Italian exposure

SEVEN RECENT ACCLAIMED movies from Italy will be featured in next month’s Italian Film Festival in Bangkok.
Organised by the Dante Alighieri Cultural Association with support from the Italian Embassy, the fest will take place at the ritzy new EmQuartier mall as part of “Urban – Italia”, a nine-day celebration of Italian products and culture that coincides with the ongoing Universal Exposition Milan.
Among the highlights is “The Great Beauty” (“La grande bellezza”), winner of last year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Directed by Paolo Sorrentino and starring the auteur’s frequent leading man Toni Servillo, the drama follows a retired writer on his 65th birthday as he walks the streets of Rome and reflects on his life, past loves and unfulfillment.
Servillo pulls double duty in another entry, director Robert Ando’s political comedy “Long Live Freedom”  (“Vive la liberta"). When a burned-out Italian senator decides he’s had enough and pulls a disappearing act, his minder recruits the politician’s psychiatrically unstable twin brother to take his place. It won several honours in Italy, including best screenplay at last year’s David di Donatello Awards.
Another highlight is “Reality”, winner of the Cannes grand prize in 2012. Directed by Matteo Garrone, whose previous film, the gritty organised-crime drama “Gomorrah” won widespread acclaim, “Reality” takes a comic view of the world of reality TV. It follows a Neopolitan fishmonger as he becomes increasingly obsessed with landing a role on “Grande Fratello”, the Italian version of “Big Brother”. Meanwhile, Garrone is back at Cannes this year, competing in the main competition with “Tale of Tales”.
Last year’s jury prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival, “The Wonders” (“Le meraviglie”), is the sophomore directorial effort from Alice Rorhrwacher. It’s about a domineering teenager who dreams of breaking away from her German beekeeper father, French-speaking mother (played by the director’s sister Alba) and three sisters. Monica Bellucci provides an inspirational vision. An ode to the disappearing traditional farming lifestyle of Italy, it’s also a partly autobiographical reflection for the director, whose father was German and raised bees.
Veteran writer-director Bernardo Bertolucci contributes his latest, 2012’s “Me and You” (“Io e te”), a tension-filled drama about a troubled 14-year-old boy who decides to hide out in a basement in order to escape family and social pressures. But his solitude is disturbed by the arrival of his estranged 25-year-old drug-addicted sister. Bertolucci’s first film since “The Dreamers” in 2003, “Me and You” was nominated for several awards in Italy and won several others, including the EuroCinema Hawai’i Award at the Hawaii film fest.
Actor Luigi Lo Cascio (“The Best of Youth”) makes his directorial debut with “The Ideal City” (“La citta ideale”), a neo-noir comedy-drama in which he portrays an environmentally obsessed architect whose life unravels after he’s involved in a minor wreck while borrowing a friend’s electric car. It was nominated for many prizes, and won the Young Cinema Award at the Venice International Film Festival.
Romantic era poet Giacomo Leopardi takes centrestage in “Leopardi” (“Il giovane favoloso”), which follows the 19th century thinker in his restless search for knowledge. Elio Germano stars and Mario Martone directs. The absorbing biographical drama was in the main competition at in last year’s Venice Film Festival, where it won several prizes, including the Pasinetti Award and Young Jury Members Award for best actor.

LONG LIVE CINEMA
 
The Italian Film Festival will be held from June 2 to 11 at the Quartier CineArt at the Emquartier. All selections are in Italian with English subtitles. Tickets are Bt150, Bt170 and Bt300. For more, see www.LaDanteBangkok.com or www.AmbBangkok.esteri.it.

June 2
8pm, “Leopardi”

June 3
8pm, “The Ideal City”

June 4
8pm, “Long Live Freedom”

June 5
8pm, “Me and You”

June 6
3.30pm, “Long Live Freedom”
6pm, “The Great Beauty”
9pm, “Reality”

June 7
3.30pm, “The Wonders”
6pm, “Leopardi”
9pm, “Me and You”

June 8
8pm, “The Ideal City”

June 9
8pm, “The Wonders”

June 10
8pm, “Reality”

June 11
8pm, “The Great Beauty”