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The Consulate General of Italy, the Italian Cultural Institute and
the San Francisco Film Society present New Italian Cinema Events
(NICE), featuring the City of Florence Award for Best Film as selected
by audience ballot. this year, we present a special addition, a
three-feature tribute to Mimmo Calopresti (read
interview), one of Italy's most promising directors. See
the schedule.
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La seconda volta (1995)
Calopresti's debut feature chronicles the psychological legacy
of the "years of lead" in Italy, the 1970s of the
Red Brigades. Nanni Moretti plays a Turinese professor, Alberto
Sajevo, who suffers blackouts from the terrorist bullet still
lodged in his brain. One day Sajevo recognizes the terrorist
who shot him 12 years earlier. Lisa Venturi (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi,
in a career-defining performance) is out on work furlough from
her 30-year prison sentence. He is shocked to realize that Venturi
doesn't recognize him, while for Sajevo their first encounter
is the source of all his isolation and obsession. In a twist
oddly tinged with romantic tension, he sends her flowers, then
confronts her in public. When she asks him what he wants, Sajevo
replies "For you not to forget." (80 min.) -Nancy
Fishman, SFIFF 1997 |
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La parola amore esiste (1998)
Angela (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), a neurotic thirtysomething
from a well-to-do family, lives with a mother with whom it is
impossible to communicate. The charmingly daffy Angela believes
in omens, superstitions and numerology. She thinks herself in
love with a divorced cello teacher (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a
sweet, handsome, distracted man who is lost without a woman
in his life. She showers him with anonymous love letters which
Marco erroneously thinks are written by one of his students.
The path these two find to each other is the least direct one,
but even then, who knows what fortune has in store? (84 min.)
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Preferisco il rumore del mare (1999)
Discovering yourself is the greatest form of happiness, says
Calopresti. With his mother dead and his father in jail, teenage
Rosario (Michele Raso) withdraws into a morbid shell. But Luigi,
a well-to-do distant relative, manages to get him admitted to
the religious community of Don Lorenzo (Mimmo Calopresti) in
Turin, where Luigi lives with his son Matteo (Paolo Cirio).
The two teenagers, so different in their geographic and social
background, become friends. The Southerner and the Northerner
find something in common as each goes through his own coming-of-age
experience. "That's what the film is about," Calopresti
says, "Capturing your own identity." (87 min.) |
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Giulietta degli spiriti (1965) dir: Federico Fellini
The sublime Giuletta Masina stars in Fellini's first color film,
a phantasmagoria of dreams and memories of an upper class lady
named Giulietta spending the summer in her beautiful villa in
Fregene. During a party for her wedding anniversary a séance
takes place: raffish and erotic ghosts are evoked, together
with innuendos of her husband's presumed betrayals. Giulietta
struggles between her stiff moral rules and the temptation to
live without inhibitions, and confronts her inner world. This
newly restored 35mm print reveals Fellini's "fantasy that
is developed through colored illuminations" as it was shot
by the great Gianni di Venanzo in hues ranging from delicate
pastels to garish primaries. (120 min.) Print supplied by Mediaset-Cinema
Forever.
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La rentrée (2001) dir: Franco Angeli
The agony of the washed-up boxer is the same everywhere, but
director Franco Angeli has forged a unique path through the
conventions of the boxing film. Fresh out of prison, Mario (Francesco
Salvi) returns to his beautiful wife Teresa (Livia Bonifazi)
and the daughter who is the apple of his eye. But, to Teresa's
dismay, rather than the start of a new life, a comeback is what's
on Mario's mind. Teresa refuses to accept the fact that her
husband can only find happiness inside the ring, but Mario must
follow his bliss. (96 min.) Preceded by Pen Son (Figlio di penna),
dir: Francesco Amato, (13 min.).
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Se fossi in te (2001) dir: Giulio Manfredonia
Andrea is a clerk suffocating in family life and a boring job.
Bebo is a businessman who has alienated all his associates.
Christian is a frustrated, penniless DJ in love with a beautiful
pharmacist. One day they meet, each thinking the other has a
better life. Suddenly there is a flash in the sky, and they
find themselves projected into the life of the person they envy.
Things are working out quite nicely in this fantasy, but what
will happen when they have to return to reality? (100 min.)
Preceded by Blind Date Digital Style (Appuntamento al buio),
dir: Herbert Simone Paragnani (13 min.).
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La verità vi prego sull'amore (2001)
dir: Francesco Apolloni
The ensemble cast of a dozen Roman thirtysomethings is thinking
about one thing: Love. It's Valentine's Day and everyone is
fighting, breaking up, realigning, thinking about former lovers
and getting back together. Monica loves Lorenzo, but Lorenzo
loves Olga, and Olga loves Luca. The multitalented director
Francesco Apolloni, wrote, directed and acts in the film (and
also wrote the successful play on which it is based) breaks
through the comedic premise to mine some real issues about people
who believe in True Love, but who find that the reality of being
attractive and successful in contemporary Italian society means
that it is possible, and even easy, to truly fall in love with
someone who is not necessarily your spouse. (113 min.) Preceeded
by Giving You the Life (Se Miguel potesse darti la vita), dir:
Paola Lo Sciuto (3 min.).
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Non è giusto (2001) dir: Antonietta de Lillo
This is a marvelously affecting story in which the children
are the emotionally assured, mature ones, and the adults are
confused, lonely and distraught. Sofia and Valerio (Maddalena
Polistina and Daniele Prodomo in brilliant performances), two
children on the verge of adolescence, meet by chance during
a summer in sunny, seaside Naples. The children have something
in common: Their parents are divorced, and they are in the custody
of their fathers, who are the sensitive, caring ones; the mothers
are absent, apart from brief, hostile appearances and phone
calls. "Life's not fair," the children say, as they
face the world. The problems are just as real, the solutions
just as hazy. (90 min.) Preceded by Sets (Sets), dir: Marco
Zarotti (5 min.).
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NL'uomo in più (2001) dir: Paolo Sorrentino
In Naples in the 1980s, two men live parallel lives, never meeting.
Tony (Toni Servillo) is a pop singer, adored by millions. Antonio
(Andrea Renzi) plays soccer in the first division. They are
two men to whom success, their talent, came as a gift. Then
each experiences a crisis which takes them on a downhill course,
putting his survival skills to the test. Tony faces criminal
charges and scandal for bedding an underage groupie, while Antonio
has a career-ending injury. Their stories, if not their lives,
will affect each other, and in the end, one of them will be
redeemed by the redemption of the other. (100 min.) Preceded
by Lines (Righe), dir: Roberto Di Vito (6 min.).
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Quello che cerchi (2001) dir: Marco S. Puccioni
Impero, a private detective cast in the mold of classic gumshoes,
wearily goes about his routine life, when one day, he is drawn
into a situation which threatens to drown him in forces beyond
his control. His best friend, who has disappeared, asks him
to protect his son, Davide, a brooding ecology activist, whose
dark mood matches the film's noir-like setting of abandoned
factory buildings in Turin. One night, Davide's extreme actions
lead to disastrous results, and Impero is forced to protect
the rebellious adolescent who does not want to be protected.
Between the unwilling father figure and the unwilling teenager,
something has to give. (100 min.) Preceded by Never Say Cat
(Non dire gatto), dir: Giorgio Tirabassi (12 min.).
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Mari del sud (2001) dir: Marcello Cesena
Welcome to Wally World, Italian style. A successful businessman,
Alberto (Diego Abatantuono), is about to take the wife and kids
to a tropical island for the vacation of a lifetime. But all
those years of hard work and sacrifice have taken their toll
on his wife, who is contemplating divorce and on teenage daughter
Sandra, who vehemently rejects her parents' bourgeois values.
To top it all off, as they are about to leave, Alberto discovers
that his financial consultant has run off with all his savings.
To keep up appearances with the neighbors, they decide to hide
for two weeks in the cellar so no one will know they're broke.
What better way to organize their revenge? With Victoria Abril.
(90 min.) Preceeded by The Tree of Bricks (L'albero dei mattoni),
dir Roberto Naccari (15 min.).
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Francesca e Nunziata (2001) dir: Lina Wertmuller
A still stunning Sophia Loren, never-more-subtle Giancarlo Giannini
and Lina Wertmuller are reunited for this plush 19th-century
costume drama, based on the popular novel by Maria Orsini Natale.
Francesca (Loren) was a commoner whose beauty so entranced Prince
Giordano Montorsi (Giannini) that he took her hand in marriage.
The couple kept a vow to the Virgin to adopt an orphan if their
youngest son, Federico, survived an illness. Visiting a convent,
they select the angelic, nine-year-old Nunziata. Now grown,
Federico (Italian hearthrob Raoul Bova) and his stepsister (the
luscious Claudia Gerini) have the hots for each other. Appalled,
the hardheaded businesswoman Francesca makes more profitable
marriage plans for her daughter, but the equally savvy schemer
Nunziata has her own ideas. (125 min.)
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