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Buon Compleanno, Piera Degli Esposti

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We don’t talk about “character actors” as much as we used to, but they’re still out there and there are good ones in the US and in Italy.

Take Piera Degli Esposti: She probably doesn’t make a ton of money as an actress, she probably feels unnoticed by fans and the press, and she’s definitely under-appreciated. Born March 13, 1939 in Bologna, she’s appeared in quite a few Italian movies that Italian movie lovers in the US can get their hands on.

Tanti auguri Piera!

Piera's a little "out of it" in La Sconosciuta.

Piera’s a little “out of it” in La Sconosciuta.

The Unknown Woman, La Sconosciuta

Get it with Netflix

Il Divo 

With Sorrentino at the premier of Il Divo at Cannes

With Sorrentino at the premier of Il Divo at Cannes

Watch her collect her Best Supporting Actress award in 2009 for Il Divo.

Get Il Divo with Netflix

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Giulia Doesn’t Date at Night, Giulia Non Esce La Sera

Get it with Netflix

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David’s Birthday, Il Compleanno 

With Sergio Castellitto in "My Mother's Smile'My Mother’s Smile, L’Ora di Religione

Get it with Netflix



Checco Zalone Is Thinking Bigger: “Making A Film Outside Italy Would Be A Dream”

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After three big Italian successes, Checco Zalone thinks it’s time to try for one beyond Italian borders. The comic from Puglia was giving a speech to 700 college students and revealed, “We are trying to learn how to take my comedy abroad”, and added, “we’d like to try tell a story with international appeal.”

 

Cado Dalle Nubi

Cado Dalle Nubi

“We’ve also sold the rights for our last film, Sole a Catinelle, and they’ll soon be doing a remake in France.”

Zalone,  born  Luca Medici on June 3, 1966 in Bari has made three films since 2009, each one more successful than the last. The second, Che Bella Giornata, outdid Roberto Benigni’s La Vita è Bella in Italy, and the third, Sole a Catinelle made an astounding, record-setting 54 million euro.

Che Bella Giornata

Che Bella Giornata

So will Checco make it outside Italian borders? It seems that he understands that his comedy will have to be modified for a more general, international audience, but is he funny?

Sole a Catinelle

Sole a Catinelle

You tell me. His films are available with English subtitles, and I’ve found Checco’s first film,  Cado Dalle Nubi in its entirety on YouTube.

So what do you make of Checco? Is he the real deal?

READ MY REVIEW OF CADO DALLE NUBI

READ MY REVIEW OF CHE BELLA GIORNATA

READ MY REVIEW OF SOLE A CATINELLE


The Women Behind The Men of Italian Cinema

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A “moglie” or a “fidanzata”, wife or fiancé of an Italian director or actor is very often a pretty normal non-celebrity. Remember, a fiancé’s  not always an actual fiancé in Italy. An Italian friend explained to me that young people in Italy got into the habit of calling everyone they brought home to meet the parents a “fidanzato” to make it appear that things were more serious than they actually were.

TOMORROW, THE MEN BEHIND THE WOMEN.

When Paolo Sorrentino’s name was announced as the winner of the Academy Award for La Grande Bellezza his wife Daniela D’Antonio,  a journalist, was by his side. They have two children, Anna and Carlo.

Paolo Sorrentino and wife Daniela

Paolo Sorrentino and wife Daniela

Christian De Sica’s famous father director Vittorio De Sica used to hang out with Carlo Verdone’s father, a film journalist, and Christian ended up marrying into the family. He’s still married to Silvia, Carlo Verdone’s sister. They have two children, Mariarosa and Brando.

Christian De Sica and his wife Silvia, sister of Carlo Verdone.

Christian De Sica and his wife Silvia, sister of Carlo Verdone.

Director Carlo Virzì is married to the almost equally famous actress from ‘La Prima Cosa Bella’, Micaela Ramazzotti. They have two children, Jacopo and Anna.

Carlo Virzì e Micaela Ramazzotti

Carlo Virzì e Micaela Ramazzotti

Toni Servillo (La Grande Bellezza, Il Divo, Gomorrah) has been married to the actress Manuela Lamanna since 1990. They have two sons, Eduardo and Tommaso.

Toni Servillo and his wife Manuela.

Toni Servillo and his wife Manuela.

Luigi Lo Cascio once said that he’d married the “girl next door” and  meant that quite literally. His wife Desideria Rayner, an editor, lived across the hall from him in his Rome apartment. They have a one son.

Luigi Lo Cascio and Desideria

Luigi Lo Cascio and Desideria

Mariangela Eboli is married to Checco Zalone and they have a baby daughter, Gaia.

Checco Zalone and Mariangela

Checco Zalone and Mariangela

Valerio Mastandrea and his wife actress Valentina Avenia in a paparazzi shot at the beach.

Valerio Mastandrea and Valentina

Valerio Mastandrea and Valentina

Stefano Accorsi, 44, appears to have pulled a Johnny Depp and left his more age appropriate wife, the French actress Laetitia Casta  for 22-year-old fidanzata Bianca Vitali.

Stefano Accorsi and Bianca Vitali

Stefano Accorsi and Bianca Vitali


The Men Behind The Women

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Seems like a l lot of Italian actresses fall in love on the job.

Giovanna Mezzogiorno was the fidanzata of actor Stefano Accorsi for years but in 2009 she married camera man Alessia Fugolo and she took a few years off acting for kids – they have twins, Leone and Zeno.

Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Alessio Fugolo. Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Alessio Fugolo.

Jasmine Trinca’s tesoro is Antonio Piarulli, her college sweetheart. They have a daughter, Elsa.

Jasmine Trinca with fidanzato Antonio Piarulli.

Jasmine Trinca with fidanzato Antonio Piarulli.

Paola Cortellesi married her fidanzato of nine years, director and screenwriter Riccardo Milani. They met on the set of Il Posto Dell’Anima and they have a baby daughter, Laura.

Paola Cortellesi with husband Riccardo Milani

Paola Cortellesi with husband Riccardo Milani

Valeria Golino and Riccardo Scamarcio have that Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher thing going, but it really seems to be working for them. They’ve been together since 2006.

Valeria Golino and Riccardo Scamarcio

Valeria Golino and Riccardo Scamarcio

Isabella Ferrari has freely admitted to have been unfaithful to her husband Renato De Maria, but “he understands her”, whatever that means.

Isabella Ferrari and her husband Renato De Maria

Isabella Ferrari and her husband Renato De Maria

Claudia Gerini and director Federico Zampaglione have been together for 8 years and have a daughter, Linda. They say they are too lazy to get married.

Claudia Gerini and director Federico Zampaglione

Claudia Gerini and director Federico Zampaglione


John Turturro All’Italiana: Making A Movie With Nanni Moretti

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Nanni Moretti (The Son’s Room, We Have a Pope) is getting ready to release his newest, Mia Madre (My Mother) with my favorite actress Margherita Buy, and the Cohen Brothers’ favorite Italian-American, John Turturro. In the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera’s interview with Turturro, he talks of his love of Italy, the country in which his parents were born.

Nanni Moretti

Nanni Moretti

 

“I’ve always been tied to Italy, it’s the land of my parents; my mother was born in Sicily and my father in Puglia. In Brooklyn and Queens, I grew up listing to the languages of so many immigrants all around me. And since I have an Italian passport, the idea of acting in ‘Mia Madre’ with Nanni Moretti made me really happy.”

Margherita Buy

“There’s an article in the New York TImes talking about all of the artistic heirs to Woody Allen: Nanni Moretti would be his nephew”, said the actor. “I have known Nanni for twenty years and I have loved his films. He is a director that is very demanding but stimulating, the script was beautiful and it was wonderful to work with Margherita Buy.”

 

 


The Rohrwacher Girls Are Going To Cannes

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The Cannes Film Festival announced its official lineup and in competition for the Palme D’Or, director Alice Rohrwacher’s second film, Le Meraviglie, starring her sister, actress Alba Rohrwacher and Monica Bellucci. 

Alba Rohrwacher

Alba Rohrwacher

Monica Bellucci

Monica Bellucci

One of two female directors in competition this year, Italian writer-director Rohrwacher brings the story of a 14-year-old girl in the Umbrian countryside whose secluded life is shattered by the arrival of a young German ex-con.

You can watch Alba’s directorial debut, Corpo Celeste, on Netflix, a very personal and very genuine story of 13-year-old Marta’s move from Switzerland to Italy is the best of two worlds; it’s got authenticity and realism but remains an allegorical fairy tale, with a young heroine fighting figurative dragons in a far-off land.

Out of competition, another female director, Asia Argento, will be there with Incompresa. Cannes has been getting heat in the last few years for its deficiency in female directors, so it will be up to Asia and Alice to represent Italy and women.

Asia Argento

Asia Argento


An Interview With Daniele Luchetti

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I can’t say for sure, but I can only imagine what it would be like to organize an event featuring a bunch of Hollywood directors and celebrities, with all of the egos and strong personalities. I think I have some idea. I read People Magazine.

But Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at NYC’s Lincoln Center, with its meeting of Italian moviemaker minds proved it doesn’t have to be that way.

Directors like Daniele Luchetti proved to be a PLEASURE, bringing their films to America and talking about them. Luchetti, in particular, is a very nice guy, one who just happens to be talented, artistic, visionary, and in effect, the future of Italian cinema.

I had the honor of sitting down and talking to Daniele Luchetti, a director who brought his stunningly autobiographical film Anni Felici (Those Happy Years) to the my favorite film festival on the planet, Lincoln Center’s Open Roads:New Italian Cinema.

Micaela Ramazzotti

Anni Felici

I loved the film, the story based on Luchetti’s childhood and his truly “out there” parents, but I loved Luchetti even more. The memories of his parents, his childhood, and how they’ve affected him as a grownup are beautiful and at times, heartbreaking. Luchetti says that it took jumping into “acqua fredda” (cold water) and just doing it, that is to say, telling the truth about his life.

He talked to me about shooting the film and how everyone kept telling him how brave he was, telling about his artistic, eccentric family and their volatile family dynamics and that he really didn’t understand what they were talking about until he started the editing process. Then, and only then, did he start to see what others were seeing, and he found that it had touched something in him and was unable to leave the editing room; and he spent a full year there.

At the screening’s Q&A after the film Luchetti was asked if something that happens at the end of the story had really happened. Luchetti replied that though the movie was mostly real events, this particular scene was something that had not happened, but something he had wished had happened.

I asked Luchetti if this was something that he’d planned all along for the movie, or if he’d discovered it along the way and he told me that the whole film was a collection of stories that 1) had actually happened, 2) he’d been afraid would happen, and 3) would have wanted to have happened.

The coping device for young Luchetti was something that would prove to serve him as an adult, a video camera, and when I asked its importance he told me that as a child it was a means of taking a distance from the events in his life. His memory was of a family in which everyone was trying to control everyone else, through affection, coldness, tenderness, and toughness, but always in a self-serving way.

The young protagonist suffers, but he doesn’t know why, so the camera allows him to take a distance and filter out what is going on.

I told Luchetti that I saw him as a very modern Italian director who seems to want to break away from the old school directors, and he agreed. He said that beginning his career he had wanted to make classic films, but as he grew as a director his methods changed and he saw the importance of the director/actor relationship. He said that in the old days, Italian director had an almost antagonistic relationship with the stars, but that he was much more interested in the actor and what they embodied as human beings.

Luchetti’s father has died, but he said that his mother and brother got a big kick out of seeing their story on the screen, though his mother was a little worried about what the neighbors would think.

“She was mostly worried about the scene in which the boy shows anger for his mother. The rest”, he said, “just amused her.

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Happy Birthday Giuseppe Tornatore!

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Winner of awards at the Cannes Film Festival,  two BAFTA awards, a European Film Award, Golden Globes, David di Donatellos, Nastro D’Argento Awards, Venice Film Festival and countless other film festival awards, Guiseppe Tornatore is a universally loved director.

When I tell people that I love Italian movies they always mention Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso; even people who don’t think they like foreign films have seen and enjoyed that one.

There are plenty of opportunities to get to know him and his work; check out a Tornatore film today and wish him auguri! 

Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso

 

Cinema Paradiso -  This film follows Salvatore, a Sicilian boy who is mesmerized by the movies shown at the local theater.

 

La Sconosciuta

La Sconosciuta

 

La Sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman)  Irina, a Ukrainian sex slave who has escaped to Italy in search of something and we are left guessing for a long time what that something is. She arrives in a northern Italian town with a big wad of cash, taking a terrible apartment, and intent on ingratiating herself in the lives of a rich Italian family that live across the street from her.

 

La Migliore Offerta

La Migliore Offerta

 

La Migliore Offerta (The Best Offer)  (Stars Geoffrey Rush and is an English language film.) When Virgil Oldman is contacted by an heiress with some art that she’s interested in selling he’s at first annoyed that she’ll only talk to him on the phone, then intrigued, and finally infatuated with the mystery surrounding her. In Oldman’s eyes, she’s the perfect woman; beautiful, contained, and something to acquire. His relationship with her and two other new friends change his world and open it up in ways he never could have imagined.

Baària

Baària

Baarìa  Baarìa is autobiographic story of three generations in the Sicilian village, Bagheria where Tornatore, was born and Baarìa is Sicilian slang for it. Like his earlier CInema Paradisoit’s very sentimental and beautifully filmed.



Supergirls in Italian Cinema

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Watch out boys: The girls are taking over.

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Alice Rohrwacher

Alice Rohrwacher – There were two Italians with films at Cannes, both were women, and one of them won the Grand Prix. While it was not expected, the jury loved Alice Rohrwacher’s ‘Le Mereviglie’, and we’re all wondering what the 33 year-old filmmaker will do next.

Alice is the sister of Alba Rohrwacher, one of Italy’s finest actresses, and Alba starred in Alice’s film.

 

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi - Being the sister of model/actress/former first lady of France Carla Bruni wasn’t enough for Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; all of a sudden she’s the sister everyone is talking about. Valeria stars in one of the most successful movies out there today, Il Capitale Umano, won the Best Actress award at the Tribeca Film Festival, and has directed her own movie, the autobiographical Un Castello In Italia. 

 

Asia Argento

Asia Argento

 

Asia Argento - The daughter of Dario Argento, she was the other Italian direct at Cannes and wowed everyone with Incompresa (Misunderstood). This definitely free spirit says she’s giving up acting to exclusively direct.

 

Valeria Golini

Valeria Golini

Valeria Golino - Valeria Golino has been acting in movies since the ’80s and starred in Hollywood movies like Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Beautiful and talented, she’s still a leading lady, but has branched out into directing with award-winning films like Miele with Jasmine Trinca.

 

Emma Dante, far right

Emma Dante, far right

Emma Dante - You can meet director/playwright/actress Emma Dante at this year’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema. She’s bringing her Via Castellana Bandiera (A Street in Palermo), and will be there for a Q&A. Emma wrote, starred in, and directed this film that premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

 

 


Will We Finally Hear Riccardo Scamarcio Speak English?

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I’ve written about two other English language movies that Riccardo worked on, one (Blind Bastards) never saw the light of day and the second, a period piece from Emma Thompson, is taking years to be released because of a legal dispute. But fear not, Scamarcio fans, a new movie from Abel Ferrara seems sure to make it to the big screen.

Ferrara’s (Bad Lieutenant, King of New York) new movie is interesting in a few ways: It’s about Italian director Paolo Pasolini (Mamma Rosa) , a male prostitute, the final days of the Italian filmmaker’s death in 1975, and it stars Riccardo Scamarcio.

Willem Dafoe as Pasolini

Willem Dafoe

Willem Dafoe will play Pasolini, and Scamarcio will be Pino Pelosi, the prostitute that was accused of his murder. For nearly 40 years Pasolini’s death has been a true murder mystery;  after being run over several times by his own car at the seaside near Rome. police at first arrested Pelosi, but he was released for lack of evidence. Soon after, a search was launched for three men who reportedly opposed Pasolini’s leftist and libertine views, but they were never found. And in 2005, police reopened the case after some evidence emerged that Pasolini may have been involved in an extortion scheme.

Pasolini

Pasolini

Abel Ferrara told Italian media: “I know who killed him,” without revealing a name. Local media were split on whether the remark was true insight that Ferrara picked up in his research or was aimed at increasing interest in the film.


An Interview With Stephen Amidon, Author of Il Capitale Umano

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I’ve been callling Paolo Virzì’s film “the next big thing” for a while now and, I told you so! Il Capitale Umano is winning award after award and did great at the box office. It will surely be Italy’s submission to the Oscars in 2015.

Meet Stephen Amidon, the author of, Human Capital, the book on which the movie is based.

Stephen Amidon is an American author (Sorry Stephen! Thought you were from London!) and film critic. He grew up on the east coast and moved to London in 1987. His novel Human Capital was chosen by Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post as one of the five best works of fiction of 2004. The film adaptation of Human Capital, Il Capitale Umano directed by Virzi, opened to rave reviews in Italy in January 2014 and it premiered in New York at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival where Valeria Bruni Tedeschi won best actress for her performance.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

The film has not yet become available to me, but I have read the book and it is quite the page turner. Can’t wait to see the movie!

Order Stephen Amidon’s ‘Human Capital.

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Stephen was kind enough to give me an interview about the book, and what it was like to make it into a movie.

It’s so interesting to me that you’re from England, have written a story about Americans, and now it’s on screen as a story about Italians. I’m sure it works because it’s such a universal theme, but do you have any thoughts about how your story my have changed when Italians got ahold of it? Either for the good or for the bad? Did it take on a new “Italian” life, in that sense?

Stephen – I’m actually from New Jersey, though I lived in London for twelve years, from 1987-1999. But your question is still a very good one. I must say I was a little apprehensive about how the story would change in an Italian setting, but was surprised (and gratified) by how similar Paolo Virzi’s version is to my novel. As I have joked before, the characters are the same – they are just better looking! I think the similarity is due, as you say, to the universality of the story’s themes, though I also think that Italy is right now going through a lot of the things America was experiencing when I wrote the book in the early 2000s: a new wave of wealthy people, a squeezed middle class, a generation of bewildered youth.

Il Capitale Umano

Il Capitale Umano

 

Were there any language problems? Was anything that you’d intended lost in translation?

Stephen – Not that I know of! I’ve seen the movie several times and have no complaints at all. I feel blessed.

Is there anything that happened because of a translation problem, language or cultural, that made you think, “Wow, that’s not what I pictured!”

Stephen – The only cultural difference – and it is by no means a problem – is with the character of Quint, the hedge fund manager. In my novel, he was a poor kid who raised himself up from his bootstraps, while in the movie he is the scion of an old, noble Italian family. I think this is because Italians tend to look a bit askance at self-made millionaires. But it really doesn’t have any adverse effect on the story.

Did you work with Virzì or just kind of hand it over to him to see what he’d do with it?

Stephen – I actually wasn’t allowed to work with Paolo for contractual reasons that are too complicated to go into. However, since the movie wrapped we’ve become great friends.

What about the casting; everyone says it is perfect! Were you happy with it? If it had been a movie made in Hollywood, who would you have seen in the roles?

Stephen – I was astonished by how perfect the casting was – they are all now how these characters look in my mind. In terms of Hollywood, I think John C. Reilly would make a perfect Drew and Benedict Cumberbatch would be great as Quint. One can dream …

Carrie was my favorite character in your book and I loved when she said that Quint “was a strange boy nobody yet rated”. I can’t decide what it was that made him so attractive to her. Is it because she’d been shrewd and “rated him” before everyone else? Or had he been the shrewd one and had simply conquered her? Or were they just two kind of selfish and shallow people that were comfortable together?

Stephen – I always saw the attraction as being mutual. Carrie was someone who realized that she needed a strong man to latch onto because the world was not going to be kind to someone like her, who is not-quite-fabulous, where Quint mistakenly saw her as someone who would give him access to the gilded world he was always going to conquer anyway. Is this shallow? Maybe. I try not to judge my characters too much.

When I think about the dead man’s role in the story and how he was an oddly unemotionally involved “non-character” but so vitally important it reminds me of Marco Bellocchio’s movie ‘Bella Addormentata’, I think you handled this concept a lot better than he did. Have you seen this film and do you agree?

Haven’t seen it – but I will.

In it, a comatose woman was influencing everyone’s lives, the symbolism was so heavy handed. In your book, the man was just a shadowy reminder of everyone’s faults and culpability. How did you manage to handle this so delicately? Or have I missed the point?

Stephen – He’s kind of the forgotten man. I think it’s really interesting that Paolo made him poor, giving the crime a social dimension, whereas I had him be a yuppie on a racing bicycle. I think this is because Paolo is an old lefty from Livorno!

I’m in the habit of apportioning blame when I watch a movie or read a book, and it seemed to me that the dead man was to blame almost more than anyone’s. Have I misread this? He took a risk on his bicycle that night and paid a price for it, a price that almost everyone else in the book had to share.

Stephen – No, I’m afraid I don’t see that. Like I say, I try to steer clear of ideas like ‘blame.’ For me, tragedy and drama stem from situations where no one is to blame, or everyone is!


Congratulations To Sydney Sibilia, Golden Globe Winner

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Way to go Sydney!

The Italian foreign press has named this young director’s Smetto Quando Voglio the Best Comedy for 2014.

The film is a highly exportable laugh riot about highly educated young men in Italy who in the face of economic crisis find a creative way to get the success they crave; they’ve created a new narcotic that flies under the radar of the nations food and drug laws.

The plot may or may not have been inspired by America’s Breaking Bad, but it’s not a Breaking Bad rip off. It’s hilarious, with a drug store robbery scene that has audience screaming with laughter.

Born in Salerno in 1981, Sydney Sibilia is the future of Italian comedy. Watch your back Checco; you aren’t the only one in this race.

Follow Syney Sibilia on Twitter.

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Remember Alberto Sordi on his Birthday

Get To Know The Nastro D’Argento Nominated Directors: Alice Rohrwacher

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If Italy has a darling, it’s probably 33-year-old Alice Rohrwacher, this year’s Grand Prix winner at the Cannes Film Festival for her second feature-length film, Le Meraviglie (The Wonders).

Alice and her sister Alba Rohrwacher are Italy’s version of the Manning Brothers, Peyton and Eli, wildly successful siblings working in the same field and though most likely at least a little competitive are apparently very happy for one another’s accomplishments.

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Alba, one of Italy’s best and most prolific actresses, stars in her sister’s award-winning Le Mereviglie, along with Monica Bellucci and some unknown child actors.

Since it will be difficult for Americans to see Le Mereviglie for a while, in the meantime, I urge everyone to see her first feature-length film, Corpo Celeste, starring Anita Caprioli.

Corpo Celeste

Corpo Celeste

Corpo Celeste is the story of 13 year-old Marta who has recently moved back to southern Italy with her mother and older sister. Having not been raised with of a religious background in Switzerland, she’s not really prepared for the “Jesus Land” Communion classes that her mother enrolls her in.

WATCH CORPO CELESTE INSTANTLY

READ MY REVIEW OF CORPO CELESTE

 


Very Good Looking Italian Actors

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I’m gonna be honest, I am super busy today, but I thought I would give you one more reason to love Italian movies: Really good looking actors.

Kim Rossi Stuart, Luca Argentero Cristiana Capotondi Riccardo Scamarcio Luca Marinella Paolo Cortellesi Laura Chiatti Micaela Ramazzotti Pierfrancesco Diliberto Paola Cortelessi Raoul Bova Carolina Crescentini

Happy Birthday Giuseppe Battiston

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Prolific is a good adjective for Giuseppe Battiston. Friend and favorite actor of Silvio Soldini, he’s worked for Roberto Benigni, Cristina Comencini, Giulio Manfredonia and a dozen other directors in over four dozen films in the last two and a half decades.

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Zoran Il Mio Nipote Scemo

For me, he’ll always be “Tino”, the amateur detective running around Venice trying to catch Rosalba in Soldini’s Pane e Tulipani, but he’s done plenty of important work. Most recently, he stars in Carlo Mazzacurati’s last film, the award winning La Sedia della Felicità, in Andrea Segre’s La Prima Neve, and as the bad, bad uncle in Zoran Il Mio Nipote Scemo.

Jean-Cristphe Folly and Giuseppe Battiston in 'La Prima Neve'

Jean-Cristphe Folly and Giuseppe Battiston in ‘La Prima Neve’

Battiston is one of Italy’s finest and underappreciated actors, playing dramatic and comedic roles equally skillfully; in the comedies, he kills me. Watch him explain to Riccardo Scamarcio in L’Uomo Perfetto why “a Barbie divorce costs double”.

Auguri Giuseppe! We love you here in the United States!

Click to view slideshow.

Attention Italians: Pierfrancesco Favino Wants Your Help!

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Pierfrancesco Favino wants you to go to the official page of his new film, in theaters now, Senza Nessuna Pietà and post a selfie in front of a movie theater with your movie ticket. The first ones to do it will win a Senza Nessuna Pietà t-shirt.

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Favino gained fifty pounds and shows every bit of his star potential in director Michele Alhaique’s film about Mimmo, played by Favino, part of a crime family but happier at his day job as a construction worker. Having been left fatherless at an early age, his uncle raised him and expects his bruiser nephew to provide muscle when debts need to be collected. Mimmo is perfectly capable but clearly unhappy about his lot in life, destined, it seems, to live it out in a clinically depressed state.

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When his spoiled and obnoxious cousin Manuel (Adriano Giannini) wants him to pick up and babysit a young prostitute, played by the very beautiful Greta Scarano, a protective side emerges from Mimmo. “Tanya” has been hired for a party but when delivered to Manuel, Mimmo sees that she’s in trouble and comes to her rescue, knowing full well that in doing so he’s signed his own death warrant.

 


And The Oscar Goes To

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Never have there been so many strong candidates but the final choice is clear.

Italy announced a shortlist of seven films for Oscar consideration: Francesco Munzi’s Anime Nere (Black Souls) Allacciate le Cinture (Fasten Your Seatbelts) from Ferzan Özpetek , Paolo VirzÌ’s Il Capitale Umano (Human Capital), Edoardo Winspeare’s In Grazia di Dio  (Quiet Bliss) , Song’e Napule from the Manetti Bros, Carlo Verdone’s Sotto Una Buona Stella (Under a Good Star), and Le Meraviglie (The Wonders), the Cannes winner from Alice Rohrwacher.

The final pick will be:  Il Capitale Umano, without a doubt.

Human Capital

Human Capital

 

Anime Nere and Le Meraviglie are both strong contenders, and it’s a pleasure to see several competitive choices. Le Meraviglie, having won the Grand Prix at Cannes, would seem to be a shoo-in and it would be in any other year.

As for the rest, Ferzan Ozpetek’a  Alleciate le Cinture and Carlo Verdone’s Sotto Una Buona Stella don’t belong on the list. Ozpeteks was good but not great, and Verdone’s, even with the adorable Paola Cortellesi, wasn’t even good. I’m sorry to say it, but Verdone has hit Adam Sandler status; someone should stop him from making movies.

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Sotto Una Buona Stella. No, just no.

 

A better shortist would have included: Daniele Luchetti’s ‘Anni Felici’ (Those Happy Year’s) and Pif’s ‘La Mafia Uccide Solo D’Estate’(The Mafia Only Kills In The Summer). Both are emotionally engaging and thought provoking and more important, have more universal appeal.

And where is Ivano De Matteo’s ‘I Nostri Ragazzi’? Leaving this one off the list is what I would call a classic Hollywood-style “snub”!

 

anni-felici-due-featurette-e-nuove-foto-del-film-di-daniele-luchetti-6-620x350

Luchetti was robbed.

 

Luigi Lo Cascio and Giovanna Mezzogiorno

I Nostri Ragazzi

In the end, Capitale Umano will be the final submission. Will it win a nomination? Yes, I think it will. Can it win? We can hope; can’t we? The final Oscar submission will be announced on September 24th.

 

 

 

 


Luigi Lo Cascio Has Two Chances To Make It To The Academy Awards

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Even though it should be three chances for a nomination, two isn’t all that bad. I Nostri Ragazzi was overlooked, but Luigi Lo Cascio could end up on the stage with the Oscars for his role in Il Capitale Umano or for his part in what could be Belgium’s submission, Marina.

From director Stijn Coninx, nominated for an Oscar in this category back in 1992 with Daens, Marina is about Rocco Granata,  an Italian singer who lived in Belgium in his youth.

I’ve pre-ordered my DVD of Marina from ibs.it, available October 7.


Pupi Avati On Working With Sharon Stone: Pretty Catty But Probably Deserved

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It was the classic behavior of an American actress in a stage of light decline.”

 

“The idea of having her in the role of a retired actress from the ’90s that’s become an editor was mine, ” explained director Pupi Avati of his decision to cast American actress Sharon Stone in his latest film Un Ragazzo D’Oro.

“I knew there were other, better American actresses, but I wanted a movie icon. My brother told me I was crazy and RAI told me that I’d never get her”, said Avati. “Then came the flurry of correspondences that would make a great novel. back and forth between her agents and lawyers and our production company, a contract that bordered on the ridiculous regarding embarrassing details that made Italy seem like a third world country. (please tell me she wasn’t making toilet paper requests.) And by the way, we have electricity.”

“Then she arrived in Italy, we’d gone to get her in Florence with a luxury train that we’d rented for her. She’d gone there first to see the Boticellis. The first time I saw her she was sitting on her suitcase at the wrong track and nobody was recognizing her. Then,little by little she starting feeling more like Sharon Stone.”

“We brought to the most luxurious suite at the Hassler (in Rome) and the day after on the set there were more than 200 paparazzi. She was definitely getting a big head. It was the classic behavior of an American actress in a stage of light decline.”

Ouch.


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