Just as GOMORRAH proved to be a sensational opening, the following films were screened in a packed house each evening at the Aero Theatre, in Santa Monica: Pontecorvo’s PA.RA.DA., based on the true story of French-Algerian street clown Miloud Oukili and his insipirational work in Romania’s capital Bucharest; Daniele Vicari’s THE PAST IS A FOREIGN LAND, with popular Italian actors Elio Germano and Chiara Caselli, a film that lived up with Los Angeles audience to its critical succes as a thriller about the dangerous liason between a young law student and an unscrupulous poker-game shark as they engage in illegitimate activities.

The showcase went on with Antonello Grimaldi’s QUIET CHAOS, the journey of a successful TV executive (Nanni Moretti) who, after his wife’s sudden death, is forced to learn hard lessons in life, and Ferzan Ozpetek’s A PERFECT DAY, a politcal drama featuring famed director – and sometimes actor - Roman Polanski along with Italian star Isabella Ferrari.

The night before its closing the series provided some good-natured and witty comedy with Virzi’s HER WHOLE LIFE AHEAD, the story of Marta (Isabella Ragonese in a star-making role), a brilliant philosophy graduate who unable to land a job in her field undertakes a gig as an “unctuous” telemarketer, comically going against everything she believed and studied si far in her life. The comedic side of Italian cinema was underlined by LESSONS IN CHOCOLATE (Lezioni di Cioccolato), about building contractor Mattia (Luca Argentero) who gets in trouble when one of his illegally hired workers, Kamal (Hassani Shapi), is injured and threatens to sue his boss.

The closing night was again very popular with TALK TO ME ABOUT LOVE (Parlami D’Amore), starring Aitana Sanchez-Gijon as Nicole, an unhappy housewife who meets Sasha (Silvio Muccino), a young man half her age, after a fender bender, followed by Michele Soavi’a BLOOD OF LOSERS (Il Sangue dei Vinti), starring Michele Placido and Alessandro Preziosi. An emotional and involving ending of a week-long series that received nothing but raves, tighting the bond between the Italian film community, the US audience and Hollywood.