Wednesday, October 10 – 7:00 PM - The Egyptian Theatre
MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD
(MIO FRATELLO E’ FIGLIO UNICO)
2007, THINKFilm, 100 min. Dir. Daniele Luchetti.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Accio (Elio Germano) is his parents’ desperation: an impulsive and explosive troublemaker, fighting every battle like a war. His brother (Riccardo Scamarcio) is handsome, charismatic, loved by all -- but just as dangerous. In the Italian small town life of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the two brothers have opposite political beliefs, are in love with the same woman and, through endless confrontations, they live a saga of escaping, fighting and great passion. It is a story about growing up, set against fifteen years of Italian history, seen through the prism of adventures experienced by two very different, yet similar brothers. "Helmer Daniele Luchetti keeps the mood light and winning in a micro-tale of Italy's troubled years in the late '60s and '70s, viewed through the prism of a politically divided family. Scripted by THE BEST OF YOUTH duo who brought the post-WWII years into stark and moving light, pic offers a warm humor that illuminates the defiant vista of hope even when the proceedings turn tragic." – Jay Weisberg, Variety
Introduction by director Daniele Luchetti and co-star Riccardo Scamarcio. Cinema Italian Style Award presentation from 7:00 PM to 7:30 PM, the film will be starting at 7:30 PM.
Thursday, October 11 – 7:30 PM - The Egyptian Theatre
THE ORCHESTRA OF PIAZZA VITTORIO
(L'ORCHESTRA DI PIAZZA VITTORIO)
2006, Netflix/Vitagraph Films, 93 min. Dir. Agostino Ferrente.
Italian Music Documentary and Live World Music Event!
An award-winning Italian film that chronicles the realization of an ambitious dream -- to create a unique, multi-ethnic orchestra that would fuse cultures, tradition and sounds from around the world. With 250 concerts behind them in Europe and two CDs, the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio makes their West Coast debut with a post-screening live concert at the Egyptian.
Musician Mario Tronco (Avion Travel), a resident of the dominantly immigrant neighborhood "Piazza Vittorio" in Rome, joined by other artists and musicians, sought to save the historic Apollo Theater with a proposal to create a multi-media, multi-cultural theater with a resident orchestra. Launching their quest soon after 9/11, in a climate of government anti-immigrant sentiment, the community organization "Apollo 11," is flanked by filmmaker Agostino Ferrente, who captures the entire incredible, 5-year journey that finally yields twenty-some musicians from 11 countries on 4 continents, who speak 8 different languages - all who, more or less live in Rome!
The film features musicians from: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, India, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Sengal, Ungheria and the United States. This is the first Orchestra founded on the support of people trying to provide meaningful employment and residency for 25 professional musicians. These musicians are living proof of the different ways in which music, cultures and religions work together and their on-stage performance delivers the powerful message of brotherhood and peace in a way that no declaration, rally or television debate could.
Members of the International Orchestra of the Piazza Vittorio will be on hand specifically to perform some of the music in the film in front of the Egyptian’s live audience. Presented in association with Red Envelope Entertainment. Filmmaker Agostino Ferrente in person.
Thursday, October 11 - 7:30 PM - The Aero Theatre
MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD (MIO FRATELLO E’ FIGLIO UNICO)
2007, THINKFilm, 100 min. Dir. Daniele Luchetti.
Accio (Elio Germano) is his parents’ desperation: an impulsive and explosive troublemaker, fighting every battle like a war. His brother (Riccardo Scamarcio) is handsome, charismatic, loved by all—but just as dangerous. In the Italian small town life of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the two brothers have opposite political beliefs, are in love with the same woman and through endless confrontations, they live through a period of escaping, fighting and great passion. It is a story about growing up, set against fifteen years of Italian history, seen through the prism of adventures experienced by two very different, yet similar brothers.
"Helmer Daniele Luchetti keeps the mood light and winning in a micro-tale of Italy's troubled years in the late '60s and '70s, viewed through the prism of a politically divided family. Scripted by THE BEST OF YOUTH duo who brought the post-WWII years into stark and moving light, pic offers a warm humor that illuminates the defiant vista of hope even when the proceedings turn tragic." – Jay Weisberg, Variety
Friday, October 12 - 7:30 PM - The Aero Theatre
Double Feature
FLYING LESSONS (LEZIONI DI VOLO)
2007, Cattleya, 106 min. Dir. Francesca Archibugi.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Pollo (Miglio Risi) and Curry (Tom Angel Kurumathy), inseparable 18 year-old friends, have both failed their last year of high school. Curry was adopted as a baby from India and guilt trips his family into letting him take a much-dreamed-of trip to his birthplace with his best friend, who comes from a rigid, Jewish family. India, however, is not what they expected. Finding it poor and dirty, they get robbed. Curry is taken for a native (he even gets arrested by the police during a demonstration), while Pollo gets sick and meets a western doctor (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), ten years older than him, whom he falls desperately in love with. She takes them both to the small outpost where she works as a volunteer, and they finally find the reason for their trip: Curry discovers his past, while Pollo finds his future.
ONE OUT OF TWO (UNO SU DUE)
2007, 01 Distribution, 101 min. Dir. Eugenio Cappuccio.
Director Eugenio Cappuccio’s drama is about a brash lawyer (Fabio Volo) who comes face to face with mortality when a sudden blackout forces him to the hospital, with a possible prognosis of a malignant brain tumor. Illness was certainly not in Lorenzo’s plans, and waiting for his results, confronting his mortality, is not easy. The one who understands him is the patient in the bed next to him, Giovanni, (Pasolini veteran Ninetto Davoli) who provides a much-needed dose of patience and humor. Giovanni has his problematic past: a daughter he hasn’t seen in years. And so I gratitude to Giovanni, Lorenzo travels to Umbria to find her and bring her back to Genoa, to see her father.
Discussion between films with director Francesca Archibugi (FLYING LESSONS) and actor Fabio Volo (ONE OUT OF TWO).
Saturday, October 13 – 4:00 PM - The Aero Theatre
N (NAPOLEON AND ME)
(IO E NAPOLEONE)
2007, Cattleya, 110 min. Dir. Paolo Virzí.
Los Angeles Premiere!
An in-period comedy from director, Paolo Virzí. Circa 1814, Napoleon (Daniel Auteuil) is sent into exile on the island of Elba and is enthusiastically welcomed by the common people and the local nobles. But there is one person who is not celebrating: the young Martino (Elio Germano), an idealist and libertarian teacher, a budding poet and the libertine lover of the beautiful, mature Baroness Emilia (Monica Bellucci) Martino hates the former Emperor, and every night he dreams of killing him. When he is offered the opportunity of becoming the clerk and librarian of the new King of Elba, the young man accepts, hoping to at last execute the murder he feels predestined to commit. Seductions and betrayals, failed attempts and astonishing confessions ensue, up until the mocking and surprising final disappointment.
Saturday, October 13 - 7:30 PM - The Aero Theatre
Double Feature
SALTY AIR
(L’ARIA SALATA)
2007, Rai Cinema, 85 min. Dir. Alessandro Angelini.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Fabio (Giorgio Pasotti) works as a social worker in a Rome prison, skillfully giving counseling and support to the detainees. When he’s assigned the case of a convicted murderer (Giorgio Colangeli), who has already spent 20 years behind the bars, Fabio shockingly realizes the man is his own father, whom he hasn’t seen since the time of the crime. From that moment on, Fabio has to reconsider the relationship with a father who so long ago left the family in shambles. The man wants to win back his son’s affection, but the bitterness he has acquired behind bars makes it a daunting challenge. An emotionally stirring study of abandonment, remorse and longing between father and son.
OUR COUNTRY
(A CASA NOSTRA)
2006, MK2, 99 min. Dir. Francesca Comencini.
Los Angeles Premiere!
In Milan, Ugo ( Luca Zingaretti) is a well known banker, acting illegally, and Rita (Valeria Golino) is a captain of the Finance Police Force, investigating him. Their cat and mouse relationship is complicated by the interference of other shady characters, including prostitutes and murderers. Money runs the city and rules their lives -- a gradual escalation of threatening ambivalence and violence soon surrounds them at every turn. And while the characters face life and death, Milan, the big city of foggy light, looks on.
Discussion in between films with actor Giorgio Pasotti (SALTY AIR) and actress Valeria Golino (OUR COUNTRY).
Sunday, October 14 - 4:00 PM - The Aero Theatre
DINNER FOR THEIR FIRST DATE
(LA CENA PER FARLI CONOSCERE)
2007, Medusa, 99 min. Dir. Pupi Avati.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Sandro Lanza (Diego Abatantuono) is a has-been actor, sixty years old and showing it, going through the worst period of his career. Having lost much of his hair as well as his stamina and self-esteem, he resorts to plastic surgery in a desperate attempt at keeping his role in a popular TV soap-opera. Rejected, he considers suicide, though more as a way to get back the tabloids’ attention than as a real escape. Recovering in a hospital from his failed attempt, Sandro is visited by his three long-estranged daughters (Ines Sastre, Vanessa Incontrada, Violante Placido), who all come from different countries. The three sisters become comrades-in-arms and decide to look for the right woman for their depressed father. They set up a blind date dinner with fascinating Alma (Francesca Neri), a strong, witty, independent type that their father has always tried to avoid. Through romantic comedy, director Avati reflects upon the world of TV and cinema, and on the many actors who struggle on "B" projects without ever having the opportunity for more "serious" fare.
Sunday, October 14 - 7:30 PM - The Aero Theatre
CARAVAGGIO
2007, Rai Trade, 128 min. Dir. Angelo Longoni.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Made for television, this film portrays the life of Michelangelo Merisi (Alessio Boni), aka Caravaggio, one of the great Italian painters of the 17th century. A rebel aristocrat, Caravaggio is seen in this film as a true artist, a genius unwilling to compromise and prone to swing his sword to defend his own honour as well as the weak. Cinematography is aptly provided by Vittorio Storaro, three time Oscar winner, one of the most acclaimed directors of photography in the world. "I express myself through light. With light I write stories. Caravaggio used painting and images to tell stories. The image is created by light and its companion, the shadow. Film does the same. Caravaggio has been a great visionary, and a revolutionary. Through its painting he was able to tell his own life, exactly as a filmmaker always tries to do. Just like Caravaggio with his medium, I try to understand myself through cinematography. " —Vittorio Storaro
Discussion following by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.
Monday, October 15 – 7:30 PM - The Aero Theatre
COUTURIER TIRELLI, COSTUME DESIGNER
(LA SARTORIA TIRELLI – VESTIRE IL CINEMA)
2007, 55 minutes, Dir. Gianfranco Giagni.
Los Angeles Premiere!
An excursion through thirty years of Italian and international cinema through the work of Umberto Tirelli (who died in 1990), the creator of material and costumes for innumerable films, including five Oscar winners: AMADEUS, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, MOMENTI DI GLORIA and Fellini’s CASANOVA. Isabella Rossellini narrates the documentary, which also includes interviews with directors like Bernardo Bertolucci and Giuseppe Tornatore, along with some of the most important costume designers of cinema today.
BORN TO FLY
(NATI PER VOLARE)
2007, Rai, 70 min. Dir. Marco Visalberghi.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Set in Sicily and the South American Andes, this documentary follows late Italian hang-glider Angelo D’Arrigo putting extreme sport to the service of science as he helps biologists teach a captive-born condor to survive in its native environment. Angelo was one of the most accomplished hang-gliders in the world. In the course of his amazing sporting career he won many championships and set countless records, such as the longest hang-gliding trip (across the Mediterranean Sea & the Sahara) and the highest hang-gliding flight (over the summit of Mt Everest). But Angelo was not satisfied with trophies. His dream was to truly fly like bird, and to fly like one bird in particular: the Andean condor. The largest and most graceful bird on earth, the condor has a wingspan of three meters and soars to incredible heights over the Andes. In 2005/06 Angelo committed a year of his life raising a captive-born Andean condor named Inca. He not only wanted to teach it how to fly – as he had done before with other birds – but also to learn the secrets of high-altitude soaring from Inca. He wanted to push the limits of human flight – to think, feel and fly like a condor. As Angelo and Inca flew together and learned from each other, they crossed over the magic boundary separating man and bird. Angelo described that year as the most incredible of his entire flying career. It was also the last year of his life. The film narrates Angelo’s physical, scientific and technological preparation for his trip to Peru and the intense relationship between Angelo and Inca in stunning HD pictures – until Angelo’s tragic death. But Angelo’s wife Laura and a group of friends have brought Inca to Peru, thus fulfilling Angelo’s dream of the condors flying high in the Andes. Set against the spectacular backdrops of Sicily and towering, snow-covered Andes of South America, this feature-length documentary brings together a breathtaking and unique mixture of aerial adventure, sporting spectacle and scientific journey.
Discussion following with Laura Mancuso, widow of Angelo D’Arrigo and President of the Angelo D’Arrigo Foundation.
Tuesday, October 16 – 7:30 PM - The Aero Theatre
THE WOLF (IL LUPO)
2007, Poker Films, 88 min. Dir. Stefano Calvagna.
Los Angeles Premiere!
Dir. Stefano Calvagna’s third feature is inspired by the real events in the life of Luciano Liboni, aka "The Wolf." A freewheeling interpretation of the character, here renamed Franco Scattoni (Massimo Bonetti), the film highlights the ups and downs of a rough and violent man, whose behavior borders on madness and is worsened by epilepsy. Il Lupo feels he has nothing to loose. Diving headfirst into a life of crime, he ends up killing a gas station attendant in Perugia in 2002. He then kills a young "carabiniere," and becomes a wanted fugitive. A case study in human behavior’s violent patterns framed as a psychological thriller and police story, this controversial film has been praised for the uncompromising realism of its disturbing narrative.
Discussion following with director Stefano Calvagna.
Wednesday, October 17 - 7:30 PM - The Aero Theatre
PRIMO LEVI’S JOURNEY
(LA STRADA DI LEVI)
2006, Cinema Guild, 92 min. Dir. Davide Ferrario.
Los Angeles Premiere!
In the winter of 1945, Primo Levi, one of the century’s greatest writers, was liberated from the Auschwitz concentration camp. With the war still underway, he embarked on a thousand-mile journey to his home in Turin, Italy – a strange, beguiling odyssey memorialized in his book, The Reawakening. Sixty years later, director Davide Ferrario set out to follow in Levi’s footsteps. Retracing his historic trip, the film weaves a path through a modern Europe that has both changed and remained eerily the same – from democratic rallies in the East to neo-Nazi demonstrations in the West. Narrated by Academy Award winning actor Chris Cooper, PRIMO LEVI’S JOURNEY is a comic, frightening, picaresque road trip through history. "Vividly impressionistic and delightfully curious." – Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times; "…a profound meditation on the unevenness of history, reminding us -- as Faulkner once remarked -- that the past not only isn't dead, it isn't really past at all." – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.Com. Presented with the contribution of Compagnia San Paolo. Opening at the Laemmle Theatres on November 2.
Discussion following with director Davide Ferrario.
Thursday, October 18 – 7:30 PM - Spielberg Theatre
THE WOLF (IL LUPO)
2007, 88 min. Dir. Stefano Calvagna
Dir. Stefano Calvagna’s third feature is inspired by the real events in the life of Luciano Liboni, aka "The Wolf." A freewheeling interpretation of the character, here renamed Franco Scattoni (Massimo Bonetti), the film highlights the ups and downs of a rough and violent man, whose behavior borders on madness and is worsened by epilepsy. Il Lupo feels he has nothing to loose. Diving headfirst into a life of crime, he ends up killing a gas station attendant in Perugia in 2002. He then kills a young "carabiniere," and becomes a wanted fugitive. A case study in human behavior’s violent patterns framed as a psychological thriller and police story, this controversial film has been praised for the uncompromising realism of its disturbing narrative.
Friday, October 19 – 7:30 PM - Spielberg Theatre
Double Feature
N (NAPOLEON AND ME) (IO E NAPOLEONE)
2007, Cattleya, 110 min. Dir. Paolo Virzí.
An in-period comedy from director, Paolo Virzí. Circa 1814, Napoleon (Daniel Auteuil) is sent into exile on the island of Elba and is enthusiastically welcomed by the common people and the local nobles. But there is one person who is not celebrating: the young Martino (Elio Germano), an idealist and libertarian teacher, a budding poet and the libertine lover of the beautiful, mature Baroness Emilia (Monica Bellucci) Martino hates the former Emperor, and every night he dreams of killing him. When he is offered the opportunity of becoming the clerk and librarian of the new King of Elba, the young man accepts, hoping to at last execute the murder he feels predestined to commit. Seductions and betrayals, failed attempts and astonishing confessions ensue, up until the mocking and surprising final disappointment.
DINNER FOR THEIR FIRST DATE (LA CENA PER FARLI CONOSCERE)
2007, Medusa, 99 min. Dir. Pupi Avati.
Sandro Lanza (Diego Abatantuono) is a has-been actor, sixty years old and showing it, going through the worst period of his career. Having lost much of his hair as well as his stamina and self-esteem, he resorts to plastic surgery in a desperate attempt at keeping his role in a popular TV soap-opera. Rejected, he considers suicide, though more as a way to gain the attention of the tabloids, than as a real escape. Recovering in a hospital from his failed attempt, Sandro is visited by his three long-estranged daughters (Ines Sastre, Vanessa Incontrada, Violante Placido), who all come from different countries. The three sisters become comrades-in-arms and decide to look for the right woman for their depressed father. They set up a blind date dinner with fascinating Alma (Francesca Neri), a strong, witty, independent type that their father has always tried to avoid. Through romantic comedy, director Avati reflects upon the world of TV and cinema, and on the many actors who struggle on "B" projects without ever having the opportunity for more "serious" fare.
Saturday, October 20 – 7:30 PM - Spielberg Theatre
Double Feature
ONE OUT OF TWO (UNO SU DUE)
2007, 01 Distribution, 101 min. Dir. Eugenio Cappuccio.
Director Eugenio Cappuccio’s drama is about a brash lawyer (Fabio Volo) who comes face to face with mortality when a sudden blackout forces him to the hospital, with a possible prognosis of a malignant brain tumor. Illness was certainly not in Lorenzo’s plans, and waiting for his results, confronting his mortality, is not easy. The only one who understands him is the patient in the bed next to him, Giovanni, (Pasolini veteran Ninetto Davoli) who provides a much-needed dose of patience and humor. Giovanni has his problematic past: a daughter he hasn’t seen in years. And so in gratitude to Giovanni, Lorenzo travels to Umbria to find her and bring her back to Genoa, to see her father. NOT ON DVD
OUR COUNTRY (A CASA NOSTRA)
2006, MK2, 99 min. Dir. Francesca Comencini.
In Milan, Ugo ( Luca Zingaretti) is a well known banker, acting illegally, and Rita (Valeria Golino) is a captain of the Finance Police Force, investigating him. Their cat and mouse relationship is complicated by the interference of other shady characters, including prostitutes and murderers. Money runs the city and rules their lives -- a gradual escalation of threatening ambivalence and violence soon surrounds them at every turn. And while the characters face life and death, Milan, the big city of foggy light, looks on.
Sunday, October 21 – 7:30 PM - Spielberg Theatre
Double Feature
FLYING LESSONS (LEZIONI DI VOLO)
2007, Cattleya, 106 min. Dir. Francesca Archibugi.
Pollo (Miglio Risi) and Curry (Tom Angel Kurumathy), inseparable 18 year-old friends, have both failed their last year of high school. Curry was adopted as a baby from India and guilt trips his family into letting him take a much-dreamed-of trip to his birthplace with his best friend, who comes from a rigid, Jewish family. India, however, is not what they expected. Finding it poor and dirty, they get robbed. Curry is taken for a native (he even gets arrested by the police during a demonstration), while Pollo gets sick and meets a western doctor (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), ten years older than him, whom he falls desperately in love with. She takes them both to the small outpost where she works as a volunteer, and they finally find the reason for their trip: Curry discovers his past, while Pollo finds his future.
SALTY AIR (L’ARIA SALATA)
2007, Rai Cinema, 85 min. Dir. Alessandro Angelini.
Fabio (Giorgio Pasotti) works as a social worker in a Rome prison, skillfully giving counseling and support to the detainees. When he’s assigned the case of a convicted murderer (Giorgio Colangeli), who already has spent 20 years behind the bars, Fabio shockingly realizes the man is his own father, whom he hasn’t seen since the time of the crime. From that moment on, Fabio has to reconsider the relationship with a father who so long ago left the family in shambles. The man wants to win back his son’s affection, but the bitterness he has acquired behind bars makes it a daunting challenge. An emotionally stirring study of abandonment, remorse and longing between father and son.
