PRESS RELEASE
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ITALIAN CINEMA AT THE LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 15-30 October 2008
Seven new productions, an archive gem, five co-productions…the 53nd The Times London Film Festival is more Italian than ever this year.
Some of the best Italian films of the season are going to be screened during the biggest cinema event of the capital, and some of the best know Italian film-makers are going to introduce their work to the sell out audience of the festival.
Nanni Moretti makes a welcome return on the London scene as the main character of Quiet Chaos , from the award winning novel by Sandro Veronese. This ‘mesmerising, moving and also wryly humorous film benefits enormously from the interplay between the magnificent cast (Valeria Golino and Isabella Ferrari co-star) with Moretti providing a thoughtful, complex and brilliantly realised performance at its centre. Antonello Grimaldi directs the drama with appropriate subtlety and restraint’. Quiet Chaos , distr. New Wave Films. Screening at OWE 2 on Sunday 19 October at 6,30pm, introduced by Moretti.
Paolo Sorrentino is also very well known in the UK after the success of his latest works The Family Friend and The Consequences of Love . This time he brilliantly directs Il Divo , a depiction of the life and times of Giulio Andreotti, (magnificently played by Tony Servillo), arguably the most famous and notorious Italian politician of the post-war era, Prime Minister in his country seven times. ‘Sorrentino is one of the directors leading a genuine renaissance in Italian cinema’. Il Divo , distr. Artificial Eye. Screening at OWE 2 on Tuesday 21 October at 6pm and at OWE1 on Thursday 23 October at 4pm.
Ferzan Ozpetek brings to London his latest work, A Perfect Day , radically different from much of his previous work such as Ignorant Fairies and Saturno Contro. ‘Although based on a novel by Melania Mazzucco, A Perfect Day is really Ozpetek holding up a mirror to the pressures upon the modern Italian family and the self destructiveness inherent in so much of society’. A Perfect Day , screening at OWE1 on Friday 17 October at 1,30pm and at OWE2 on Sunday 19 October at 1pm.
Dino and Filippo Gentili are directors and screenwriters of I Am Alive , a black comedy that is neither a supernatural chiller nor a conventional thriller. ‘Indeed , I Am Alive manages to be witty, intelligent and suprising, without being either ridiculous or descending into genre cliché. The credit for this must go to the clever co-scripting and atmospheric direction of the Gentili brothers and the sheer quality of the performances on display’. I Am Alive , screening at Curzon Mayfair on Sunday 19 October at 6,30pm and on Monday 20 October at 2pm.
Giovanni Di Gregorio, one of the most celebrated Italian screenwriters (he’s contributed recently to Gomorrah ) makes his feature debut with Mid-August Lunch , a miniature gem, by turns comic, embarrassing, engaging and emotionally affecting. ‘This is a small but beautifully rendered drama of manners that captures the nuances of people’s behaviour and shows a mis-fit group of individuals, copying – or not – with each other’s idiosyncrasies’. Mid-August Lunch , screening at David Lean Cinema on Wednesday 22 October at 8,15pm and at NFT 2 on Sunday 26 October.
A Game for Girls is an impressive feature film debut from Matteo Rovere. ‘Well adapted from a first novel by Andrea Cotti, A Game for Girls is edgy, disturbing yet never anything other than entirely believable. A little gem from a director who is definitely someone to watch’. A Game for Girls , screening at NFT1 on Thursday 16 October at 3,45pm and Curzon Mayfair on Saturday 18 October at 9pm.
More crime fiction with The Past is a Foreign Land , based on a best-selling novel by Gianrico Carofiglio, directed with skill and aplomb by Daniele Vicari. The brilliant performance by Elio Germano, one of Italy’s top actors, ‘is matched , scene for scene, by the wonderful, if relative newcomer, Michele Riondino and it is their relationship which lifts this intriguing story into something special’. The Past is a Foreign Land , screening at NFT3 on Tuesday 28 October at 8,45pm and Wednesday 29 October at 4,15pm.
From the archives, one of the most loved Italian films of all times: Once Upon a Time in the West – the masterpiece by Sergio Leone, unforgettably interpreted by Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale and Charles Bronson, screening at OWE2 on Sunday 26 October at 12noon.
Last but not least, five co-productions: The Silence of Lorna , (Belgium, France, Italy). Dir Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne; screening at OWE1 on Mon 27 Oct at 9pm and NFT1 on Wed 29 Oct at 1,30pm
Three Monkeys (Turkey, France, Italy); dir Nuri Bilge Ceylan; screening at OWE1 on Sun 26 Oct at 6,30pm and at NFT2 on Mon 27 Oct at 3,30pm
Mia & the Migou (France, Italy), dir Jacques-Rémi Girerd; screening at NFT2 on Sun 26 Oct at 12noon
Black Sea (Italy, France, Romania), dir Federico Bondi, screening at Curzon Mayfair on Mon 20 Oct at 9pm and NFT1 on Thu 23 Oct at 1,15pm
Miracle at St. Anna (Italy, USA), dir Spike Lee, screening at OWE2 on Thu 16 Oct at 8,30pm and Fri 17 Oct at 12,15pm
Press Enquiries: Giulia Maione, Press & PR Officer, The Italian Cultural Institute, 39 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8NX. Tel 020 7235 1461 direct line 020 7396 4402 e-mail: [email protected]