Di Luisa Terzulli, Walter Ego e Priscilla Casu
During the last months the cinema screens in London (and not only) lighted up of Italian productions, at the go of two important festivals: The Times BFI London Film Festival and the Italian Film Festival UK.
The first one, at its 50th anniversary and organised by the British Film Institute, represents the most important UK cinema festival open to the public, and from 18th of October to 2nd of November 2006 presented a rich selection of films from all around the world.
At its 13th edition, instead, the Italian Film Festival, that from 17th to 26th of November 2006 brought the Italian cinema to the screens of six British cities – London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen.
The BFI Festival too reserved much space to the Italian cinema, and particular attention was also paid to the presence of the film directors and to the possibility to informally interview them. Indeed, we have met Davide Ferrario – present at the Festival with the film Levi’s Journey, a sort of contemporary journey through the stops of the past. An interview with Davide is available on the website www.giorgiostudio.co.uk. At the screening of the film The Caiman – which analyses and documents the rise to the power and the character of Silvio Berlusconi through a script ended in the hands of the protagonist Silvio Orlando, a film inside the film like in a game of Chinese boxes – the director Nanni Moretti showed up in the hall to answer the questions from the audience (again on the website you will find a resume of them). For The Caiman there has been a huge crowd (many Italians) and the most interesting thing, while waiting for the lights to be switched off and the film to start, is exactly to grasp here and there the comments of the person seating nearby or in the row behind… some said to be waiting for The Caiman because appreciates much the independent cinema that here at the Festival had wide space, rather than the usual stories of love and infidelities.
Another film that has surely provoked great interest, not only among the public but also the media, is Romanzo Criminale, directed by Michele Placido and based on the homonymous novel by Giancarlo Di Cataldo, set in Italy in the years of terrorism and focused on the ill-famed banda della Magliana [Magliana is the name of a neighbourhood in Rome, Editor’s Note]. An intense film, very well acted, with characters that can boast themselves with the depth that not only the script but the actors, first of all, can define.
As well, the actor Sergio Castellitto proves himself as a great protagonist, at the BFI Festival with two films: The Missing Star, directed by Gianni Amelio, and The Wedding Director by Marco Bellocchio. Both of them have recorded good success of public, in majority not Italian, despite having been scheduled early in the afternoon.
Again among the rows of the cinema hall it is possible to get first-hand feedback about the Festival, listening to people chatting and understanding how the event is perceived by the audience. Thus vox populi reveals the appreciation for such a festival, its openness to the public and not strictly reserved to press and operators of the industry only, as well as a good predisposition to pay the price of the tickets and enjoy the good quality of the film rather than rely on piracy. At the same time, besides, still in theme of prices, the spectator seems to require more attention: like concessions for children or groups, in order to be able to invite friends to the cinema and to get it to be more and more considered a diversion to be enjoyed in company, about which to talk and occasion for confrontation.
Completely tricolour programme, instead, for the Italian Film Festival UK, hosted in London by the Riverside Studios. The programme presented not only the novelties of the year, but also shorts and special mini-programmes in homage to Roberto Rossellini and Marcello Mastroianni.
The event was inaugurated by The Consequences of Love, directed by Paolo Sorrentino – who has also attended the Festival in person – and marvellous in the contrasts between its slow intensity and the chasing soundtrack. The Festival also reveals that the new star of the Italian cinema is Barbora Populova, actress of Slovak origin and here present with Sacred Heart, The Spectator and Along the Ridge. Exactly this one – presented also at the BFI Festival – has confirmed a great Kim Rossi Stuart at his debut as a director, and protagonist of a story narrated with grace, in which the depth of the direction communicates more than the script itself.
Interesting was the courage of the Italian Film Festival in comprehending in the review works independent and completely outside the big-production circles. A very beautiful example of such a choice is Piano 17 (what a shame that the English translation, Floor 17, does not express the double meaning of the Italian word: both “floor” and “plan”). It is a no-budget film by the Manetti Bros, with a well constructed direction and a chasing story keeping pace with the intriguing soundtrack. Few characters but well interpreted, and a marvellous cameo of the chameleon Valerio Mastandrea; remarkable, moreover, is that the cast includes a good-looking actress without the story requiring her denudation – thing at list atypical in the cinema of the last years. Unusual theme for Mater Natura (Mother Nature) directed by Massimo Andrei, that narrates a story of homosexuality, transsexuals, love and prostitution with colour and lightness but with no banality.
But this is not just the festival of the brave choices and therefore the closing day saw the screening of a classic of the Italian cinema: the memorable La Dolce Vita. The public has literally crowded the hall during a rainy Sunday of November to get enchanted, again, by what is a masterpiece of Cinema. It may be the incomparable charm of Marcello Mastroianni, it may be the oneiric mastery of Federico Fellini, it may be the sensual magic of Rome in the Fifties, it may be the buttery curves of Anita Ekberg, it may be the atmosphere of unbearable lightness that the story and the protagonists transmit… It may be that cinema, the one that is art, goes beyond the translation limits, the cultural contexts, and is appreciated everywhere.
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