NEW ITALIAN CINEMA in San Francisco, Nov. 22-24-Dec. 2, 2019 (Forum thread)

[Chris Knipp]

Luce Cinecitta and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco are presenting the 1st edition of
CINEMA ITALIAN STYLE
November 22 - 24, 2019
At the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco

FESTIVAL COVERAGE THREAD


LINKS TO REVIEWS:
INVISIBLE WITNESS, THE /IL TESTIMONE INVISIBLE (Giuseppe Mordini 2018)
ORDINARY HAPPINESS/MOMENTI DI TRASCURABILE FELICITA (Daniele Luchetti 2019)
TRAITOR, THE /IL TRADITORE (Marco Bellocchio 2019)
VICE OF HOPE, THE/ IL VIZIO DELLA SPERANZA (Edoardo De Angelis 2018)
VIVERE (Francesca Archibugi 2019)
VOLARE/TUTTO IL MIO FOLLE AMORE (Gabriele Salvatores 2019)



Opening Night Films
The Traitor
Il traditore
DIR: Marco Bellocchio Italy/France/Germany/Brazil, 2019, 135 min
Friday, November 22, 6:00 pm
Veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio (Vincere) ignites the screen with an incendiary Mafia drama about Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino), the man who brought down Cosa Nostra. In the early 1980’s, an all-out war rages between cut-throat Sicilian mafia bosses. Tommaso Buscetta, a made man, flees Italy to hide out in Brazil. Back home, scores are being settled and Buscetta watches from afar as his sons and brother are killed in Palermo, knowing that he may be next. Arrested and extradited to Italy by the Brazilian police, Buscetta makes a move that will change everything for the Mafia: he decides to meet with Judge Giovanni Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi) and betray the eternal vow he made to Cosa Nostra, which leads to the notorious Maxi Trial. The Traitor was nominated for the Palme D’Or at Cannes and is Italy’s submission to the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. Special thanks to Sony Pictures Classics. CAST: Pierfrancesco Favino, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fausto Russo Alesi, Nicola Calì



The Invisible Witness
Il testimone invisibile
DIR: Stefano Mordini Italy, 2018, 102 min
Friday, November 22, 9:00 pm
Adriano (Riccardo Scamarcio), a tech entrepreneur, is awakened by the police in a hotel room next to the dead body of his lover, Laura (Miriam Leone). The door was locked from the inside and there is no evidence of anybody else in the room. Despite his claims of innocence, he is charged with murder. His attorney (Paola Sambo) sends veteran criminal attorney Virginia Ferrara (Maria Paiato)—who has never lost a trial—to craft a defense strategy. The two have only three hours to prepare the case, discredit a key witness who is accusing Adriano, and find the evidence confirming his innocence. With his back to the wall, Adriano is forced to tell the full truth to his lawyer, but will that be enough? The Invisible Witness features a fast paced script and stellar performances by Scamarcio, Leone and Paiato, supported by a top-notch ensemble cast. CAST: Riccardo Scamarcio, Miriam Leone, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Maria Paiato, Sara Cardinaletti, Nicola Pannelli, Sergio Romano, Paola Sambo, Gerardo De Blasio, Alessandra Carrillo



Vivere
DIR: Francesca Archibugi Italy, 2019, 103 min
Saturday, November 23, 3:00 pm
The Attorre family lives in a semi-detached villa in a decorous Roman suburb, next door to a prying neighbor, Perind (Marcello Font of Dogman). Luca (Adriano Giannini), a frustrated freelance journalist and creative conjurer of fake news, struggles to support Susi (Michela Ramazzotti), a former ballerina who now teaches ballet to overweight women, and Lucilla, a quiet and imaginative six-year-old who suffers from severe asthma. Pierpaolo, the 17-year-old son of Luca from a previous relationship—who lives with his well-to-do mother under the aegis of his powerful grandfather—visits often and supports them economically. When Mary Ann, a winsome Irish au pair (Rosin O'Donovan), comes to take care of Lucilla, everyone’s role in the family shifts.
CAST: Micaela Ramazzotti, Adriano Giannini, Roisin O'Donovan, Massimo Ghini, Marcello Fonte, Andrea Calligari, Enrico Montesano, Valentina Cervi, Elisa Miccoli



Volare
Tutto il mio folle amore
DIR: Gabriele Salvatores Italy, 2019, 97 min
Saturday, November 23, 6:00 pm
Willi (Claudio Santamaria) returns sixteen years after the birth of his autistic son Vincent (Giulio Pranno), and breaks into the home of his ex-girlfriend Elena (Valeria Golino) and her partner Mario (Diego Abatantuono), who adopted Vincent. Willi, a boozing lounge singer, wants to connect with the boy, but Elena is furious and throws him out. But when Willi discovers that Vincent has hidden away in the back of his pick-up truck en route to a tour of Slovenia, a musical and emotional journey begins that will change their lives and seal their bond. CAST: Claudio Santamaria, Valeria Golino, Diego Abatantuono, Giulio Pranno, Daniel Vivian, Marusa Majer, Tania Garribba



The First King: Birth of an Empire
Il primo re
DIR: Matteo Rovere Italy, 2019, 127 min
Saturday, November 23, 8:30 pm
In this swashbuckling epic, Matteo Rovere brings us the mythic story of twin shepherd brothers, Romulus and Remus, one of whom will found the Roman empire. In 800 B.C., a prophecy foretells that one of the brothers—who are both hardened by the elements and suckled by a she-wolf—will build a world-spanning empire, but the other will die at his brother’s hand. In this swordfight drama (featuring dialogue in a painstakingly researched, authentic archaic Latin), love, ambition and fratricide coalesce in a searing story about the most tragic of sacrifices, from which Rome will rise. CAST: Alessandro Borghi, Alessio Lapice



Food Makers
Followed by food tasting
DIR: Enrica Cavalli Italy, 2018, 48 min
DIRECTOR IN PERSON
Sunday, November 24, 2:15 pm
Enrica Cavalli’s engaging documentary chronicles the round-the-world journey of fifteen students of the F​ood Innovation Program​ (based in Reggio Emilia), to find out how food is changing. To study the food of the future, writer Nick Difino and director Cavalli followed the students as they traversed cities in ten countries (Boston, Davis, San Francisco, Kyoto, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Maastricht, Wageningen, Bologna, the Italian Food Valley and Puglia) to meet and interview people who are “Food Heroes.” We live in an ever-growing global community, where what we eat and how we produce affects the whole life of our planet. On one hand, over two billion people have problems accessing good food and on the other, over one billion suffer from obesity. This documentary is a resounding call for a better food system and a more democratic international food policy.



The Vice of Hope
Il vizio della speranza
DIR: Edoardo De Angelis Italy, 2018, 96 min
Sunday, November 24, 5:00 pm
Edoardo De Angelis, director of the critically acclaimed Indivisible, returns to the Neapolitan coastal area with the beautifully told tale of Maria (Pina Turco), a young woman forced by economic circumstances to work as a trafficker of paid surrogate mothers, transporting them clandestinely along the Volturno river. But when one of the pregnant women disappears, Maria is threatened by her complicated boss, Zi’Mari (Maria Confalone) and has to find the missing woman. Accompanied by her trusty pit bull, Maria encounters a world of wide-open spaces but narrowing choices. CAST: Pina Turco, Massimiliano Rossi, Marina Confalone, Cristina Donadio, Marcello Romolo



Closing Night Film
Ordinary Happiness
Momenti di trascurabile felicità
DIR: Daniele Luchetti Italy, 2019, 93 min
Sunday, November 24, 7:30 pm
Paolo (Pif), a Sicilian engineer who is married with two children, drives his scooter with abandon. In a daily act of bravado, he crosses an intersection with the light changing to red, and gets hit by a truck and dies. What if, because of a miscalculation in Paradise, you got an extra hour and a half after death and a chance to achieve what really counts in life, enjoying the people you love most: your partner, your children, and your friends? How do you cram life’s small moments of happiness—parenting, marital bliss, sex, and soccer—into an hour and half? CAST: Pierfrancesco Diliberto aka Pif, Renato Carpentieri, Federica Victoria Caiozzo aka Thony, Francesco Giammanco, Angelica Alleruzzo, Vincenzo Ferrera, Franz Cantalupo, Manfredi Pannizzo

[Chris Knipp]

THE INVISIBLE WITNESS/IL TESTIMONE INVISIBLE (Giuseppe Mordini 2018)

In this twisty crime thriller, a man accused of killing his mistress spills the beans to an ace woman defense attorney. With Ricardo Scarmarcio. Remake of a 2017 Spanish film.

Nov 22 at Cinema Italian Style, San Francisco.

Also opening night:

THE TRAITOR/ILTRADITORE (Marco Bellocchio 2019)

The important new film about the first important mafia witness, Tomaso Buscetta, by the legendary director of Fists in the Pocket, China Is Near, and Good Morning, Night.

[Chris Knipp]

VIVERE (Francesca Archibugi 2019)

The doings of a dysfunctional family on the outskirts of Rome when an Isish au pair girl comes.

Vogue Theater 3 pm Sat. Nov. 23.

[Chris Knipp]

VOLARE/TUTTO IL MIO FOLLE AMORE (Gabriele Salvatores 2019)

From the director of I'M NOT AFRAID, a road/buddy picture about the surprise bonding of a wild but sweet 16-year-old autistic boy and his disreputable absentee dad, a singer who who works in the Balkans. A pleasing fantasy.

Cinema Italian Style 2019, Vogue Theater, San Francisco Saturday, November 23, 6:00 pm

[Chris Knipp]

THE VICE OF HOPE/ IL VIZIO DELLA SPERANZA (Edoardo De Angelis 2018)

A woman involved in trafficking surrogate mothers, now pregnant herself, decides to run away.

Cinema Italian Style 2019, Vogue Theater, San Francisco Sunday, November 24, 5:00 pm

[Chris Knipp]

ORDINARY HAPPINESS/MOMENTI DI TRASCURABILE FELICITA (Daniele Luchetti 2019)

A dead man gets a short reprieve from heaven, and in the film's run time revisits and appreciates his life as a Palermo architect with a wife and two children.

Cinema Italian Style 2019, Vogue Theater, San Francisco Sunday, November 24, 2019 7:30 pm (Closing Night Film)