News

Sweet Dreams

Director: Marco Bellocchio

Writer: Massimo Gramellini

Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio shows no signs of slowing down in his sixth decade of filmmaking. Hot off his Venice 2015 premiere of his intriguing historical drama/social comedy Blood of My Blood, Bellocchio set to work on filming Sweet Dreams, an adaptation of a novel by Massimo Gramellini about a secret kept sealed in an envelope for forty years, and a woman assisting a man who suffers from unresolved issues over the death of his mother when he was a young boy. French actress Bérénice Bejo joins a cast of notable Italian actors, including Valerio Mastandrea as the tortured protagonist.

Cast: Bérénice Bejo, Valerio Mastandrea, Fabrizio Gifuni, Barbara Ronchi

Production Co./Producers: Ibc Movie’s Beppe Caschetto, Kavac, Rai Cinema

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic) Match Factory (international).

Release Date: Though he premiered Vincere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Bellocchio...

La Monaca (La Prigione di Bobbio)

Director: Marco Bellocchio

Writer: Marco Bellocchio

Producer: Simone Gattoni

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

Cast: Ambra Angiolini, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Lidiya Liberman, Alberto Bellocchio

Bellocchio-ian themes of the church, the state and politics appear will likely all be sewn into a project that the Italian helmer has been trying to get off the ground for some time now and the reasoning for this is that after a glossed biopic-truth story of Bella addormentata, Marco Bellocchio is, according to Variety, working in “the free-flowing spirit” of Sorelle Mai (a rare experimental film in his filmography) and uses a mix of both professional and non-pro actors. In terms of incarcerated or held against their will female figures, look for La Monaca to be definitely be less-polished than Vincere.

Gist: Based on the true tale of a 17th century noblewoman forced to become a nun, but whose...

Celluloid Dreams, the Sales Agent and Production Co. based out of Paris have got a pair of films playing in the festival's line-up in the closing night film Honore's Beloved and the Ucr selected Loverboy from Romania. The top title in our books is Marjane Satrapi's Chicken with Plums which is currently in post and would currently be a contender for a Venice slot and Frederick Wiseman's next docu (see pic above) and an Italian number from Marco Bellocchio called Sorelle Mai. Here is their menu items: Beloved (Les Bien-AIMÉS) by Christophe HONORÉ - Completed Greetings To The Devil (Saluda Al Diablo De Mi Parte) by Carlos Esteban Orozco - Completed Loverboy by Catalin Mitulescu - Completed Another Silence by Santiago Amigorena - Post-Production Atrocious by Fernando Barreda Luna - Completed Bullhead (Rundskop) by Michaël R. Roskam - Completed Chicken With Plums (Poulet Aux Prunes) by Marjane Satrapi...

Marco Bellocchio

Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.

The new version of Bellocchio’s Nel nome del padre (In the Name of the Father, 1971) will be screened at the festival following the awards ceremony for the Golden Lion, in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema. This version is not a restoration, but an entirely new, “current” work, culled by the director from the original film’s material. The original film was released in 1971.

He is known for his works: Nel nome del padre (1971), Marcia trionfale (Victory March, 1976), psychological drama Il gabbiano (1977), Salto nel vuoto (A Leap in the Dark, 1980), Diavolo in corpo (Devil in the Flesh, 1986), La condanna (The Conviction, 1991), Il sogno della farfalla (1994), Il principe di Homburg (The Prince of Homburg, 1977), La balia (The Nanny, 1999) Buongiorno, notte (Good Morning, Night, 2003) and L’ora...

Last week saw the annual London Italian Film Festival showcase a week of exciting new Italian cinema at Ciné Lumière. This year’s raft of 10 titles was picked by Irene Bignardi and two Film London’s Adrian Wootton. They chose well. Very well, indeed. The festival continues throughout March at the Italian Cultural Institute with an homage to Federico Fellini and Mario Monicelli and a series of screenings focused on film and food.

Film-goers were treated to Passion (dir: Jon Turturro), We Believed (dir. Mario Martone), And Peace On Earth (dirs: Matteo Botrugno & Daniele Coluccini), Lost Kisses (dir. Roberta Torre), Basilicata Coast To Coast (dir. Rocco Papaleo), Angels of Evil (dir. Michele Placido), Sorelle Mai (dir. Marco Bellocchio), The Passion (dir. Carlo Mazzacurati), A Quiet Life (dir. Claudio Cupellini) and Gorbaciof (dir. Stefano Incerti).

One thing is for sure, all the films shown deserve to be seen and distributed in the UK.

The Italian Film Festival 2011 will kick off on 1 March 2011 with a concert at London’s Cadogan Hall by Nicola Piovani, winner of the Academy Award for the score of Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful in 1998. The festival, due to become an annual event, is organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in London and Cinecittà Luce in Rome.

The festival’s programme includes ten new Italian films: a selection of eight titles made by Italian film critic Irene Bignardi and a special choice of two by Adrian Wootton of Film London. The screenings at Ciné Lumière will be followed by Q&A sessions with directors and actors.

The event will offer an opportunity for London audiences to see Italian films most of which have yet to be screened in the UK, and a rare opportunity for British film distributors to catch up with brand new, cutting edge Italian cinema. The...

And finally it started! The 67th Venice Film Festival, one of the most prestigious, and, by the way, the oldest film festival in the world, kicked off tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the Palazzo del Cinema featuring impressive Opening ceremony, hosted by the Italian actress Isabella Ragonese.

Black Swan made its world premiere as the opening film, bringing the American director Darren Aronofsky back to the Lido, where he won the top Golden Lion prize with The Wrestler (2008).

Of course, we already have some interesting reviews to share with you, for example this one (that comes from Variety):

“A wicked, sexy and ultimately devastating study of a young dancer’s all-consuming ambition, “Black Swan” serves as a fascinating complement to Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” trading the grungy world of a broken-down fighter for the more upscale but no less brutal sphere of professional ballet.”

Let us remind...

The full lineup for this year's Venice film festival has been announced – but there's a no show for the new Terrence Malick

The full programme for this year's Venice film festival has been announced and, as predicted, many film-makers whose films weren't quite ready for Cannes will debut on the Lido. Somewhere, a Hollywood-set drama from Sofia Coppola, is amongst the premieres, likewise Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny sequel, Promises Written in Water, apparently a black-and-white tale of a girl with a terminal illness.

Julian Schnabel's Miral, which follows Hind Husseini's efforts to set up an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine, also finds a home. However, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which many had predicted would screen at the festival, is not on the list; nor that for the Toronto film festival, which directly follows Venice.

Other hotly tipped titles include Meek's Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt...