The Lavazza Italian Film Festival makes a return
for its 14th season this October and November with a line-up of 27 exciting new titles, as well as a classic returning to screens.
This year’s event
will be book-ended by two films which pay homage to
Rome. The
Great Beauty, which screened for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, is critically lauded drama about love and regret from
writer/director Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo,
This Must Be the Place). It will launch the Festival at Opening Night Galas in
each state. For Closing Night, 1972 gem Fellini’s Roma – a gloriously vivid
valentine, from the late, great director, Federico Fellini, to the city he adored - will screen.
From the press release, other highlights of
the 2013 Festival line-up include:
A Five Star
Life (Viaggio sola)
Director: Maria Sole Tognazzi (Starring: Margherita Buy, Stefano Accorsi and Lesley Manville)
Drama and
comedy are effortlessly fused in this clever and stylish world-tour of hotels
across Paris, Berlin, the Alps, and Marrakesh.
Hotel critic, Irene spends her glamorous days travelling to the world’s
best establishments, methodically judging their standards in every fastidious
respect. However, she remains supremely
unaware of the glaring imperfections in her own life until events shatter her
complacency challenging her to find a balance between work and play.
A Perfect Family (Una famiglia perfetta)
Director:
Paolo Genovese (Starring: Castellitto,
Mark Giallini, Claudia Gerini and Carolina Crescentini)
In this wry comedy, Leone, a very wealthy, very lonely man, decides to
create a family Christmas by writing a script and hiring professional actors to
play different family members. When in
Leone’s presence, this odd company perform their parts, but his constant mood
swings cause havoc with his own script, forcing the actors to improvise. However an unexpected arrival causes a major
disruption to proceedings, throwing the script into a disorder that will either
make or break this strange family unit.
Alì Blue Eyes
(Alì ha gli occhi azzuri)
Director: Claudio Giovannesi (Starring: Nader Sarhan, Stefano Rabatti and Brigitte Apruzzesi)
In this
powerful tale, Nader, a 16-year-old Italian-born son of Egyptian Muslim
parents, is caught between his peers and his cultural roots. In love with Italian girl Brigitte, Nader
defies family wishes by fleeing his home. But when his fiery friend Stefano
gets into a fight, Nader stabs a young Romanian in his defence, forcing him go
into hiding from the wounded victim’s family, who now seek revenge.
Balancing Act (Gli equilibristi)
Director: Ivano De Matteo (Starring: Valerio Mastandrea, Barbora
Bobulova and Maurizio Casagrande)
When husband and father of two Giulio upsets his comfortable life by
having an affair, his wife Elena cannot
forgive him. He decides to move out but
promises that he will continue to support the family financially despite his meagre
monthly salary. But where can he go? His
friends have their own problems, apartments are too expensive and he resists
staying with his mistress. Finding a
one-room, shared-bathroom pensione, Giulio plunges deeper into poverty as he
struggles to pay for his separation, borrowing more and more money before
hitting rock bottom. Told with ironic humour amidst the tragedy, this movie
poignantly examines the thin line between having it all and having nothing. Audiences
will also remember Mastandrea from last year’s Festival films Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy
and Things From Another World. His outstanding performance in this film won
him the Best Actor award at the 2012 Venice Film Festival and is widely hailed as the finest of his career.
Honey (Miele)
Director: Valeria Golino (Starring: Jasmine Trinca, Carlo Cecci,
Libero De Rienzo and Vinicio Marchioni)
Officially
selected
for Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2013, this finely-tuned drama is the
outstanding directorial debut of internationally famed actress Valeria
Golino. Irene is an angel of mercy. Going by the pseudonym “Honey”,
she works
under the radar and outside the law to assist the terminally ill to
pass-on
peacefully and with dignity. However the work is not without its costs
and
Irene lives a largely insulated life with personal liaisons kept at
arm’s
length. But when retired architect Carlo
enlists her services, a tense yet caring relationship results, causing
her
usually fierce code of ethics to be tested.
The Human Cargo
(La nave dolce)
Director: Daniele Vicari
In 1991 Armenia was in a state of economic, social and political
upheaval, with many citizens dreaming of a better life abroad. On 8 August 1991
the ship Vlora returned from Cuba with 10,000 tons of sugar in stowage. The
local residents – an uncontrollable throng of some 20,000 men, women and
children - took advantage of what appeared to be a rare opportunity and forced
the Captain to take them to a new life in Italy. Shown through extensive
footage of breathtaking scenes, and told from the perspectives of those who
experienced it themselves, this dramatic, little-known piece of history won the
Best Documentary Award at the 2012 Venice Film Festival.
The Ideal City
(La città ideale)
Director: Luigi Lo Cascio (Starring: Luigi Lo Cascio, Aida Burruano and Luigi Maria Burruano)
Actor turned
director, Luigi Lo Cascio, stars as a talented architect and fervent
environmentalist who decides to live for one year without running water,
electricity or automobiles. However, one
rainy evening, when forced to borrow his boss’ car to drive a colleague to a
work function, his life takes an unexpected turn when he hits something he
can’t identify. When a few miles down
the road he discovers the dead body of a local luminary, he unwittingly brings
great suspicion upon himself, as his uncertainty of the night’s events raise
more questions than he has answers for.
The Interval (L’intervallo)
Director: Leonardo di
Costanzo (Starring: Francesca Riso, Alessio Gallo and Carmine Paternoster)
17-year-old Toto sells lemon crushed-ice from a cart in a run-down area
of Naples, until one day he is forcefully enlisted by the local Camorra boss,
Bernardino, to temporarily guard 15-year-old wild child Veronica in a
dilapidated warehouse. Toto is initially
resentful, unaware of the reasons for being handed this task. Meanwhile Veronica loathes her imprisonment
and her ‘babysitter’. However, as time passes a friendship develops, despite
the sense of impending doom that prevails as they anticipate the return of
Bernardino and the fate that awaits Veronica.
Feted by critics, The Interval
won Best New Director for Leonardo di Costanzo at the David di Donatello
Awards.
Mr Volare: The
story of Domenico Modugno (Volare: La grande storia di Domenico Modugno)
Director: Riccardi Milani (Starring: Guiseppe Fiorello and Kasia
Smutniak)
The legendary
Domenico Modugno charmed the world with his melodic voice and songs, which came
to symbolise Italian grandeur in the 60s.
Together with Johnny Dorelli, he launched his career with the timeless
song "Nel blu dipinto di blu” (“Volare”), which garnered two Grammy
Awards, sales above 22 million copies and represented Italy in the 1958
Eurovision Song Contest. He was also a
successful actor with 44 films to his credit before he entered politics in 1986.
We follow his incredible journey as a
boy from the south of Italy to a man who produced some of the world’s most famous
songs. Screening in two parts of 100 minutes with a short intermission, this is
a must-see Festival highlight.
The 2013 Lavazza Italian Film Festival will take place
nationally at Palace Cinemas as follows:
For updates, visit: http://www.
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