Italian Cinema Today

Written by Sveva De Marinis During the 6th edition of Filming Italy Los Angeles, production designers Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, who have been married for years, hosted a masterclass and received the Filming Italy Los Angeles achievement award for their outstanding accomplishments.   The two have been working for decades with some of the most distinguished directors in the business. Ferretti began his career in 1964 at the age of 21 as an assistant production designer on the set of “Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo” (The Gospel According to St. Matthew) by Pier Paolo Pasolini and went on to work as a production designer for five more movies of his. He then worked on Federico Fellini’s last five movies, from “Prova d’orchestra” (Orchestra Rehearsal) to “La voce della luna” (Voice of the Moon).    Lo Schiavo started working as a production designer with Ferretti on Liliana Cavani’s 1981 “La pelle” (The Skin). They continued on their shared artistic path with exc...

Ten shorts by the Sicilian documentary filmmaker Vittorio De Seta are now  available on The Criterion Channel in recognition of 30 years since Martin Scorsese founded The Film Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving cinema.    "Salvatore Giuliano" In addition to the films by De Seta, The Criterion Channel is releasing a number of films during the year-long celebration that have been saved and restored thanks to this initiative. Among the Italian films in the first batch of releases are Luchino Visconti’s 1954 “Senso,” Francesco Rosi’s 1962 “Salvatore Giuliano” and 1972 “The Mattei Affair” and Sergio Leone’s 1968 “Once Upon a Time in the West.” Also included is Sicilian-born American director Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night.” The 10 shorts by Vittorio De Seta are:  The Age of Swordfish (1954) Islands of Fire (1954) Solfatara (1954)  Easter in Sicily (1954) Sea Countrymen (1954) Golden Parable (1954) Fishing Boats (1958) Orgosolo’s Shepherds ...

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...

Born in Florence in 1981 to an Italian mother and German Father, Rohrwacher attended Torino University, where she graduated with a degree in Classic Literature. Her first jobs after college included writing for theater and playing music.  She entered the film industry as an editor of documentary films before directing her first feature, "Corpo Celeste" (Heavenly Body), the tale of a teenage girl painfully assimilating into the culture of southern Italy and the Roman Catholic Church. The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight in 2011 and won several international film festivals before being released in the United States.  Rohrwacher's second feature, "Le meraviglie" (The Wonders), follows a family of beekeepers living in isolation in the Tuscan countryside. The dynamic of their overcrowded household is disrupted by the arrival of a  troubled teenage boy taken in as a farmhand. At the same time, a reality TV show (featuring a host ...

With all the sad news in America this week, I want to focus on the power of family in this Sunday's edition of our series Cinema & Cibo . A cinematic treasure from 1974 captures the strength and courage of our grandparents and great-grandparents who came to this country with dreams of providing a better life for future generations.  Martin Scorsese’s documentary Italianamerican  features a candid interview with the director’s parents about their Sicilian origins, growing up in New York City's Little Italy and his mother’s Sunday sauce. Sitting around the kitchen table, Scorsese talks with his parents about about their struggles growing up and everything they did to get by financially while staying true to their cultural traditions.  After you watch it, check out Jim Jarmusch's question to Scorsese about the making of the film.. and find out why he related to Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront and East of Eden . Jarmusch asks about a shot in Scorses...

It was just announced that Italy's entry for the Oscar race will be a small, independent film made in the south. "A Ciambra,"  directed by Jonas Carpignano with Martin Scorsese as one of the executive producers, takes place within a small community in Calabria. 14-year-old Pio Amato is in a hurry to grow up and follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere. Through him, he learns how to navigate the streets of their hometown. One night, Pio sets out to prove to his brother that he is as good or better than him but when things go wrong, a series of events will forever change the way he sees the world. The film is one of the first projects produced by Lu.Ca . , a partnership between the regions of Basilicata and Calabria. Launched last year with the short film " The Millionairs ," which also served as the directorial debut for award-winning actor Claudio Santamaria with his longtime friend and collaborator Gabriele Marinetti at the helm as executive produc...