Author: engineering

The first Italian film presented in the Cinema 2006 competition of the RomeFilmFest, L’aria salata by Alessandro Angelini, was well received by Italian critics. In the film, Fabio (Giorgio Pasotti) is a young educator who works to reintegrate prisoners into society. In jail, an encounter with Sparti (Giorgio Colangeli) forces Fabio to face a family past that he has erased, as well as confront his sister Cristina (Michela Cescon).Angelini, Pasotti, Cescon, Colangeli, Katy Saunders, screenwriter Angelo Carbone, composer Luca Tozzi and Carlo Macchitella and Donatella Botti (of RAI Cinema and Bianca Film, respectively) described how the project came to be…

“It is difficult to speak of cinema on a day like today,” said Monica Bellucci during the presentation of the film The Stone Council by Guillaume Nicloux, referring to the dramatic accident in Rome’s Metro. Her role in the film is an unusual one for “La Bellucci”, both for its dramatic nature and her image: short hair and feminine, not at all sensual or provocative.“The director wanted me to be more French than Mediterranean,” said the actress, who plays Laura, who discovers unexpected strengths and a readiness to sacrifice herself for her adopted son. After suffering from hallucinations, Laura loses…

There were 230 international buyers and sellers, six Italian sellers, and over 300 accredited guests at the Business Street market, for a constant stream of screenings of the numerous video libraries in Via Veneto and in the screening rooms of the Westin Excelsior Hotel. On the international front, the majority of important film rights companies were present in Rome, as well as production and distribution companies from throughout the world. All of the Italian international sales companies were present – Adriana Chiesa Enterprises, Intramovies and RAI Trade – along with Italian buyers Medusa, RAI Cinema, BIM Distribution, Mikado, Lucky Red…

Costa-Gavras presented the competition film Mon Colonel, which he wrote, in memory of Gillo Pontecorvo, who passed away on October 12. Also present were the film’s director, Laurent Herbiet, producer (and Costa-Gavras’ wife) Michelle Ray-Gavras, Algerian co-producer Salem Brahimi, and actors Robinson Stevenin, Bruno Solo and Eric Caravaca. Why associate Mon colonel with Pontecorvo’s Golden Lion-winning masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, made exactly 40 years ago and banned from French cinemas for almost 30 years? Because it was the main inspiration behind the new film, which is based on the eponymous novel by Francis Zamponi. “[Pontecorvo] was the beginning of…

“I want to speak in Italian since I’m in Rome. I’m very proud of Alatriste and proud, above all, of representing Spanish cinema: Alatriste is an excellent example of what it has to offer today. Agustìn Dìaz Yanes has made a classic that will be remembered for a long time and that I personally will remember for the wonderful friendships I made on the set”: thus spoke Viggo Mortensen at the press conference, triggering applause from the journalists.Speaking in perfect Italian, Mortensen, who plays the lead in Augustìn Dìaz Yanes’ Alatriste – which was screened for the press this morning…

As of today, the “last minute” line at the Auditorium´s Box Office will be set for the evening screenings at the Première, Cinema 206 and Extra sections. Even though the ticket sales have been a great success, there are tickets available for many screenings. Tickets are available from 1 pm.   There are still tickets available for various screenings at the RomeFilmFest, starting with the gala evening and the event titles of the Première section. Films include (at the PalaRomaUno): The Hoax by Lasse Hallström, starring Richard Gere, and Alatriste, featuring Viggo Mortensen (both on Monday, October 16); The Namesake…

The screening and press conference for Fu zi – After This Our Exile (in competition in the Cinema2006 section) by master Hong Kong filmmaker Patrick Tam was held in the Sala Teatro Studio. The press conference was attended by the director, actors Aaron Kwok and (the very young) Ng King-To and the two stars, Charlie Young and Kelly Lin. The film’s central theme is the relationship between a man and his son, a strong yet desperate bond that disintegrates when the boy is forced to steal to pay off his father’s debts. They meet up ten years, when many things…

“I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s book in a very unique moment. I was on the plane and had just been at the funeral of a person I considered my second mother. I was anguished at having to bury someone in a land that was not hers. From that, Sooni Taraporevala, the screenwriter, and I started working feverishly,” said director Mira Nair on the beginning of her latest film, The Namesake, which will have its general screening tonight at 10:30 pm in the Première section, in the Auditorium’s Sala Santa Cecilia. It will be released in Italy in the spring.The film tells…

During an informal meeting with journalists after the press screening of Fascisti su Marte on Monday, October 16, the film’s director, Corrado Guzzanti – accompanied by his group of “actor friends” Marco Marzorca, Lillo Petrolo, Irene Ferri and Caterina Guzzanti and Fandango producer Domenico Procacci – spoke on how the film, which is being shown at the RomeFilmFest in the Extra section, came to be.“We didn’t think about making an actual film, it was an idea only for television. Thanks to an intervention by Procacci it then became a film for the cinema. It’s more of an oddity than a…

Robert De Niro will be at the RomeFilmFest this Friday, October 20, to present several sequences from his latest films, announced Tribeca Film Festival directors Jennifer Maguire and Peter Scarlett during a press conference that was also attended by festival president Goffredo Bettini.While presenting an initiative realised together with the Associazione Piazza di Spagna and Trinità dei Monti, Bettini announced that De Niro will be awarded the Steps and Stars prize for Tribeca, which he founded along with Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff. The award was bestowed this year upon the festival for “the extraordinary capacity shown in the five…