Day 6 | The programme of Monday, 23

Tomorrow, Monday October 23^rd, the eighteenth Rome Film Fest will host, from the Freestyle section, the preview of two episodes from the series I leoni di Sicilia by Paolo Genovese which will be screened at 6:30 pm in Sala Sinopoli at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone. In 2019, Editrice Nord published “I leoni di Sicilia” by Stefania Auci, an instant bestseller that sold more than 650,000 copies in two years, translated in many foreign countries: from 1799 to 1868, from when the brothers Paolo and Ignazio Florio left Bagnara Calabra for Sicily to the years immediately following Garibaldi’s landing, from a spice shop in Palermo to the commercial and naval empire built by the Florios, the “royal family” of the Belle Epoque in Sicily. The saga across three generations becomes a television series in eight episodes, written by Ludovica Rampoldi and Stefano Sardo, directed by Paolo Genovese, starring Michele Riondino, Miriam Leone, Donatella Finocchiaro, Vinicio Marchioni, Eduardo Scarpetta.

At 9 pm in Sala Sinopoli and at the Auditorium Conciliazione, the Rome Film Fest and Alice nella città will present The Boy and the Heron, the new film by the master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Driven by the desire to see his mother again, Mahito, a twelve-year-old boy, ventures into a domain inhabited by the living and the dead, a fantastic place where death ends and life finds a new beginning. The Japanese filmmaker is the author of a remarkable story about the mystery of life and creation, a tribute to friendship.  

Also in Sala Sinopoli, the History of Cinema section will host American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective by Dominique Milano. The documentary reviews Michael Madsen’s career from his early days on the big screen in films such as Wargames and The Natural, to the success of Thelma & Louise by Ridley Scott, not to mention his performances in some of Quentin Tarantino’s masterpieces such as Reservoir Dogs, the Kill Bill saga and The Hateful Eight. The long journey to discover his more than one hundred and sixty films was also made possible by the interviews with those who worked with him, including Tarantino himself, John Travolta, Ron Perlman, Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah.

The Freestyle section, in addition to the above-mentioned I Leoni di Sicilia, will present five more films.

At 9 pm, Sala Petrassi will host Posso entrare? An Ode to Naples, Trudy Styler’s third feature-length film. The director and her husband Sting are in love with Italy, not just Tuscany but Naples as well: filmed among the narrow working class streets and middle-class neighbourhoods, with Dante Spinotti as cinematographer, the film records the many souls of the city, from food to the Vesuvius, from the works of art to the theatre of art which is constantly acted out in daily life, enhancing the contrasts that make the city unique, a city of “light and darkness, life and death”. With music naturally at its heart. The collaborators include the rapper Clementino and the street artist Jorit. At 8 pm, walking the red carpet of the Fest will be, among others, Trudie Styler, Sting, Francesco Di Leva and Clementino.

At 4 pm, in the same theatre, the featured film will be Troppo azzurro, the directorial debut of Filippo Barbagallo, who is also the author of the screenplay and stars in it together with Brando Pacitto, Martina Gatti, Alice Benvenuti and Valerio Mastandrea. The director has authored an easy-going romantic comedy, conducted with the rhythm and perspective of young people today, its framing at times reduced to the format of a cell phone or broken down into a series of rectangles, to build an ironic, observant, and involving tableau.

At 6 pm, at the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna, there will be a screening of Mother, Couch by Niclas Larrson who directs an exceptional cast with Ellen Burstyn, Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, Francis Murray Abraham, Taylor Russell. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Swedish author Jerker Virdborg (author of the apocalyptic “Black Crab” from which the film by Adam Berg with Noomi Rapace was adapted), a comedy of the absurd in which images, memories, unexpected characters and forgotten daughters, become entangled in the chaotic relationships of a divided family, set almost entirely within the claustrophobic space of a furniture shop.

At 6 pm at the MAXXI, there will be a screening of Tehachapi by JR. Tehachapi is a maximum-security prison, where for three years the French street artist JR conducted a photography programme that involvied the inmates (and their families, the prison guards, and crime survivors). His art, famous for its large-format portraits, finds new meaning here: representing ordinary people, requalifying non-places, rehabilitating people who learn to see themselves, the prison walls and the empty space of the surrounding desert in a new way. The film asks if art can really change the world, and shows how it can change people. The director JR will be in the theatre to present the screening.

At 8:30 pm, also at the MAXXI, the screening will feature La solitudine è questa by Andrea Adriatico. This “road_doc movie”, as the authors define it, recounts the atmospheres, the fascination and the current relevance of the work of Pier Vittorio Tondelli, who died at the early age of 36 in December 1991. From his hometown of Correggio to L’Aquila (where his Altrilibertini was denounced and seized), from Rimini to Bologna, Florence, Rome, Milan, Jonathan Bazzi, Angela Bubba, Viola Di Grado, Paolo Di Paolo, Claudia Durastanti, Alessio Forgione, Alcide Pierantozzi guide us through Tondelli’s books, while the interviewer-actors Lorenzo Balducci and Tobia De Angelis embody the characters portrayed in them.

The Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna will host two films from the Progressive Cinema Competition.

At 3 pm, there will be a screening of Achilles by Farhad Delaram. In this debut film, two Iranian fugitives – a former filmmaker consumed by anger and resentment, broken by the only political system his generation has ever known, and a political prisoner imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital– join forces to flee from the clutches of a corrupt government. Their journey across Iran will take them to suggestive locations, from Tehran to the dried-up Lake Urmia in the north-western province of Shabestar, as far as the Caspian Sea and the Turkish border, in an attempt to escape that marks their lives in altogether unexpected ways.

At 8:30 pm the screening will instead feature Un silence by Joachim Lafosse who in his tenth film explores a delicate issue: domestic abuse and silence. The director shapes a deep and sensitive film relying on the nuanced performances of Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Devos. A famous lawyer’s family balance suddenly falls apart after twenty-five years, when his children decide to begin their own personal pursuit of justice.

At 7 pm, Sala Petrassi will host the documentary Scarrozzanti e spiritelli. 50 anni di vita del Teatro Franco Parenti by Michele Mally, for the Special Screenings section. On January 16^th 2023, the 50^th anniversary of the Teatro Franco Parenti was celebrated with an event conceived by Andrée Ruth Shammah who, with friends and collaborators, evoked the moments, the voices, the faces of this “theatre world” which she, together with Franco Parenti and Giovanni Testori, contributed to found and develop. Gathered around a small fire burning on the stage, they speak one after the other, while images of the major productions and excerpts from the dialogue between Filippo Timi and Shammah are shown in the foyer.

Through October 29^th, Casa del Cinema will host the wide-ranging programme of the History of Cinema section. At 3 pm, as part of the tribute to filmmaker Michel Gondry, audiences are invited to attend the screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: the French filmmaker’s cult movie, which won him the Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay together with Charlie Kaufman and Pierre Bismuth, is a reflection on the fleeting nature and utopia of love, suspended between comedy and melodrama.

The eighteenth Rome Film Fest celebrates Lorenza Mazzetti, the only woman to underwrite the manifesto of Free Cinema. The first event will take place tomorrow, Monday October 23^rd at 7:30 pm in Sala Cinecittà with the documentary Together with Lorenza Mazzetti, a portrait of the artist at ninety, composed of interviews and excerpts from her films. The film will be presented to the public by the director Brighid Lowe. At 9 pm in Sala Fellini, there will be a screening of her most famous film, Together, a Cannes award-winner, in which the director uses areas of post-war London in ruins to give life to a poetic representation of a city populated by children with no more rules, miserable one-room flats and harsh realities. The screening will be preceded by two shorts made by Mazzetti, The Country Doctor and K (Metamorphosis).

 In Sala Cinecittà (at 9:30 pm), Filippo Soldi will introduce the screening of his documentary La voce senza volto, a film that guides spectators through the practice of dubbing and its influence on the creativity of our cinema, the language we speak and our culture.

The programme of repeat screenings continues in Sala Fellini. The first screening is at 5:15 pm with L’odore della notte by Claudio Caligari, in the version restored by CSC – Cineteca Nazionale in collaboration with Minerva Pictures Group srl. It will be followed at 7:15 pm by Une chronique américaine by Alexandre Gouzou and Jean-Claude Taki.

For the second year in a row, the “Dialogues on the future of cinema” will be held during the Rome Film Fest at the MAXXI, promoted by the Fondazione Cinema per Roma and ANICA, in collaboration with Cinecittà Spa and SIAE. The series of Dialogues in seven episodes is scheduled to take place between October 19^th and 26^th at 3:30 pm: every day, except for Sunday, they will be open to the public and to the media, on a first come and first serve basis, consolidating the lean and linear format tested in 2022. The title of the conference tomorrow, Monday October 23^rd, will be “Can there be a European cinema that can captivate Italian and European audiences? The point of view of European producers”: following the introductory remarks by Chiara Sbarigia, President of the APA Association of Audio-visual Producers and Cinecittà, the speakers will include Mercedes Gamero (Beta Fiction Group), Benedetto Habib (Indiana Production), Jaime Ondarza (Fremantle), Jerome Seydoux (Pathé Films) and Riccardo Tozzi (Cattleya). Moderator Simone Gattoni.

As part of the Rome Film Fest, tomorrow, Monday October 23^rd at 5 pm at Casa del Cinema, SIAE is organising a round table discussion with free admission to discuss a theme at the centre of the agenda of Italian authors: “Hollywood, actors and screenwriters went on…STRIKE. How about us? From America to Italy and vice-versa: Taking stock of contractual protections between artificial intelligence and fair compensation”. Laura Blum-Smith (Director, Research & Public Policy, Writers Guild of America West), Leonardo Fasoli (screenwriter, 100Autori), Tony Gerber (screenwriter and director), Giorgio Glaviano (President Writers Guild Italia), Roberto Marchionni, known as Menotti (showrunner), Francesco Ranieri Martinotti (President ANAC), Domenico Luca Scordino (SIAE Consultant, Studio Elled) will discuss the impact of AI, moderated by Eva Carducci (Freelance Entertainment Journalist), from an artistic and legal point of view, for adaptors, voice artists and all the professional figures involved in the chain. The panel may also be seen in streaming at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nT_aIOC0Fs.

At 11:30 pm, at the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna, Nuovo Imaie will organise the conference, with free admission, titled “Platform earnings and payments to artists. Objective a one-stop database”. Speakers will include Lucia Carta (senior director business & legal affairs Netflix Italia), Benedetta Alessia Liberatore (Director of digital services AGCOM), Stefano Longhini (Director of legal affairs RTI S.p.A. – Mediaset Group), Andrea Miccichè (president NUOVO IMAIE), Federico Mollicone (president VII Committee House of Representatives). 

Tomorrow, Monday October 23^rd at 8 pm, the series at the Teatro Palladium will conclude with the screening of The Royal Hotel by Kitty Green. The Australian documentary filmmaker pursues her investigation into the intricate dynamics of male culture, reflecting on the gender dynamics in a society that remains conditioned by deeply rooted prejudices.

Through October 24^th, the Cinema Barberini movie theatre will host a retrospective dedicated to Maestro Federico Fellini, thirty years after his death: tomorrow, Monday October 23^rd at 3 pm, the screening will feature Amarcord.

For the second year in a row, the programme of the Fest returns to the Cinema Nuovo Sacher with a selection of films chosen by Nanni Moretti. Tomorrow, Monday October 23^rd at 4 pm, the screening will feature Anatomie d’une chute by Justine Triet. A couple of writers live in a chalet immersed in the peace and quiet of the snowy French Alps with their eleven year-old son, who has lost his sight after an accident. The body of Vincent, the husband, has fallen out the window and lies in the snow: the fall might not be accidental. That is the beginning of a story wound up in memories and testimonies at the trial of the wife, suspected of having killed her husband.  

It will be followed by the screening of the first episode of La Storia by Francesca Archibugi (at 6:45 pm), based on the novel by Elsa Morante, one of the most important novels of the twentieth century: 800,000 copies sold in Italy in just one year, the novel was translated into more than twenty languages. The director will meet the public.

At 9 pm, the screening will feature the documentary Mur, introduced by Kasia Smutniak who, for her debut as a director, travels to the forbidden red zone in Poland. Carrying lightweight technical equipment, with the help of local activists she reaches the border with Belorussia to document, with the tempo of a thriller, the 186-km long steel barrier built to keep out the migrants attempting to enter the EU as refugees.

At Cinema Giulio Cesare, the programme of repeat screenings of the eighteenth Rome Film Fest continues. In Sala 1, at 4 pm, the screening will feature Achilles by Farhad Delaram, at 6:30 pm Mother, Couch by Niclas Larsson and at 9 pm, Un silence by Joachim Lafosse. There will be several screenings as well in Sala 3, with American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective by Dominique Milano (at 4:30 pm), I leoni di Sicilia by Paolo Genovese (at 7 pm) and The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki (at 9:30 pm). Three repeat screenings will take place in Sala 5: Troppo azzurro by Filippo Barbagallo (at 5 pm), Scarrozzanti e spiritelli. 50 anni di vita del Teatro Franco Parenti by Michele Mally (at 7 pm) and Posso entrare? An Ode to Naples by Trudie Styler (at 9:15 pm). In Sala 7 there will be two screenings for the public of the Rome Film Fest: at 3:30 pm it will feature Grandmother’s Footsteps by Lola Peploe and at 5:30 pm the documentary La pitturessa by Fabiana Sargentini.

During the course of the Rome Film Fest there will be a new space dedicated entirely to cinema, in collaboration with the Fondazione Cinema per Roma. The Fuori Festa will be set up at the Hotel St. Regis, a few steps away from Via Veneto. Fuori Festa is open to all accredited visitors of the Rome Film Fest, to the guests of the St. Regis Hotel, in addition to producers, distributors and journalists. Info: https://www.fuorifesta.it/.