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Though doubtless a crucial aspect of many of the most dramatic occurrences in human history, letter-writing is not the most cinematic of activities. And so it unfortunately proves once again in Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s “Sicilian Letters,” a heavily fictionalized riff on a real-life mafia tale, which sets up a battle of wits between a ruthless mob boss and the family friend working with the authorities to bring him down, but struggles to maintain any kind of momentum when the duel is merely a case of epistles-at-dawn.

Elio Germano plays Matteo, a character based on notorious Sicilian mafioso Matteo Messina Denaro who was the subject of a 30-year manhunt which only ended in 2023 when he was finally caught. Toni Servillo plays the more heavily fictionalized Catello Polumbo, whose 2004 correspondence with Matteo gets the authorities closer to his apprehension than ever before. As the film begins, Catello, a well-read,...

Zurich Film Festival has revealed a second wave of Gala titles, which includes films starring Tilda Swinton, Sebastian Stan, Nicole Kidman, Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson.

Among the 10 added titles are four world premieres, two international premieres and one European premiere.

Zurich will screen, among others, Ali Abbas’ “The Apprentice,” starring Stan, Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Swinton, and Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl,” starring Kidman.

Richard Gray’s Western “The Unholy Trinity,” starring Brosnan and Jackson, has its world premiere.

The other world premieres are “Frieda’s Case” by Maria Brendle, “Aiming High – A Race Against the Limits” by Flavio Gerber and Alun Meyerhans, and German epic adventure “Hagen.”

“The fact that we have the opportunity to present so many world and European premieres goes to show that the Zff holds a strong position in the international calendar,” Christian Jungen, artistic director of the festival, said.

The Hand of God Review — The Hand of God (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Paolo Sorrentino and starring Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betty Pedrazzi, Lino Musella, Monica Nappo, Biagio Manna and Carmen Pommella. Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s new film, The Hand of [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: The Hand Of God (2021): Interesting Coming of Age Drama is Bold, Provocative and, At Times, a Bit Odd...

In The Hand of God, Paolo Sorrentino tells an intimate story about growing up in Naples, Italy. The turbulent coming-of-age film, marking the director’s most personal and emotional work yet, concerns Diego Maradona joining the Napoli soccer team in 1986 and its cultural impact. The story is threaded with Sorrentino’s colorful, absurd family members, and held together with grief from the untimely loss of his parents.

Actor Filippo Scotti plays Fabietto, effectively a young Sorrentino. To insert himself in the film, the director stripped back familiar elements of his filmmaking: gone are the heightened irony and formal style, in their place is unadulterated storytelling with everyday characters rich in personality and love.

With Italy’s Oscar contender now playing in theaters and coming to Netflix on Wednesday, The Film Stage sat down with Sorrentino and Scotti to discuss their film.

The Film Stage: There’s a VHS copy of...

(l-r) Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo, in The Hand Of God by Paolo Sorrentino. Photo by Gianni Fiorito. Courtesy of Netflix.

Memory can be a powerful thing. The vivid autobiographical tale from Oscar-winning writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, The Hand Of God is a coming-of-age tale about an awkward teenage boy growing up in 1980s Naples, a sun-splashed, gritty, quirky place where he is surrounded by loving family and colorful characters, a place where the mundane and the magical exist side-by-side. Soccer and cinema are his obsessions but fate or luck – the hand of God – steps in and shapes the direction of his life.

Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) lives with his parents Saverio Schisa (Toni Servillo) and Maria Schisa (Teresa Saponangelo), older brother Marchino Schisa (Marlon Joubert) and a sister we never see because she is always in the bathroom, sharing an apartment near the the port city’s old harbor.