This Sarajevo native is one of Italy’s finest cinematographers.

 
When I met Vladan in 2015 I was already impressed with his work; I was in New York City to interview him and director Francesco Munzi, in town with their award-winning Anime Nere (Black Souls).

Anime Nere is THE best film of that year, and my favorite. It’s got a compelling story, extraordinary acting, and gorgeous cinematography, thanks to Vladan.

“He (Munzi) wanted one part of the actors faces always in a shadow, like a Caravaggio painting,” Vladan told me.

“He wanted it to look like a Van Gogh painting. (It does!) and that requires totally different filters and light than other films that I had worked on.”

Then, I realized that Vladan had worked on so many of my other favorite films: Laura Bispuri’s Vergine Giurata, Sydney Sibilia’s Smetto Quando Voglio, and Paolo Virzì’s Tutti I Santi Giorni, to name a few.

More recently he blew me away with his work on Virzì’s wonderful La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy), starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti.

“I fell in love right away with the film as soon as I read the script,” he told me. “The cinematography follows characters and their constant mood changes throughout the film, but also through the scenes, and ultimately even in a single shot. There was one time that I invisibly changed the light during the shot because the character changed emotions while walking. I changed the light from warm to cold to follow his state of mind.”
 
“There are are several scenes in the film where Paolo wanted to shoot in light that’s particularly special because it doesn’t last very long, for example, the scenes at sunrise and also the really long scene at sunset. For me it was a cool challenge and I planned my work to accomodate this requirement of direction that brought a special atmosphere to the film. We liked so many of the scenes we shot at dawn so much that we switched them with a lot of the daytime scenes and we did it knowing that we’d be facing practical problems for the implementation.”

We’re lucky here in America; we can see Radovic’s work in Anime Nere and in Vergine Giurata.

Anime Nere (Black Souls) on  Amazon, NETFLIX,Vudu, iTunes, and YouTube

and

Vergine Giurata (Sworn Virgin) on Amazon, Netflix, Vudu, and YouTube.

Congratulations to this talented and nice young man!

Alessandro Borghi will represent Italy in the 20th edition of the Berlinale Shooting Stars, a platform for young European actors organized every year as a special event during the Berlin Film Festival.

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Talk about managing a career in a smart way, Alessandro Borghi’s last two feature films have been huge, and he’s been huge in them. Playing Numero 8 in the cool Netflix production Suburra and Vittorio in the movie Italy submitted to the Oscars, Non Essere Cattivo (Don’t Be Bad), Borghi is on the precipice of greatness. (Good thing I’ve already gotten my selfie with him, because he’s going to be in high demand.)

Borghi won last year’s David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actor, the Nastro D’Argento Revelation of the Year Award and was #25 on this year’s Ciak Magazine “It List”.

The Shooting Star program has launched the careers of stars like Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz.

This is the kind of stuff I live for, sharing a nice movie moment and a collective smile with an audience at the Venice Film Festival. At the premiere of Roan Johnson’s fun comedy, Piuma, I got one of those really nice movie moments.

It’s the story of Cate (Blu Yoshimi) and her boyfriend Ferro (Luigi Fedele) maneuvering through nine months of teenage pregnancy. By the end of the film when the emotional stuff started to go down, I could feel us all growing closer.

As the consistently goofy Ferro and his (already at this young age) world-weary girlfriend Cate settle unrealistically into their situation, they set off an explosion that cause never-ending shock waves for Ferro’s long-suffering parents. Ferro hasn’t been the easiest child, and this is just one more thing for them to have to deal with; they don’t even seem very surprised (except when wondering how their son got a nice girl like Cate.)

Blu, a child star who played Nanni Moretti’s daughter in Caos Calmo, is just 19, setting out on a brilliant grown-up career, and I got a chance to ask her about what it was like to be young, talented, the world her oyster.

I was at the Venice Film Festival for the premiere of Piuma and I laughed throughout the whole film, and left with a big smile on my face!

First of all, what was it like to be at Venice, in the Sala Grande, with all those people laughing and cheering? Did it feel like a dream? What were you thinking when people were laughing and applauding throughout the film, and at the end, when everyone was cheering?

I love this first question! I loved the Venice Film Festival this year. I think very courageous choices were made and we, the cast and crew of “Piuma” are the proof of that. It’s unusual that a comedy like this gets accepted in competition at the festival but we were there to proof that “the heart is what counts”.  In fact, going to Venice is itself a big emotion, but going to Venice with “Piuma” has even a better feeling because personally I consider it an important achievement after hard efforts in these past years and it was a special movie for all those who worked in it… there is something magical about it! The red carpet brought me back to that magic. Walking there on the notes of Lorenzo Tomio’s (Italian composer) is one of the happiest experience I recall. A movie in the Sala Grande never looked so beautiful! I cried more than ever and at the same time I was deeply happy. It felt like everybody in that room was feeling the same things…

How did it feel to play a pregnant teenager? What do you think the movie says to teenagers about sex and responsibility?

This is one of the roles I always wanted to do. I was fond of Cate, Piuma and the story from the beginning because it reminded me a lot of my story with my mum (Magnificent Italian actress Lidia Vitale). I also was an unexpected child and with this movie I could live the same experience from the opposite point of view and appreciate even more the work my mum has done. In the end I made a lot of researches about pregnancy to make sure to bring the more truth I could. Those are things that happen and it’s a matter of respect to bring out the reality of the facts.
More than teaching about sex, I think Piuma can teach to people of all ages what it means to take  responsibility. When something unexpected occurs it brings out the worst in us and it can be an occasion to confront ourselves.

What do you want the audience to take from Piuma? Is there a message that is important to you?

What I really hope Piuma can give is an example. Not about pregnancy, but about how to face problems when they come…because they arrive and we can either fall apart or fly up as a feather so that we can see the whole view and understand that besides the obstacle we see in front of us, there is much more. That will allow us to smile and continue with another spirit.

The cast seems to be like a real family. Did it feel like that to you? What is Roan like as a director?

Family is the appropriate name for those who worked on Piuma. Starting from Luigi ( As Ferro) that besides a great collegue is now a big friend of mine, then Francesco Colella ( as Alfredo, my dad) that I deeply esteem as an artist and with all the others there was a deep harmony. Michela Cescon (Ferro’s mum) for example was for me an important female figure able to understand me without talking. This harmony was extended with all Piuma’s family. Before being actors, writers, technicians, we were all humans working hard towards something meaningful and for this I thank Roan for having being able to form such a team!

Was Caos Calmo (Quiet Chaos) your first film? How did you get started? What is it like to be a child star in Italy? It seems very difficult in the USA – is it the same in Italy?

Quiet Chaos was the first movie for the big screen. It was an amazing experience. Since I mainly grew up with my mum Lidia Vitale who is herself a great and known actress in Italy, I always wanted to be an actress. I think being an artist is alwasy very difficult, no matter where you live. Especially if you are a woman ahahah. We have some serious issues in the cultural side of our country even though things are going much better. It wasn’t and it’s not always easy to remain hooked to my dream but it’s worth it and I am never going to give up!

We’re cheering for you still, Blu!

Italian Cinema is better than ever, but these 5 are really shaking things up!

Paolo Sorrentino

I was watching the first episodes of director Paolo Sorrentino’s new HBO TV series The Young Pope (starring Jude Law and premiering in the USA on January 15) and it hit me; Sorrentino is one of the cinema greats of all time, Italian or otherwise. Moving to TV, he’s on cutting age of good things to come for other Italian filmmakers.

You can love or hate his movies; you can “get him” or be confused by him; but you can’t dismiss him. His films are a cut above anything else in terms of innovation, creativity, bravery, and beauty, and La Grande Bellezza is arguably one of the best Italian films of all time.

Alessandro Borghi

Number 25 on Ciak Magazine’s 2016 “It List” Alessandro Borghi is big and about to get bigger. Last year his roles in Suburra and Non Essere Cattivo cemented him in the “Best Actor” category, and his role in Michele Vannucci’s Il Più Grande Sogno this year keeps him there.

He’s got talent, charisma, and, as a friend just said to me, “He’s a babe!”. Yes, he is VERY GOOD LOOKING and we will look for his Ciak Magazine ranking to get even higher in 2017. Watch for him in the upcoming TV series based on Suburra, the movie.

Checco Zalone

I have yet to get an Italian to admit liking Checco, and yet his movies are the top-grossing in the history of Italian cinema. They dismiss him, saying that he speaks to the lowest common denominator, but that can’t be all of it.

First of all, I think that intellectuals misunderstand Checco. Yes, he’s a boorish lout, but he’s a boorish lout who is willing to learn. He isn’t celebrating stupidity, he’s lampooning it. I think he’s funny.

There are plenty of boorish louts in Italian cinema that I HATE (i.e.: Mandelli and Biggio), but Checco’s got something VERY BIG going on that can’t be ignored.

Angela and Marianna Fontana

In the “Where Have You Been All My Life?” category, the stars of the Edoardo De Angelis film Indivisibili, actresses/singers Angela and Marianna Fontana are at the top. These lovely, multi-talented twin sisters are mind-blowing in the film and destined for greatness.

Paolo Genovese

Director Paolo Genovese already had my attention with films like Una Famiglia Perfetta the Christmas movie about the guy who hires a family for Christmas. He’s witty and smart and his dialogue is awesome, and Americans got to see this for themselves when he brought his award-winning Perfetti Sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers) to the Tribeca Film Festival (it won best foreign screenplay).

There’s talk of an American remake, but it will be beloved when it comes in its original form to US theaters.

The votes were so all over the board, and the nominees are all so deserving.

This year, we can’t pick just one. 

As 2016 comes to an end we feel compelled to celebrate more than one exciting, inspiring, talented and (most importantly for me) exportable person in Italian cinema.

These people, for diverse reasons,  are all changing the face of Italian cinema.

In 2016 Paolo Genovese gave us one of the most important comedies in the history of Italian cinema. Perfetti Sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers) won Best Foreign Screenplay at the Tribeca Film Festival and attracted Americans filmmakers who want to make an American version of it.

With big name stars like Alba Rohrwacher, Marco Giallini, Valerio Mastandrea and Edoardo Leo, this smart, funny comedy reaches far beyond Italian borders tells the story of friends at a dinner party playing a dangerous game with their cell phones.

Actress Paola Cortellesi is important for so many reasons.

First, she’s standing the test of time, having starred in a couple of dozen movies since the year 2000. She started out as a comic, and she’s a comedy genius who transitions easily to drama, and then back again. Most importantly, she’s beloved, and it’s really hard to find anyone who doesn’t love her. Have I ever? I can’t remember meeting anyone with anything bad to say about Italy’s sweetheart, Paola Cortellesi.

No one has brought more world-wide attention to Italian cinema in 2016 than documentary director Gianfranco Rosi. His Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and is on the short list for the Oscar for Best Documentary.

The theme is arguably the most crucial of 2016, the migrant crisis. In highlighting the tiny Italian island of Lampadusa, Gianfranco tells us about an enormous problem that the world shares: What do we do about the tens of thousands of refugees desperate to escape life-threatening situations.

Love him or hate him, Checco Zalone is the biggest box office hit in the history of Italian Cinema. BY A LOT.

The Fontana sisters, Marianna and Angela, took the 2016 Venice Film Festival by storm in Edoardo De Angelis’s beautiful film Indivisibili (Indivisible). The film itself is award-winning and highly exportable, but the girls go a step beyond. With virtually no acting experience, they are stunning in their role as conjoined twins who are local singing sensations.

I think it is time to recognize the Virzìs, director Paolo Virzì and his actress wife Micaela Ramazzotti, as the power couple to beat all power couples. Together, they have dominated Italian cinema together and separately, most recently with their outstanding collaboration, La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy).

We can’t wait for…

The Young Pope

Coming January 15, 9:00 on HBO EAST! 

Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘The Young Pope’ stars Jude Law, Diane Keaton, and Silvio Orlando this is  the binge watch of 2017. Law is Lenny Belardo “the young pope”, the controversial Pope Pius XIII, Keaton, Sister Mary, and Orlando is Cardinal Voiello; in the season opener the scene is set.

Voiello’s thinks that the Pope’s youth will make him easy to control, but it becomes quickly obvious that Lenny is taking this “leader of the Catholic Church” thing pretty seriously and he’s nobody’s puppet.

He brings Sister Mary, the nun who basically raised him as an orphan, to Rome to serve as his assistant, a job that was supposed to go to someone else, and Voiello sees that he’s going to have to change tactics if he’s going to keep his footing in this new Vatican regime. Things go from bad to worse when the Pope wants American coffee and Voiello asks someone to get it for you, Lenny says, “No, I said that I wanted you to get it for me.” 

FIND OUT ALL ABOUT IT HERE

Sicilian Ghost Story

Directed by Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia, who gave us the outstanding Salvo, Sicilian Ghost Story is one of the winners of  the Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award. Billed as “Brothers Grimm meets Cosa Nostra”, Sicilian Ghost Story is about a 13-year-old Sicilian girl named Luna who refuses to accept the sudden disappearance of Giuseppe, the young boy she loves, when he is kidnapped because he is the son of a Mafia boss.

FOLLOW PIAZZA AND GRASSADONIA ON FACEBOOK FOR ALL THE UPDATES

The Leisure Seekers

Director Paolo Virzì is gearing up to wow us yet another time in 2017 with this English language film that stars Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland who play a elderly runaway couple going on a cross-country journey in their vintage camper. 

The script is written by Francesca Archibugi (Il Nome Del Figlio), Francesco Piccolo (Mia Madre), Stephen Amidon (Il Capitale Umano), and Virzi. It’s inspired by the novel of the same name by Michael Zadoorian.

Suburra the TV Series

Netflix’s first Italian original series, Suburra, debuts in 2017 and is the prequel to the movie with the same name about present-day ties between organized crime and politics in the Italian capital.

The cast of characters include a corrupt member of parliament, Filippo Malgradi (Pierfrancesco Favino), Number 8 (Alessandro Borghi), the head of a powerful family that runs the territory, and Sebastiano (Elio Germano), a young event organizer, as well as corrupt religious leaders and rival mafiosi, including the “Samurai” (Claudio Amendola) who represents the most feared faction of Roman organized crime, all revealing an endemic system of corruption and rampant illegality on an international scale.

 At least once a week someone asks me to help them find a movie that I have never heard of.

Dear Cheri, I am trying to find an Italian comedy that I saw when I was in Italy in the ’90s. It involved a man who has an affair with the neighbor and finds out his wife is sleeping with his brother.

That could be almost any comedy from the ’90s, and I am not sure why you are looking for it, but even though I don’t know the answer, the MyMovies.it database might be able to help you.

If you can remember ANYTHING AT ALL about the film, MyMovies will help you narrow your search. Looking for the 1998 classic comedy I Miei Più Cari Amici? (Really? Why?) If you can remember even one of the actors, the year the film was made, the director, or even an award that it won, you may be able to locate it.

China

The Mermaid. A science fiction movie about a mermaid who falls in love with a guy who threatens the ecosystem of her species.

Japan

Kimi no na wa is  anime, romance, fantasy and drama.

South Korea

Train to Busan – Zombies!

UK

Neck and neck in the UK, The Jungle Book and Bridget Jones.

France

Les Tuche 2, a sequel about the family Tuche.

Germany

Dory was a hit in Germany.

Brazil 

Brazilians flocked to Captain America.

Russia

Pets.

Italia?

You guessed it! Checco!

Quo Vado was the highest box office hit in all of Europe.

The King of Cinepanettone celebrates his birthday with another big Christmas movie.

Son of Vittorio De Sica, husband of Carlo Verdone’s sister, Christian De Sica has made a name for himself in Italian comedy. And for those of you ringing Cinepanettone’s death knell, cut it out.

Cinepanettone Lives! 

Fausto Brizzi’s comedy starring De Sica and about a normal family that finds themselves suddenly wealthy dominated the Christmas season box office in Italy.

Auguri Christian! 

8 Days Until HBO’s Next Big Thing, THE YOUNG POPE. How well do you know its creator, Paolo Sorrentino?

Funny thing about genius, not everybody agrees what that means, and sometimes it’s not recognized until after someone dies. I’m here to tell you that at 46, Academy Award winning director Paolo Sorrentino is the real deal, a legend in his own time.

His films are always cutting edge, usually polarizing, and sometimes outrageous and many of them are available here in the United States.

Meet the challenge and watch his films, then when The Young Pope is the hottest topic in town, amaze your neighbors with your knowledge of Paolo Sorrentino’s work.

Get it on Amazon,  Vudu,   iTunes,  Hulu,  YouTube

Get it on Amazon,  VUDU

Get it on iTunes   Amazon  Vudu  YouTube

Get it on NETFLIX,   iTunes,   Amazon,   YouTube

Years ago I read something about Italian cinema in the ’80s and ’90s that I suspected was true but had no way of knowing for sure: Italian directors were making bad movies because they had too much freedom. They got funding, controlled every aspect of the project, and there was no one there to say, “This movie is terrible!”

There are plenty of terrible Hollywood movies too, but I suspect that they end up in theaters because someone who has a little too much power (cough, Adam Sandler) pushes it through and doesn’t listen to anyone. Eventually, however, people start to get tired of losing money and the megalomaniacs don’t get to make movies anymore.

Italian cinema has changed a lot in the last 20 years, for the better, and not because of the system, but because of the people. Italian directors today are heading in the right direction, but what were the catalysts for this transformation?

My first clue came from an interview with director Roberto Andò (Viva La Libertà), who told me a great story about the legendary Bernardo Bertolucci. “Bertolucci”, said Andò, “for years made beautiful films that nobody saw. It was in the moment that Bertolucci decided that he wanted an audience that he began to fill theaters, because if you don’t want an audience, then why would an audience want you?”

Could the answer be that simple? Are directors making better movies because they are trying to please us, the audience?

I say yes.

Andò told me, “Filmmakers have given up on the idea of making films with no relationship to the audience.” So what are directors doing differently to build that relationship?

After talking to dozens of Italian filmmakers, my conclusion is that they are cutting ties with the past.

I asked director Francesco Munzi (Anime Nere) what he is doing that is different from the old directors and he claims to be part of a group of filmmakers who are “looking to their grandfathers, and not their fathers”, for inspiration,trying to create something that is “somewhere between our grandfathers and the future.” He says that he wants to distance himself from the cinema of the last 30 years, to research something that interests him and make it entertaining for the audience.

The younger directors seem to have no trouble starting with a fresh slate. I asked 30-year-old director Michele Vannucci (Il Più Grande Sogno) the question I ask all directors, about what young filmmakers are doing differently from their predecessors in cinema in the ’80s and ’90s and he really couldn’t say, or maybe he just doesn’t care. He seems completely removed from that era and a filmmaker that is in the moment, bringing his own truth to cinema. When I asked him if he had any favorite Italian directors from those years he said flatly, “No.”

Young director Alberto Caviglia (Pecore In Erba) told me, “I’ve never thought about it before in those terms, especially because after having made just one film, I don’t claim to have a “personal poetry” and maybe not even I understand what I do yet. I don’t know if there is a real change from those years, the main difference I sense is an attempt to bring back the things that aren’t addressed any more, seeking to renew them and contaminate them. In this sense I believe that we are more daring.”

Daring is a good word for Italian filmmakers who dare to challenge the style of the old directors from the “Golden Era”, like the Neo-realists. And if there is freedom for today’s Italian filmmakers, it is the freedom to tell the truth in their films. “We talk about reality in our films,” director Piero Messina (L’Attesa) told me, “and they (our films) are made with little money, but we are free with the way we make them. Even with the mainstream film distributors we have a kind of freedom to produce the kind of realism that we want to.”

Luca Guadagnino is still making a big splash with his film A Bigger Splash and is set to make another one at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Call Me By Your Name is based on the 2007 book by American writer André Aciman about a love affair between an  17-year-old American-Italian Jewish professor’s (Timothee Chalamet)  and a visiting 24-year-old American Jewish graduate student (Armie Hammer) in 1980s Italy. 

Musical score by Sufjan Stevens and the screenplay was written by Guadagnino and James Ivory in English and Italian with subtitles.

We’re still waiting to hear about any Academy Award nominations for A Bigger Splash since all three major New York Times film critics put it on “Best of 2016” lists.

Born in Rimini on January 20, 1920, one of  the greatest directors of all time, Federico Fellini made his mark combining the surreal with social critique.

He was nominated for 12 Oscars and was awarded an honorary one in 1993 “in recognition of his cinematic accomplishments that have thrilled and entertained worldwide audiences.”

Rereading the interview I was fortunate enough to get with director Ivano De Matteo brings back a happy memory. Every interview I’ve done, every single one has been a pleasure. I have done enough now to say with some authority that Italian filmmakers are for the most part unassuming, kind, and overall delightful people, but Ivano De Matteo was just a little bit extra delightful. He’s got an infectious laugh and a likeability that makes you fall in love with in.

When I talk about the new generation of Italian filmmakers and how admire them, I am thinking of directors like Ivano De Matteo, who calls what he and his peers are doing a kind of “neo-neo realism” (I love that).

I was a big fan of Herman Koch’s best-selling book The Dinner, so I was surprised and delighted to find that De Matteo had made a movie that actually improved upon the book. In the book, a major part of the dialogue takes place over the course of one unpleasant evening, but De Matteo’s movie, I Nostri Ragazzi has a more natural plot progression and the changing settings in the movie make it less claustrophobic. De Matteo ultimately “fixes” all the problems of the book, makes it more human and less excessively theatrical.

WATCH I NOSTRI RAGAZZI (THE DINNER)

VUDU,    Netfilix,    iTunes,  Amazon,  Google Play

“It would have been very difficult for me to squeeze it all into that one dinner”, said De Matteo. “And I also decided to film it a different way than in the book. I created a prologue with an element that is not in the book.”

And so I wanted to know; why did he decide to add that part?

‘Because I’m a writer!” he laughed. (Oh yeah, duh. And he’s a good one, too)

And if he (heaven forbid) ever found himself in the same situation with his own kids?

“It’s a decision that you could only make in the heat of the moment, but would be great to be like Gassman’s character”, said De Matteo, “So that everybody in the world would say, ‘he’s such a good person’.” (More laughing; he’s kidding).

Well guess what Ivano; I think everyone says that about you. You’re a good, nice, talented person and we love your movies!

Nominations will be announced at 5:18 a.m. PT/8:18 a.m. ET via a live stream on the Academy’s official website and will also be carried live by ABC’s “Good Morning America”.

Good Luck Gianfranco Rosi!

Gianfranco Rosi’s heartbreaking documentary won the Berlinale’s Golden Bear and now it’s got an Oscar nomination!

The European migrant crisis is the hot button topic that Rosi tackles and one that will strike a nerve for Americans and our immigration debate. While we tend to talk about who does, and does not deserve to live here in the US, Italians on the island of Lampadusa are concerned with the more immediate job of saving the lives of desperate boat people in perilous situations at sea. Politics will come later.

Fuocoamare seems almost a narrative film, with the locals playing the parts of sympathetic onlookers and aid givers, eloquently talking about their lives on the island in ways that no script could ever have lived up to. Young Samuele, for example, a happy and adventurous Italian boy doesn’t understand the anxiety he’s feeling, but his doctor does. When housing meant for 800 migrants must often accomodate 3,000 (the entire population of the island is only 6,000), everyone is affected.

Rosi doesn’t seem to care about your position on the issue, he just wants you to look at what’s happening. It reminds me of being a child watching the Vietnam war play out on TV. We saw the body bags and it wasn’t just a story in the newspaper anymore; everyone was forced to take a stand one way or the other. I think Rosi wants the same from us now.

1. He’s Paolo Sorrentino’s “muse” and he’s is 58 today.

2. He might have played the divo in Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo”, but he’s far from being one in real life. As director Roberto Andò told me, Toni is a simple man who has become a “messenger for Italy.”  

3. He’s lived in Caserta for over 5 decades and he’s been married to the same woman for 27 years.

4. He’s a winner!

He’s won 5 David di Donatellos for best actor, 2 European Film Awards for best actor, 3 Golden Ciak Awards for best actor, an Italian Golden Globe for best actor, 3 Nastri d’Argento for best actor plus a special career Nastro in 2013, along with a best actor award at the Venice Film Festival and numerous other film festival awards.

5. You’ll love his movies! Check out The Ultimate Guide To Streaming for links to streaming these amazing films.

From Il Postino to the upcoming Mamma O Papà with Paola Cortellesi, the lovely Anna Bonaiuto has been a shining star in Italian cinema.

What is it with these older Italian actresses and their fabulous careers? Take notes, Hollywood!From Udine with Napolitano roots, Anna Bonaiuto has been knocking performances out of the park since the ’70s and is best remembered for her roles as Mrs. Giulio Andreotti in Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo and Delia in L’Amore Molesto, the movie based on a book by Elena Ferrante. She starred in Il Postino, Roberto Andò’s Viva La Libertà, and Mario Martone’s Noi Credevamo.

See for yourself:

Il Divo  

Amazon,  VUDU

Viva La Libertà   (Long Live Liberty)

 VUDU    iTunes,   YouTube   Google Play