for their famously colorful uniforms. The young men, who come from all walks of life, offer their thoughts on how the Catholic Church should change with the times in order to stay relevant and modern. There are tender moments in which we see Pope Francis greeting people and one scene in which he is just calmly walking by himself. Thanks to the Film Society of Lincoln Center, L...