[Chris Knipp]

Where did you see The Best of Youth? Here's where I saw it http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~iisa/movies.html. They use a laptop to show DVD's on a big screen in a UC Berkeley lecture hall. Italian students put it on for free.

[Arsaib4]

lecture hall, nice! and on top it was free so you can't do better than that.

I saw it first in Toronto last year but didn't really get to enjoy it, my mind was always on what else am i missing as this took almost the whole day. Then i was able to get the french 3 disc-set which has the french language track along with french subs (worked for me as my french is just okay) and appreciated it a little more. It's was nice to see an antidote to the more bland italian cinema available here thanks to miramax (thanks again to miramax) with the likes of Cinema Paradiso to Malena.

[C.K]]

Rumor has it the Italian cinema is pretty bland these days over there as well. I'm not sure you can blame it all on MIramax. I'm going to be in Italy for a while this fall and I'll see if I can find any films with more of an edge to them. The UC showing was broken into two segments a week apart which were shown with Italian subtitles for the hearing impaired which help me the same way French ones would help you, only better, because after all, the subtitles were pretty close to the spoken lines (though not exactly--they simplify or use more standard expressions sometimes), and I've been working to tone up my Italian for the past two years.

Did you see Garrone's L'Imbalsamatore? That was different. It had a limited release and showed at the Lumiere in San Francisco last October.

[A4]

No, i haven't this film, i do remember seeing a commerical of The Embalmer and wasn't sure if it was spanish or italian but since it is available here i'll try to see it.

From what i've seen and heard, italian cinema actually has slightly reemerged in the last couple of years, not enough to call it a 'new wave' or anything but some new filmmakers from the south have energized the industry with their controversial subject matters as much as Berlosconi and the government wouldn't want to see that. And there's always the presence of Marco Bellochhio who's last two films (not seen here) L'ora de Religione and Biongiorno, Notte are on par with his earlier work. I plan to write about one of them soon. It seems like Bellocchio is back doing what he does best, attacking the beaucracy of state and church that exists in his country, kind of things not too appealing to a larger audience.

The other film i got a chance to see at the italian rendezvous in NY was Sergio Castellitto's Non Ti Muovere with a brilliant performance from Penelope Cruz and Castellitto himself.

[C.K]


Great. I'm glad to hear that and hope some more work by these new directors will be on view when I'm in Italy. So you saw all these at the Italian Film festival in New York? When is that festival? I saw 'L'ora di religione' in Italy. I did not think it would make sense to an American audience. Castellitto is a good, versatile actor; I didn't know he had directed films; I'm surpprised Penelope Cruz is capable of a great performance.

[A4]

Among the films i mentioned earlier only 'Non ti Muovere' i saw at the festival, i think it was called 'Open reads:New Italian Cinema' which took place in June. I was surprised first of all to see Penelope Cruz in an italian film but it was tough role and she did a fine job portraying a trouble young woman.

'L'ora Di Religione' is seemingly a rare commodity on dvd in italy also, i was lucky to get a hold of a copy with subtitles, as i mentioned i really liked this film and Castellitto as you mentioned is one of very few recognizable italian actors around.

The only other film i saw in NY was Sergio Rubino's L' Amore Ritora with Giovanna Mezzogiorno (i'm almost willing to see anything with her in it), a somewhat disappointing fellini-esque metaphysical love story.

Have you seen anything else from italy recently?

[Chris Knipp]

Only a PAL DVD of Casomai (Alessandro D'Alatri) with the one you love, the soulful Giovanna Mezzogiorno which I viewed on my pc. It's another somewhat bland Berlusconi-era romantic saga with a message: trust your heart and your marriage will last. The acting is fine but it has been compared to a couple of "Friends" episodes -- telenovela stuff -- and I didn't think it was as skillfully done as Muccino's Last Kiss, which is so superficial but so smoothly done and so energetic. I thought Muccino's first, Come te nessuno mai, sort of a prequel to L'ultimo bacio, about highschoolers trying to stage a Sixties-type school strike but really mainly just wanting to get laid (a "first kiss"), was his best and I think some Italians agree with me. Casomai was a loan from one of the students who put on the UC campus series. http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~iisa/movies.html

I looked up reactions to L'ora di religione on FilmUp--it seems to be the IMDb of Italy--and saw that views were very mixed on it, there being af number of viewers uncomfortable with the fantastic nature of the plot.

[A4]

I'll try to find more about CASOMAI, as i didn't see that film listed under her name, may be it was guest appearance or something similar.

I feel the same way about L'ULTIMO BACIO as you do, it's superficial elements were overshadowed by some fine performances (a very believable one by giovanna) and it's brisk pace. Although i haven't seen the 'prequel' i have seen the sequel if one can call that, RICORDATI DI ME (Remember me) with Laura Morante, Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Monica Bellucci. It seems like some of the characters from Muccino's earlier films have grown up, gotten married, had kids, but they still long for the early love of their life. Ricordati di me recently got a U.S distributer.

I am not surprised by the reaction to L'ORA DI RELIGIONE, typical reaction for a Bellocchio film. It's definetly not his most subtle but he surely gets the point across.

The Open roads:New italian Cinema series has been going on for about 4 years now, thanks to Walter Reade, Italian Society and Film Comment organizers. This is the first time I went, most of the screening were sold out which was good to see, it usually takes place in the first week of June.

[C.K]

I should have mentioned Ricordati di me, shown in the UC campus Italian student series. I found it tacky; it was like Muccino peaked technically in Last Kiss, but was most authentic in Io come te nessuno mai.

I was completely off in identifying Giovanna with Casomai; it's Stefania Rocca. I was thinking of Facing Windows, La finestra di fronte, which she's in, and which I consider a piece of fluff. That has been showing in this country, I saw in in NYC in June and it's coming here to the Bay Area shortly I think. Sorry for my mistake. Maybe I should try to come to NYC next time the Open roads:New italian Cinema series is on. I love New York and want to spend more time there.

[A4]

yeah, RICORDATI DI ME wasn't much but i was surprised Miramax didn't go for it as this material is right up their alley. By the way, according to imdb, the company has laid off quite a few people recently due to some of the losses they've suffered (cold mountain any one!).

No problem, Stefania Rocca has been in many italian films recently working with just about everyone. I went with my girlfirend to see LA FINOSTRA DI FRONTE so i can't say anything bad about it, sorry, hell i couldn't even truly appeciate Giovanna while watching it.

Definetely check out the italian rendezvous if you get the time next year. Besides that there is alway a french and a spanish film series every year at the same place also. Sad part is while the screenings are partly organized by their original distributers so the films get picked up for the U.S, most of them still don't and this opportunity becomes the sole one to watch them with subtitles.


[Oscar Jubris]

I've been following your discussion with interest. I have visited Italy several times and continue to watch every Italian movie I come across, Finestra being the last one to play here. I cannot say I don't enjoy modern Italian cinema, but I've only been impressed by two Italian films during the past decade: Palme d'Or winner The Son's Room and Amelio's Lamerica. I will continue to watch them but I cannot say I'll walk into the theatre with high expectations.

[A4]

Most of the films me and Chris discussed earlier fall into the same category, barely watchable. As i mentioned i was impressed by Bellocchio's L'ORA DI RELIGIONE and do hope that Wellspring releases his latest BIONGIORNO,NOTTE (Good Morning, Night) soon as this is the best italian film i've seen in many years. Olmi's IL MESTIERE DELLE ARMI was impressive but then you have to go back almost a decade to come with anything decent like Amelio's IL LADRO DI BAMBINI.

[C.K]

http://www.filmlinc.com/archive/prog...aly/italy.html

[A4]

http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/programs/6-2004/italy04.htm

[C.K]

I've been staging a mini-film festival for myself here in Paris and am listing the things I've seen. Today I will see Gianni Amelio's Le chiave di casa with Charlotte Rampling. Do you know that one?

[A4]

I believe Amelio's Le Chiavi di casa premiered at Venice last month, it was also at Toronto but couple of so-so reviews deterred me from pursuing it. However, it seems like the kind of film which will more popular with the general public than the critics. Let us know about it.

[C.K]

About Amelio's new film: there's plenty of positive press as well as press that says it's manipulative and that putting a handicapped kid in a starring role was a gimmick to gain the jury's affection. These discussions are interesting, and I want to peruse them in the Italian press as shown online, but I haven't quite got the time to do that in detail now since I'm at a pay-by-the-minute internet cafe and I leave Paris tomorrow. All I can say is that Le chiave di casa is going to stay in my mind. The boy, Andrea, Paolo in the film, as Amelio himself said in an interview (http://film.spettacolo.virgilio.it/...=100&pagina=319), had the capacity to be incredibly open with people, and yet to maintain an ironic distance at the same time. He's a complex, fascinating personality, and Amelio built a fascinating and mysterious portrait improvisationally out of that personality. I found it not so much a tear-jerker as extremely intriguing and fresh, an experience, as another Italian article also said, of life moment-to-moment, not for the past or the future, but in the now.

Le chiave di casa is the no. 3 box office hit in Rome this week, after Farenheit 9-11.

[A4]

Another film which opened well recently in Italy is L'Amore Ritrovato with Stefano Accorsi and Maya Sansa.

[C.K]

It's a coincidence that the Italian film you saw listed is L'amore ritrovato, love refound, or perhaps one should translate it like the Proust title that it echoes, Love Recaptured. But unfortunately despite being a pretty film with a nice period feeling, I found it really very lacking in merit. My guess would be that the most interesting current Italian film as well as the most talked about is Le chiave di casa. I'm curious to see it again.

[A4]

It's safe to say that you liked Le Chiave di Casa very much. Hopefully we'll get to see it here soon.

[C.K]

Yes, Gianni Amelio's Keys to the House (Le chiavi di casa), which has had a very positive reception in Italy, made a strong impression on me when I saw it in Paris -- in the original Italian, of course, with French subtitles, helpful to me since the handicapped boy's Italian wasn't the clearest, and this was I think the most human of the 11 movies I saw in Paris recently. i certainly would like to see more of Amelio's work, including the much-praised Stolen Children, which Oscar has spoken highly of.

[O.J]

LAMERICA on dvd

Il Ladro di Bambini remains unavailable here, but two others have been released on dvd in 2004: The Way We Laughed, which I like less than Ladro, and Lamerica, my favorite Italian film of the past two decades (with the possible exception of Michelangelo Antonioni's Beyond The Clouds). I hope your rental source has it. Lamerica was released by New Yorker Video in anamorphic widescreen and contains deleted scenes and an alternate ending. I find the list price of $34.95 too high. This film is an absolute MUST-see. If you watch it, please share your opinion

[C.K]

There are loads of new Italian not to mention French films we don't know aything about, and I just had to grab a few because they were new or I already liked the directors. Now I wish I'd gotten more. But time was limited and so was money. Some were not cheap; for example, Buongiorno, notte was 25 euros -- $30.

[A4]

Absolutely, but atleast you got the opportunity to be exposed to such films, I know you favoribly mentioned Matteo Garrone's L' Imbalsamatore once and his new film Primo Amore came out recently on dvd (with subs!). I was tempted to go for it but not knowing too much about it prevented me along with the price, this is what a member wrote at imdb,


quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was one of those people very impressed with 'The embalmer' and i was waiting with anxiety for the second effort by Garrone. Now that the movie is out i'm not disappointed at all. This is a very dark story (probably is better to watch the movie alone!) but if you get connected (and i mean 'really and deeply' connected) with the characters you will be truly moved. Garrone is for sure the most interesting filmmaker now working in Italy and i truly hope he can pursue his personal way of seeing cinema. He's so original that he need no comparison with other great filmmakers to be appreciated and he also always choose very well his actors. Trevisan and Cescon are in fact very effective in their roles and this make us italian movie lovers very happy because we can see some different face on the screen (not the usual ten italian actors or so practically working in every movie!). Now i can't wait to see another movie from Garrone and i also hope he keep collaborating with Banda Osiris! (The soundtrack of 'First love' is simply great).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I'd love to hear about some of the films even if you don't get a chance to fully review them.

[C.K]

I just missed a chance to see Primo Amore for free a week or so ago in the ongoing UC Berkeley Italian Students' film series. I have read about it in detail. It sounds like very odd, edgy material. My Italian teacher said I didn't miss anything! But she is probably more in search of the upbeat than I am. I found L'Imbalsamatore quite fresh and throught-provoking. What a contrast to Muccino! Garrone seems to me to have things in common with Pupi Avati, including the focus on the provincial outlook in Italy, how it limits and defines people. I want to see the rest of Amelio's output too because Le chiave di casa impresssed me a lot. I've got one other one by Gabriele Salvatores among the dvd's I bought in Florence. I've got a couple of Pupi Avati's.

[A4]

I think it's hard of find all of Avati's work even in Italy, especially on dvd so not many have seen his output other than at a retrospective perhaps. Having said that I found his latest? called Il Cuove Altrove hard to sit through, it's almost painfully simple-minded. It did get a U.S release recently. Garrone does sounds like someone to keep an eye on.

[C.K]

I've noticed that Pupi Avati's output is only partly available. I didn't like Il cuore altrove either; it seemed manipulative (the main character doesn't have a chance), something I never like, and that was my first view of Avati. But I'm beginning to be intrigued by his odd, rather insular point of view. Garrone though, despite his off-center topics, seems more in touch with the rest of the world.

P.s. I have a chance to see Ermanno Olmi's 2003 Cantando dietro i paraventi this week. Apropos of a revival of Tree of the Wooden Clogs a few years ago the Guardian wrote "No other Italian film-maker of world stature has been as neglected as Ermanno Olmi, " and he's made almost sixty films, but we've seen few of them in this country.

[A4]

Ermanno Olmi has certainly been out of the spotlight in recent years but perhaps that's the way he wants it. I read a postive review of Cantando dietro i paraventi coming out of Berlin Festival from a german critic where he wrote that Olmi has begun on a new path where he wants to be free, doing whatever he wants to do and this is perhaps a prime example of it (a costume drama shot in China with Bud Spencer). His previous Il Mestiere delle armi is one of my favorites among Italian films. Both films are coming out on dvd this week, in Italy.


[C.K]

I read somewhere today that one of the reasons he's out of the spotlight is he's been ill. And he's old. This one is related to Il mestiere delle armi; both are anti-war allegories. Funnily enough since it came out at the same time as Kill Bill: Vol. 1 in Italy, they were occasionally spoken of together, as twin western orientalist flicks. It's in the hands of Miramax/Mikado as of Oct. 2003, so I guess they're sitting on it. Isn't 98 minutes a bit short for them? The Guardian wrote in April "Olmi is riding high on the back of his Berlin festival hit Singing Behind the Screens"; will he ride high to the front of US screens?

[A4]

Ahhh...., "twin western oriental flicks," I wonder however what Olmi would say about all the red stuff in Kill Bill.

I'd love to see the link to the article, if you can re-post it. I wasn't aware that Cantando dietro i paraventi (Singing Behind the Screens) had a distributer. This just might prevent me from going for the Italian disc which is said to have subtitles.

[C.K]

SINGING BEHIND SCREENS (CANTANDO DIETRO I PARAVENTI)


by JAY WEISSBERG | Oct 27 '03 [Variety]


(ITALY-U.K.-FRANCE)

A Mikado/01 Distribution (in Italy)/Miramax (in U.S.)

Jettisoning all traces of his realist style, veteran helmer Ermanno Olmi has crafted his most complex and sumptuous work to date with "Singing Behind Screens." This Chinese folktale, partly staged in a brothel, is the product of a mature director confident with the range of techniques at his command. Arthouse auds familiar with the Olmi name and sympathetic to Chinese period tales may help to defray, or even cover, pic's 10 million euro pricetag. Stateside, Miramax has already picked up pic as part of a package deal.

Olmi himself sees the film as a follow-up to his anti-war "The Profession of Arms," but the multi-layered construction and ravishing imagery combine to make it more like a fairytale.

A young man (Davide Dragonetti), in what looks like 1930s urban China, gets lost and mistakenly enters a Chinese brothel. Though visibly uncomfortable, he becomes attracted not only to the sexual situations but even more to the staged narration of a Chinese folktale about a female pirate.

Fable is narrated by an old captain (Bud Spencer) from the deck of a large Chinese junk that fills one end of a huge room. The brothel's clients, in little reed huts arranged with a view of the stage, can either watch the show or indulge in other pleasures.

Initially only the narrator's voice is heard, and the action is performed as a dance. However, at the moment the young man succumbs to the charms of a hooker, the pic cuts to a real lake where pirate junks are firing on a shoreside village.

Leader of the pirates is Admiral Ching (Makoto Kobayashi), who's backed by a consortium of profiteers. To calm things down, the Emperor (Xuwu Chen) offers Ching a high title if he'll give up his pillaging. However, Ching's backers, unwilling to lose their income, murder the pirate first with a poisoned carp.

Ching's widow (Jun Ichikawa) seeks vengeance, pillaging villages and vessels and becoming the most feared corsair of the coast. When the old emperor dies and his heir (Sultan Temir Omarov) ascends the throne, the new ruler personally goes out to capture the widow.

Olmi has worked with fairytales and fantasy before, from the sweet simplicity of "The Legend of the Holy Drinker" to the childish misfire of "The Secret of the Old Wood." But "Singing" is a more complex realization of the director's liking for creating multiple worlds that work both in the imagination and in real terms, somewhat a la Peter Greenaway. Auds expecting a swashbuckling tale or an anti-war tract will be disappointed: Skirmishes and pillaging are kept to a minimum, and the pirate figure is sympathetic, so it's hard to perceive any pacifist theme here.

Rights problems prevented screen credit being given to Jorge Luis Borges' story "The Widow Ching, Lady Pirate" from his "A Universal History of Infamy." (In fact, Borges took the plot from a 19th-century Chinese work, and the tale may well go back further than that.) Olmi adds the framing device of the brothel, using the staged play-within-a-play to reveal what is seen as the essence of truth. The plot boils down to a tale of fury appeased by forgiveness; the opulent staging gives a sense of depth to the material.

Glorious lensing by Olmi's son, Fabio, makes the stunning vistas of Lake Scutari in Montenegro completely convince as a Chinese coast, with majestic, painterly mountains. Where "The Profession of Arms" (also shot by Fabio), was memorable for its icy blues and smoky whites of a frozen landscape, here the dominant tones are opulent blues, rich reds and vibrant yellows, all redolent of the Far East.

Music mirrors the striking settings, with generous chunks of Stravinsky, Berlioz and Ravel.

Thesps take a back seat to the visual compositions. As often, Olmi gathers a cast of mostly unknowns, headlined by female dancer Jun Ichikawa (not to be confused with the male Japanese helmer), whose calm, at times hard exterior occasionally slips to reveal the jumble of emotions that thrust her into pirating. Seasoned vet Bud Spencer (aka Carlo Pedersoli) brings flair to the narrator's theatrical recitation, and finds humor in the role without straying into Robert Newton-like excesses.

Film's title comes from a Chinese poem, in which the sign of a contented home is said to be the sound of a woman singing within its walls.


[A4]

Thanks for the article/review, it has certainly increased my curiostiy for the film and proven the fact that Miramax is involved. I did some search on the film and Miramax but at this point it's not on the company's slate either for fall this year or even sometime early next year. Hopefully they haven't dropped it altogether due to the recent budget cuts. Miramax still however has Marco Giordana's epic 6 hr drama La Meglio gioventu (The Best of Youth) slated for March next year (delayed once again from January).

[C.K]

To pick up something you said earlier in this thread, I did see L'amore ritrovato in Rome with an American friend who lives there. We tended to find it somewhat lackluster, its pace and setting dreary, the characterizations unconvincing. But its star, Stefano Accorsi, is really emerging as the big new Italian film actor. He's in a lot of things, and good in them, especially in Ozpotek's Le fate ignoranti in a gay role and The Last Kiss, and now I discover he was one of the two leads in Santo Maradona, Marco Ponti's first film which was a big hit in Italy. Last night I saw Ponti's new one, A/R Andata + Ritorno (Round Trip) which is hilarious and brilliant. Sure, it owes a lot to various English language slacker and heist movies, but it's completely Italian. You'd love it. At least I hope so. The only reason everybody didn't love it in Italy is that they so adored Ponti's first film, the aforementioned Santo Maradona, they wanted more of the same, and it wasn't. Santa Maradona was in the first New Italian Cinema series and A/R is in the second.

Why haven't we seen either? One reason is probably Miramax. Another is that Ponti is too modest a man. The other may be that the Italian cinema scene is dominated by dubbed American movies. But Italian moviemaking is coming back to life and so is Turin as a place to make them.