Italian Cinema Today

As 2023 has drawn to a close, we look back at one event that honored a living legend. Organizers of the 80 th  edition of the Venice Film Festival, which ran August 30 – September 9, recognized several iconic artists. Tributes included a film retrospective dedicated to Gina Lollobrigida , who passed away in January.   One special recognition went to director Liliana Cavani , who was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Now 90 years old, Cavani was there to receive her award and later presented her new film, "L'ordine del tempo,” which premiered out of competition.    Actress Charlotte Rampling, who starred in Cavani’s 1974 devastating Holocaust drama, "Il portiere di notte" (The Night Porter) , presented Cavani with the award.    Charlotte Rampling in "The Night Porter" “From the early 1960s, Liliana Cavani has been forcing us to confront the beautiful, the ugly, and the unresolved. With her relentless questioning through her documentaries and fi...

He’s been called the “mustachioed matinee idol,” but a newfound interest in 1950s melodramas has made him an international arthouse legend. Amedeo Nazzari was born Salvatore Amedeo Buffa on Dec. 10, 1907, in Sardinia. Assuming his maternal grandfather’s last name and moving to Rome during the 1930s to pursue a career in acting, he found an immediate place in theater but struggled to break into film because of his towering height and slim build. Nazzari landed small film parts during the mid-’30s before scoring the title role in Goffredo Alessandrini’s 1938 “Luciano Serra, pilota” (Luciano Serra, Pilot), about an American pilot attacked by Ethiopian soldiers. The film won the Mussolini Cup for Best Italian Film at the 6th Venice International Film Festival and launched Nazzari’s silver-screen career. Although he rose to fame during tumultuous times and was personally invited by Mussolini to join the Fascist Party, Nazzari remained politically neutral and worked prolifically in postwar I...

Curated for the Rome Film Festival, the photo exhibit, Luxardo e il cinema , consists of images of iconic protagonists during the infamous Golden Age of Italian cinema, including Alberto Sordi, Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica and Gina Lollobrigida. All the works, which will remain on display until December 1, belong to the 3M Foundation archive, a permanent cultural research and training institution and proprietor of a vast photographic archive of about 110,000 images. Through this exhibition, created in collaboration with Daniele Luxardo, nephew of the famous photographer, and curated by the photo critic Roberto Mutti, Fondazione 3M pays tribute to the great faces of Italian cinema. As a lover of cinema, Elio Luxardo had learned on the set to use lights in an innovative way to enhance faces. In his shots, the photographer manages to bring out the characteristics of each of his subjects, emphasizing the irony of one look and the seductive strength of another. Watch a clip from my ...

Update, January 16,2023: Gina Lollobrigida has passed away at the age of 95.  On Day 3 of our week-long series, 7 Days - 7 Women, in which we are showcasing seven strong, talented women working as filmmakers, writers or visual artists, we celebrate the forceful, creative energy of movie legend Gina Lollobrigida. She has been called the most beautiful woman in the world and at 87 years old, she is still a sight to behold. Her outer beauty mirrors the talent and inner beauty of this true, complete artist. Lollobrigida, the iconic actress, photojournalist and sculptress, was born Luigina Lollobrigida on July 4, 1932 in Subiaco, Italy, a town located outside of Rome in the province of Lazio.  Adored by fans all over the world, Lollobrigida has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Humphrey Bogart, Rock Hudson, Frank Sinatra, Anthony Quinn and Shelly Winters. She acted opposite Bob Hope in his 1968 comedy, "The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell," and...