Italiano
Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 16th, the 19th edition of the Rome Film Fest unfurls and runs through October 27th, under Artistic Director Paola Malanga. The event is produced by the Fondazione Cinema per Roma under its president Salvatore Nastasi and General Director Francesca Via.
At 7 pm, actor Lino Guanciale takes the stage in the Sala Sinopoli at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone to open the 19th edition of the Rome Film Fest. The ceremony will be live-streamed in the Sala Petrassi as well. The 2024 Film Fest’s first evening features the premiere of its opening film, The Great Ambition by Andrea Segre, the opening title in the Progressive Cinema competition. One of the most interesting filmmakers in Italian cinema today, Segre – the award-winning director of Shun Li and the Poet, First Snowfall, The Order of Things and Welcome Venice – brings to the big screen the biographical account of the public and private lives of the Communist Party secretary Enrico Berlinguer, from his journey to Sofia in 1973, when he barely escaped an attack by the Bulgarian secret services, up to the assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978 and the dramatic end of the “historic compromise” strategy: the ambitious attempt to unite the popular forces among the Catholics and the Socialists to lead Italy. On the red carpet starting at 6 p.m., festivalgoers can catch the film’s star Elio Germano and other members of the cast.
To celebrate the two winners of the 2024 Fest’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Viggo Mortensen and Johnny Depp, the Sala Petrassi at the Auditorium Parco della Musica will host the screenings their own directorial debuts. At 10 am, Falling, Viggo Mortensen’s first time behind the film camera, is an intense family drama that leaves its mark, thanks to its ability to convey conflicts and emotional uncertainty without skimping on irony. Writer of the script as well as the director of the film, Mortensen displays a rare maturity and sensitivity and directs his superb cast flawlessly.
At 4 pm, Johnny Depp’s first film The Brave is an astonishing meditation on the themes of sacrifice, desperation, and dignity, and is perhaps one of the last major films to seriously address the conditions of Native Americans. Quickly forgotten after its release, over time The Brave has acquired the status of a cult film, one that showcases all of its director’s talent and anticonformism.
The lineup of the Storia del Cinema section kicks off tomorrow, Wednesday, October 16th at 9 pm, at the Casa del Cinema, with the screening of the restored version of Sabrina by Billy Wilder. This irresistible romance sealed Audrey Hepburn’s fame as a star and international icon, caught between the carefree William Holden and the gruff Humphrey Bogart, unpredictable, mature and in love. (Restoration: Paramount Pictures, courtesy of Park Circus).
Also at the Casa del Cinema tomorrow, at 6:30 pm, there will be a free screening of The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro, the first title in the retrospective “Gocce di cinema” organized by the Fondazione Cinema per Roma in collaboration with Acea. The program features nine films about water, as filtered through the film medium, from perspectives that are ecological, naturalistic, cultural, artistic, oniric, and religious. Over the following days, the lineup will include Nel tempo di Cesare by Angelo Loy, Watermark by Jennifer Baichal and Edward Burtynsky, L’isola della cura by Alex Grazioli, Jaws by Steven Spielberg, Lightning Over Water by Wim Wenders, From Here to Eternity by Fred Zinnemann, Lifeboat by Alfred Hitchcock, and Nostalghia by Andrej Tarkovskij. The films selected share a deep bond between images of water and the stories they tell, increasing the collective awareness of this vital resource.
The Acea Group has also launched a film contest entitled “I mille volti dell’acqua” (The Myriad Faces of Water) in collaboration with Rome’s Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, which involves the production of a series of shorts revolving around this fundamental element for life and the well-being of the community. The initiative is designed to inform the public about water recovery, recycling and reuse methods, in line with Acea’s sustainability strategies. On October 16th at 5 pm, in the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna at the Auditorium, the best shorts will be screened and the winner will receive an award (free admission with online reservation).
Starting tomorrow, Wednesday, October 16th, two exhibitions will open at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. The foyer of the Sala Sinopoli will host “Giacomo Pozzi Bellini – Cinema Portraits”, curated by Elisabetta Giovagnoni, with photos from the collection preserved by Arnaldo Bonzi: on display, a parade of images captured by the famous photographer, some never seen before. In the foyer of the Sala Petrassi Titanus, the exhibition “Titanus 120: Stories from Our History” gets underway, with a sampling of original posters and other archive material come from the headquarters of the historic film studio. And at the Spazio Risonanze in the Auditorium, Pandolfini has arranged a photography exhibition of precious jewelry, both period pieces and contemporary designer creations that have been featured in its auctions over the years.
In addition to the Titanus exhibition, on the occasion of the film studio’s 120th anniversary, Titanus will open its headquarters in via Sommacampagna in Rome to the public for a series of screenings of L’ultimo Gattopardo – Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo, directed by Oscar® winner Giuseppe Tornatore. The film pays homage to the producer Goffredo Lombardo, the man under whose guidance Titanus brought greatness to Italian cinema. The documentary will be screened on October 16th-18th and October 21th-25th, every day at 4 pm (reservations required at rsvp@titanus.it , on a first-come, first-served basis).
