SFFS New Italian Cinema Nov. 13-17, 2013

[Chris Knipp]

San Francisco Film Society
NEW ITALIAN CINEMA
Nov. 13-17, 2013


LINKS TO REVIEWS:
Ali Blue Eyes (Claudio Giovannesi 2012)
Balancing Act (Ivan De Matteo 2012)
Cosimo and Nicole (Francesco Amato 2012)
Garibaldi's Lovers (Silvio Soldini 2012)
Great Beauty, The (Paolo Sorrentino 2013)
Ideal City, The (Luigi Lo Cascio 2012)
Interval, The (Leonardo Di Costanzo 2012)
Out of the Blue (Edoardo Leo 2013)
Steel (Stefano Mordini 2012)
There Will Come a Day (Giorgio Diritti 2012)

General Forum notification and comment thread for this series here. Links to the Filmleaf reviews also below.


Garibaldi's Lovers
Silvo Soldini (Il comandante e la cicogna, Italy/Switzerland 2012)
The director of 2007’s hard-hitting Days and Clouds takes a more comedic, though similarly pointed and critical, look at contemporary Italian society with this dual story of a Genoan plumber trying to raise his two kids after the death of his wife and a starving artist who is hoping for a lucrative new commission.
Wednesday, November 13, 6:15 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

Silvio Soldini's Days and Clouds I reviewed in the NYC Lincoln Center Open Roads New Italian Cinema series of 2008 here.

Napoli 24
Multiple Directors (Italy 2010)
Over three years in the making and completed with great difficulty during the infamous garbage crisis, this omnibus film pays tribute to one of the world’s most magnificent and complicated metropolises.
Wednesday, November 13, 9:00 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

Balancing Act
Ivano De Matteo (Gli equilibristi, Italy 2012)
The financial precariousness of middle-class life is thrown into dramatic relief in this powerful drama about life, love and family.
Thursday, November 14, 6:30 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)


There Will Come a Day
Giorgio Diritti (Un giorno devi andare, Italy/France 2013)
After a tragic personal event, a young woman named Augusta (Jasmine Trinca) flees Italy for the Brazilian Amazon to give medical assistance to the indigenous population and to try and restore meaning to her life.
Thursday, November 14, 8:45 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)


Steel
Stefano Mordini (Acciaio, Italy 2012)
With the downward-slanting economy as a backdrop and fraught sexual tensions in the forefront, Steel delves deeply and expertly into the vagaries of interpersonal, small-town relationships.
Friday, November 15, 6:30 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

Cosimo and Nicole
Francesco Amato (Cosimo e Nicole, Italy 2013)
This drama about an obsessive relationship that takes a dark turn is grounded by two powerhouse performances by Riccardo Scamarcio and Clara Ponsot and directed with urgency by Francesco Amato.
Friday, November 15, 9:00 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

We Believed
Mario Martone (Noi credevamo, Italy/France 2010)
Made to coincide with Italy’s 150th anniversary celebration, this epic 19th-century costume drama tells the story of the country’s path to independence.
Saturday, November 16, 12:15 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

Ali Blue Eyes
Claudio Giovannesi (Alì ha gli occhi azzurri, Italy 2012)
Working with a non-professional cast using incidents from their lives, Claudio Giovannesi paints a revelatory picture of existence for the various cultures trying to live together in present-day Italy.
Saturday, November 16, 4:15 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

Out of the Blue
Edoardo Leo (Buongiorno papà, Italy 2013)
A slick ladies’ man learns new responsibilities in this warm crowd-pleaser from the director of 18 Years Later (NIC 2010).
Saturday, November 16, 6:30 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)


The Interval
Leonardo di Costanzo (L’intervallo, Italy/Switzerland/Germany 2012)
Inside the walls of an abandoned Naples boarding school, a 17-year-old street vendor must spend the afternoon watching over a pretty 15-year-old who is being sequestered for reasons unknown to him.
Saturday, November 16, 9:00 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

Gorbaciof
Stefano Incerti (Italy 2010)
Returning to film’s visual essence, cowriter/director Stefano Incerti depicts the life of a Neapolitan prison cashier named Marino with sparseness and immediacy, bolstered by Toni Servillo’s impeccable performance
Sunday, November 17, 1:00 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

The Ideal City
Luigi Lo Cascio (La città ideale, Italy 2012)
Actor Luigi Lo Cascio’s (The Best of Youth) directorial debut is a wonderfully unclassifiable work, rich with philosophical ideas and punctuated by the increasing precariousness of his protagonist's situation.
Sunday, November 17, 3:00 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)


The Great Beauty
Paolo Sorrentino (La grande bellezza, Italy/France 2013)
Employing elegant cinematography and a brilliantly wide-ranging score, director Paolo Sorrentino has created a phantasmagoric feast for the senses, a tribute to the Eternal City that will surely have a long life of its own
Sunday, November 17, 6:00 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

One Man Up
Paolo Sorrentino (L'uomo in più, Italy 2001)
With surreal dream sequences and potent ideas about destiny and morality, One Man Up is a dark and ambitious (and rarely screened) film that heralded the brilliant careers of director Paolo Sorrentino and star Toni Servillo that were to come.
Sunday, November 17, 9:30 pm
Landmark's Clay Theatre
2261 Fillmore (Sacramento/Clay)

I reviewed Paolo Sorrentino's 2012 This Must Be the Place here.