Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Cast: Francesco Scianna, Margareth Madé, Raoul Bova, Beppe Fiorello.
U.S. Premiere!
The Official Italian Entry for Best Foreign Language Film,
Academy Awards® 2009
From Giuseppe Tornatore, director of Academy Award® Winner CINEMA PARADISO: a family saga set in Bagheria, a small town close to Palermo, Sicily. The film spans 50 years throughout the 20th century, following three generations of a family in Baarìa (Bagheria in dialect), as they deal with Fascism, World War II, post-war chaos and modern politics. The film was a nominee for the Golden Lion Award at the last Venice Film Festival, and Winner of the Pasinetti Award.
Hollywood Reporter’s Natasha Senjanovic writes: “The film is a moving autobiography of a great author, a nostalgic tribute to his hometown of Baaria and his family.”
Introduction by Director Giuseppe Tornatore actors Margareth Madé and Francesco Scianna. Introduction begins at 7:00 pm, film at 7:30 PM.
Director: Edoardo Winspeare.
Cast: Beppe Fiorello, Donatella Finocchiaro, Fabrizio Gifuni.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Ignazio and Lucia were best friends as kids, while growing up in Salento, Southern Italy. The old time time friends are reunited as adults many years later: Ignacio is now a well-known and respected judge, a staunch defender of the Law; Lucia is a perfume salesperson, a single mother of a young boy. The two fall in love, only to find they led very different lives since their childhood. While Ignacio has been a law-abiding citizen, Lucia has a checkered past, that includes being a leader of one of the most powerful crime syndicates. Ignazio must choose between his strong attraction to Lucia and his loyalty the Law.
THE BRAVE MEN screens again on November 16 at the EGYPTIAN THEATRE Spielberg Screening Room at 4:00pm.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Director: Davide Ferrario.
Cast: Kasia Smutniak, Luciana Littizzetto, Fabio Troiano.
Irena is a young theatre director who takes on the challenge of staging a production of “The Passion of Jesus” inside a correctional facility, with the convicts as actors. While casting the play, she comes across an unforeseen problem: none of the convicts wants to play Judas, Jesus’s traitor. But the show must go on, therefore Irena decides to give it a spin: retelling the story of Jesus without a traitor and no crucifixion at all at the end.
Director: Marco Amenta.
Cast: Veronica D’Agostino, Gerard Jugnot, Giulia Andò..
Los Angeles Premiere!
Loosely based on actual events, the film follows the story of a 17-year old girl, Rita, who claims justice for her father and brother’s assassinations, both Mafia members. She makes the fateful decision to turn her back to her family, breaking the Mafia’s rule of silence. Seeking the truth about the two murders, she alerts authorities and makes herself available to a State prosecutor. Rejected by everyone in her hometown, even by her mother, she’s forced to flee Sicily and into hiding in Rome under a witness protection program, unaware of the tragic fate that eventually will follow.
Discussion following with director Marco Amenta.
Director: Nico Cirasola.
Cast: Dante Marmone, Renzo Arbore, Lino Banfi, Michele Placido.
This is the true story of the “focaccia that ate the hamburger”. In Altamura, a small town in Puglia, Luca Digesu opens a small bakery shop serving up fresh focaccia. But before he knows, a huge McDonald’s opens right next door. Luca takes on the American fast-food monster in an epic battle between the little baker “that could” and the BigMac giant. Will the Goliath of the fast-food franchise crush tiny David, as everybody expects? Not so fast…
Introduction by director Nico Cirasola and actors Onofrio Pepe and Eric Jozsef.
FOCACCIA BLUES screens again on November 18 at the EGYPTIAN THEATRE Spielberg Screening Room at 7:30pm.
