October 20, Meryl Street is the star of the Rome Film Fest

A three-time Academy Award-winner, a superbly talented actress for the likes of Fred Zinnemann, Woody Allen, Sydney Pollack, Robert Zemeckis, and Clint Eastwood: who other than Meryl Streep, one of the most popular actresses in the history of film? Today, October 20^th at 5:30 p.m., at the Rome Film Fest, the American actress will be taking the stage of the Sala Sinopoli for a Close Encounter and comment on some scenes from films that have made her famous worldwide, and talk about the great Italian divas who have influenced her, Silvana Mangano above all. At 8 p.m., in the same theatre, Streep will be presenting her latest film, Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins, in which she stars alongside Hugh Grant. The film is set in New York in 1944: heiress Florence Foster Jenkins is one of the doyennes of New York’s high society. A generous patron of the arts with a passion for classical music, aided by her English husband and manager St. Clair Bayfield, Florence entertains the city’s elite with incredible vocal performances of which she is obviously the star. When she sings, the voice she hears in her head is exquisite, but it is hilariously awful to anyone else listening. Protected by her husband, she will never find out the truth. Only when Florence decides to perform in a concert at Carnegie Hall, where the invitations are not screened, does St. Clair realize he is facing the greatest challenge of his life. “The characters of Florence and Bayfield are ridiculous, moving and grotesque, but together they work,” the director declares. “Bayfield was a failure as an actor, but he found a way to live comfortably and she found a man who loved her and took care of her. What more could one ask?”
Four more films from the Official Selection are on the roster for Thursday.
In the “Everybody’s Talking About It” section, at 10:30 p.m., the Sala Sinopoli hosts a screening of Genius by Michael Grandage, based on the book Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg. Max Perkins, legendary editor for Charles Scribner’s & Sons, who discovered writers like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, receives a thousand-page manuscript, written in an irregular, rhapsodic style, from an unknown writer named Thomas Wolfe. Perkins is convinced he has discovered a literary genius. Together, the two begin to work on a publishable version of the manuscript. A friendship develops between the shy family man, Perkins, and the eccentric author Wolfe, but their respective wives view it with suspicion. The stellar cast features Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, Guy Pearce, and Dominic West.
At 10 p.m. in the Sala Petrassi, there will be a screening of Sword Master 3D. Martial arts, action, court intrigues and revenge are the irresistible ingredients of Derek Yee’s latest film, written by Tsui Hark. “Tsui Hark and I have wanted to collaborate on Sword Master 3D since 1998,” the director reveals. We are both serious people, and we fought numerous times in the process of shaping this story, He has given me many fantastic ideas and helped me explore the latest state-of-the-art technologies. You can call this 3D version of Sword Master a labor of love.”
At 7:30 p.m., the Sala Petrassi hosts a screening of Fritz Lang by Gordian Maugg, the portrait of a director regarded as a genius, an egocentric sex maniac and a sadist to boot. The film allows us a glimpse of the secret world of the director’s mind, in his own working environment. More than anything, however, it shows us the real Fritz Lang.
At 9:30 p.m. in the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna, the one to see is At the End of the Tunnel by Rodrigo Grande, the story of Joaquín, confined to a wheelchair, who sees his life take a turn for the better when he rents a room to Berta and her daughter Betty. One night, while he is working in the basement, he realizes that a gang of burglars are digging a tunnel under his house in order to break into the bank next door. If that was not bad enough, he then learns that the woman he has rented his room to is one of the burglars. As Joaquin starts to work out a plan to foil the burglars’ scheme, he realizes he is not only in danger; he is also falling in love.
Tomorrow at 5 p.m. the “Film Fest at Rebibbia Prison” project wraps up with a live-streamed event from inside a prison for the first time: six cameras and a live performance of Dalla città dolente or Dante’s Inferno in full HD from the prison’s Auditorium to the Auditorium at the MAXXI Museum. Twenty actor-inmates, directed by Fabio Cavalli, welcome Rome residents to their latest show; thousands come every year, aged fourteen and up, to catch theater at Rebibbia. And considering the popularity of this event, a second giant screen will be set up at the main church in Rebibbia Prison. Over at the MAXXI, hosts for the evening include actor and director Massimo Ghini; the actress, director and writer Francesca D’Aloja, together with Laura Andreini Salerno, the artistic director of the Centro Studi Enrico Maria Salerno; and Mario Sesti, the artistic coordinator of the Rome Film Fest selection committee. At the end of the evening, a round of special livestreamed greetings from the actor-inmates to the MAXXI audience and back.
The MAXXI will also be hosting two screenings on Thursday of films in the American Politics retrospective: Mr Smith Goes to Hollywood by Frank Capra at 7:30 p.m. and The Last Hurrah by John Ford at 10 p.m., presented by journalists Anselma Dell’Olio and Oreste De Fornari respectively.
The same retrospective unfolds at another venue, the Casa del Cinema, with a screening of Secret Honor by Robert Altman at 9 pm.  The Casa del Cinema also offers a screening of Kekexili by Lu Chuan, in the Fest’s “The Films of Our Lives” section, at 6:30 p.m.
“Cinema without Borders” is the event organized by the Rome Film Fest with the support of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism as part of the project “MigrArti-Cinema”. The event is made possible thanks to the Di Donato Primary School and its Parents Association, along with the association Apollo 11. It features six nights of film and talks in Rome’s ultimate multi-ethnic neighbourhood, the Esquilino. Tomorrow at 9 p.m., at the Di Donato School, Claudio Giovannesi will be presenting his film Ali Blue Eyes, preceded by Luca Lepone’s Amira, one of the winning shorts from the MigrArti Project.
At the Cinema Trevi, the Valerio Zurlini retrospective continues. Domenico Monetti and Mario Sesti curate the showcase, in collaboration with the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Cineteca Nazionale. The first screening of the day, at 5 p.m., is La promessa, followed by The Professor at 8:30 p.m.
The opening day of MIA | International Audiovisual Market at the Rome Film Fest kicks off with the international conference “Cine-Creative Communities”. Proceedings get underway at 9:30 a.m. at the Conference Hall in Palazzo Massimo. Promoted by Roma Capitale, the municipality of Rome, and organized by Fondazione Cinema per Roma, the conference is open to the institutions supporting the event, stakeholders and the UNESCO Rome City of Film public, and is divided into three parts: “Public Policy for Creative Cities”, “UNESCO Creative Cities at Work”, and “Cinema Speaks Up”.
At 12 noon Studio 3 offers a sneak peek at the documentary Wall of Dolls – Il muro delle bambole contro il femminicidio. The screening will be followed by a talk with Valeria Fedeli, Cristina Tajani, Michele Baldi, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Valentina Pitzalis and Jo Squillo.
The Fest’s independent sidebar Alice nella città has two screenings on its slate for Thursday: My First Highway by Kevin Meul (at 11 a.m. in the Sala Sinopoli) and Jeffrey by Yanillys Pérez (at 11 a.m. in the Mazda Cinema Hall).
The following is a rundown of the multiple repeat screenings across the city on Thursday:
The Sala Petrassi hosts a screening of 150 Milligrams by Emmanuelle Bercot at 5 p.m., while the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna offers A Wedding by Stephan Streker at 3 p.m and Maria per Roma by Karen Di Porto at 5 p.m. At the Cinema Village, the Mazda Cinema Hall hosts screenings of Heaven Will Wait by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar at 9:30 a.m., Fatih Akin’s Goodbye Berlin at 2:30 p.m., Hell or High Water by David Mackenzie at 5:30 p.m., Florence Foster Jenkins by Stephen Frears at 8:30 p.m and Genius by Michael Grandage at 10:45.
The programme at the MAXXI features: The Long Excuse by Miwa Nishikawa at 2 p.m. Downtown at the Cinema Space Moderno repeat screenings abound, with The Empty Box by Claudia Sainte-Luce at 8:30 p.m. in Sala 2, while Sala 3 hosts screenings of A Wedding by Stephan Streker at 6 p.m., 150 Milligrams by Emmanuelle Bercot at 8 p.m., and Maria per Roma by Karen Di Porto at 10:30 p.m.
Uptown, the Admiral hosts screenings all day on Thursday: Kubo and the Two Strings by Trevis Knight at 10:30 a.m., Jeffrey by Yanillys Pérez at 4:30 p.m., The Space Between by Ruth Borgobello at 6:30 p.m., and Strane straniere by Elisa Amoruso at 8:30 p.m, wrapping up with Park by Sofia Exarchou at 10:30 p.m..