FILMMAKERS ATTENDING CINEMA MADE IN ITALY 2019 26 February – 3 March at the Ciné Lumière

Toni Servillo in Loro

The ninth edition of CINEMA MADE IN ITALY will launch at the Ciné Lumière in South Kensington on Tuesday 26^th February. Filmitalia is delighted to confirm the attendance of the following filmmakers, who will be available for press interviews:

Elena Sofia Ricci (actress) – Loro
Valeria Golino (director) – Euforia
Valerio Mieli (director) – Ricordi?
Gianni Zanasi (director) – Lucia’s Grace
Duccio Chiarini (director) – The Guest
Jacopo Cullin (actor) – The Man Who Bought the Moon
Bonifacio Angius (director) – Wherever You Are
Paolo Virzì (director) – Notti Magiche
Alessandro Piavani (actor) – We’ll Be Young and Beautiful

VENUE AND BOX OFFICE INFORMATION:

Ciné Lumière : 17 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2DT, T +44 (0)20 7871 3515
Tickets: £12/£10 (conc.); £9/£7 (conc.) for films in the ‘Sunday Classics’ section; £5 for viewers aged 25 and under, if registered for the ’25 and Under £5 Scheme’ on the French Institute website

SCREENING PROGRAMME – CINEMA MADE IN ITALY 2019

Tuesday 26^th February
8.00 pm                Loro                                                                       150 mins
Intro and Q&A with Elena Sofia Ricci (actress)

Wednesday 27^th February
8.40 pm                Euforia                                                                 120 mins
Intro and Q&A with Valeria Golino (director)

Thursday 28^th February
6.30 pm                Ricordi?                                                               106 mins
Intro and Q&A with Valerio Mieli (director)

8.50 pm                Lucia’s Grace                                                     110 mins
Intro and Q&A with Gianni Zanasi (director)

Friday 1^st March
6.30 pm                The Guest                                                           96 mins
Intro and Q&A with Duccio Chiarini (director)

8.50 pm                The Man Who Bought the Moon              103 mins
Intro and Q&A with Jacopo Cullin (actor) 

Saturday 2^nd March
6.30 pm                Wherever You Are                                          94 mins
Intro and Q&A with Bonifacio Angius (director)

8.50 pm                Notti Magiche                                                   125 mins
Intro and Q&A with Paolo Virzì (director)

Sunday 3^rd March
2.00 pm                The Conformist                                                118 mins
6.30 pm                We’ll Be Young and Beautiful                    92 mins
Intro and Q&A with Alessandro Piavani (actor)

LINE-UP FOR CINEMA MADE IN ITALY 2019

LORO
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Cast: Toni Servillo, Elena Sofia Ricci, Riccardo Scamarcio, Kasia Smutniak, Euridice Axen, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Roberto De Francesco, Dario Cantarelli, Anna Bonaiuto, Giovanni Esposito, Ugo Pagliai, Ricky Memphis, Alice Pagani, Caroline Tillette, Elena Cotta, Iaia Forte, Duccio Camerini, Yann Gael, Mattia Sbragia, Max Tortora, Milvia Marigliano, Michela Cescon, Roberto Herlitzka
Running time: 150 minutes

“Brilliant, savage, scintillating satire on the bunga bunga personal life of former Italian premier Berlusconi from modern maestro Paolo Sorrentino” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

Paolo Sorrentino skewers Italian politics in this satirical, profane, and imaginative fictionalisation of controversial Italian tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi and his inner circle.

UK release date: 19th April 2019 (Curzon Artificial Eye)

EUFORIA
Director: Valeria Golino
Cast: Riccardo Scamarcio, Valerio Mastandrea, Isabella Ferrari, Valentina Cervi, Jasmine Trinca, Francesco Borgese, Francesco Pellegrino, Andrea Germani, Marzia Ubaldi
Running time: 120 minutes

“Valeria Golino’s second film as a director is an accomplished moving modern tale of the love-hate-love relationship of two very different brothers” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

Matteo and Ettore are two brothers who could not be more different. Whereas Matteo is a successful entrepreneur leading a decadent lifestyle in central Rome, Ettore is a down-to-earth teacher in their provincial hometown. When Matteo learns that his brother has an incurable brain tumour, he immediately goes to fetch him, and insists that he stays with him in his glitzy apartment, a world apart from the surroundings Ettore is accustomed to. Unaware of just how ill he is, Ettore finds it hard to accept his younger brother’s well meaning help and fit in with his hedonistic lifestyle. Screening in Un Certain Regard in Cannes last year, Euforia features excellent central performance and offers moments of tenderness at times interspersed with humour, all the while examining the trials and tribulations of brotherly love.

RICORDI?
Director: Valerio Mieli
Cast: Luca Marinelli, Linda Caridi, Giovanni Anzaldo, Camilla Diana, Anna Manuelli, Eliana Bosi, David Brandon, Benedetta Cimatti, Andrea Pennacchi, Maria Chiara Giannetta, Angelo Barbagallo, Flavia Mattei, Alice Pagani, Jacopo Mandò, Francesca Pasquini
Running time: 106 minutes

“A beautifully realised and clever romance, imaginatively told by director Valerio Mieli through the memories of two lovers” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

Ricordi? is the follow-up to Valerio Mieli’s highly acclaimed Ten Winters, which won numerous Best First Film awards. Luca Marinelli and Linda Caridi are perfectly cast as a young couple grappling with the ups and downs of a modern love affair. A story of young love lost, told using the sophisticated intercutting of past, present and future events and recollections. Slow motion, superimposed images and constant back and forth editing, convey a sense of the fluidity of time and the fleeting nature of memory.

LUCIA’S GRACE (Troppa Grazia)
Director: Gianni Zanasi
Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Elio Germano, Hadas Yaron, Giuseppe Battiston, Carlotta Natoli, Thomas Trabacchi, Daniele De Angelis, Rosa Vannucci, Teco Celio, Elisa Di Eusanio, Davide Strava
Running time: 110 minutes

“Whimsical, amusing and affecting eco-fable about a surveyor (played wonderfully as ever by Alba Rohrwacher) whose strange visions make her question her latest project” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

Single working mother Lucia is trying to find the right balance between life with her teenage daughter, a complicated romance, and her career as a land surveyor. Lucia’s future is jeopardized when she realises that an ambitious new building project will be environmentally dangerous due to the council’s inaccurate maps of the area. As she is pondering whether to voice her objections or remain forever silent a mysterious woman appears, claiming to be the Madonna. She endeavours to convince Lucia to stand up to her superiors, saying that the only solution would be to build a church on the site. Lucia’s Grace provides a strong showcase for the range of Alba Rohrwacher’s talent, who once again shines in this sun-dappled comedy which closed Directors’ Fortnight at the 2018 Cannes International Film Festival.

THE GUEST (L’Ospite)
Director: Duccio Chiarini
Cast: Daniele Parisi, Silvia D’Amico, Anna Bellato, Federica Victoria Caiozzo aka Thony, Milvia Marigliano, Daniele Natali, Guglielmo Favilla, Brunori Sas, Sergio Pierattini, Francesca Turrini
Running time: 96 minutes

“Wryly funny, nicely observed comedy of manners about a man who becomes the unwelcome lodger of a succession of family and friends” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

Having received a Special Mention at the 2014 Venice International Film Festival for his debut film Short Skin, Duccio Chiarini returns with a highly entertaining dramedy. Guido (Daniele Parisi) is a 38-year-old academic who is completing a book on Italo Calvino, which he seems to have been working on forever. When Guido’s girlfriend (Silvia D’Amico) tells him she is having doubts about their relationship, he is forced to move out of his comfort zone.  Unable to be alone, he surfs from one couch to the next, witnessing the everyday lives of his friends and family and their various romantic tribulations, desperately seeking the roots for a new beginning. The Guest offers a perceptive insight into how today’s generation of people in their late 30s and early 40s are afraid of commitment, and even decision-making in general.

THE MAN WHO BOUGHT THE MOON ( L’Uomo che compró la Luna)
Director: Paolo Zucca
Cast: Jacopo Cullin, Stefano Fresi, Francesco Pannofino, Benito Urgu, Lazar Ristovski, Angela Molina
Running time: 103 minutes

“Zany Sardinian set slapstick comedy, a sort of Italian Johnny English as an inept spy tries to infiltrate a traditional Community” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

The whole world is thrown into turmoil when word starts spreading that an anonymous Sardinian has laid claim to the moon. The Italian Intelligence set about selecting a secret agent who they can dispatch to the island to investigate. Although the Sardinian-born paratrooper Kevin Pirelli (Jacopo Cullin) is deemed a suitable candidate, he has been away from his homeland for far too long and needs to be taught the ins and outs of Sardinia’s customs and mannerisms. Expat Badore (Benito Ugo) is just the man for the job, and the pair strike up a rapport which is as comical as it is endearing in their quest to get to the bottom of this outlandish mystery. 

WHEREVER YOU ARE (Ovunque Proteggemi)
Director: Bonifacio Angius
Cast: Alessandro Gazale, Francesca Niedda, Antonio Angius, Anna Ferruzzo, Gavino Ruda, Mario Olivieri
Running time: 94 minutes

“A dissolute musician’s embarkation on a rollercoaster dysfunctional romance is the basis for this terrific drama from Perfidia Director Bonifacio Angius, which packs real emotional punch” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

Alessandro (Alessandro Gazale) is a fifty something singer with a drinking problem, who has never left home. When his mother refuses to lend him yet more money, he loses it. He has a mental breakdown and is taken to hospital, where he meets Francesca (Francesca Niedda), a young mother with drug issues. Alessandro instantly falls for her and makes it his mission to help Francesca reclaim her five-year-old son who has been into care. Together they set off on a spontaneous road trip full of exuberance, despair, bitterness and irony.

NOTTI MAGICHE
Director: Paolo Virzì
Cast: Mauro Lamantia, Giovanni Toscano, Irene Vetere, Giancarlo Giannini, Eugenio Marinelli, Marina Rocco, Paolo Sassanelli, Roberto Herlitzka, Regina Orioli, Andrea Roncato, Giulio Scarpati, Simona Marchini, Annalisa Arena, Ornella Muti, Jalil Lespert, Paolo Bonacelli, Giulio Berruti, Emanuele Salce, Francesca Turrini, Emanuele Barresi
Running time: 125 minutes

“Paolo Virzì’s wonderfully playful and affectionate movie-movie satire gleefully looks back at the last glory days of classic Italian Cinema” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

On the night of an unfortunate football defeat the renowned film producer Leandro Saponaro is found dead in the River Tiber. The main suspects are three young aspiring screenwriters, who were the last people to see the producer alive that night. They are summoned to the police station to spill the beans, and soon their far-fetched tales bring to life the bygone era of the golden years of Italian cinema. In this black comedy Paolo Virzì takes us on a tumultuous, emotional and ironic journey through the chaotic streets of Rome. Magical Nights was the closing night film at the 13^th Rome International Film Festival.

THE CONFORMIST (Il Conformista)
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Cast: Jean-Louis Tritignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, Fosco Giachetti, José Quaglio, Yvonne Sanson
Running time: 118 minutes

“Fitting tribute to Master filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci who passed away in 2018“– Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

Adapted from a novel by Alberto Moravia, this gripping, edgy thriller shows the late Italian maestro at his peak. Set in 1938, it tells the story of an aristocratic would-be fascist who is sent to Paris to murder his former, anti-fascist philosophy tutor. Jean-Louis Tritignant is supremely sinister in the role of Marcello Clerici, whose demeanour is an eternal reminder of the banality of evil. It was an instant hit when it was released in 1970, and some say it is one of the most poetic and influential films ever made, beloved by film-makers the world over.

WE’LL BE YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL (Saremo Giovani e Bellissimi)
Director: Letizia Lamartire
Cast: Barbora Bobulova, Alessandro Piavani, Massimiliano Gallo, Federica Sabatini, Elisabetta De Vito, Ciro Scalera, Paola Calliari, Victoria Silvestro, Gianvincenzo Pugliese, Tiziana Viano, Matteo Buzzanca, Gianluca Pantosti
Running time: 92 minutes

“A sparky, moving rock’n’roll story of a fiery mother (singer) and son (songwriter) relationship is an impressive debut feature by Letizia Lamartire” – Adrian Wootton (Programmer – Cinema Made in Italy)

In the early nineties 18-year-old Isabella (Barbora Bobulova) released an album which became an instant hit, and it was all over the radio and TV for an entire summer. Her fame was short-lived…. fast forward 20 years and Isabella is still singing the same old tunes which once made her famous in small town bars, now accompanied by her young son Bruno (Alessandro Piavani), who writes songs and plays the guitar. Bruno and Isabella seem more like brother and sister than mother and son and the two are inseparable, sharing a ramshackle but happy life of unpaid bills and midnight strolls around the city. The connection is broken however when Bruno meets Arianna (Federica Sabatini), a hip rock chick who asks him to join her band. Light touches of comedy and music document the reluctant but inevitable separation between mother and son, which has its fair share of painful moments, just like the end of any other love story.