Italiano
Tomorrow, Thursday, October 26th at 6:30 pm, the Sala Petrassi at the dell’Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone hosts a screening of Gonzo Girl, presented at the Rome Film Fest in the Grand Public section. The film marks the directorial debut of Patricia Arquette, the cult actress who won an Oscar® in 2015 for Boyhood by Richard Linklater and worked for directors like Tony Scott (True Romance), Tim Burton (Ed Wood), and David Lynch (Lost Highway). Gonzo Girl is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name, which draws on the author Cheryl Della Pietra’s madcap experience as an assistant to Hunter S. Thompson, the father of the so-called “gonzo journalism”. The film combines elements of conventional journalism, personal impressions, and narrative devices. On the Fest’s red carpet at 5:45 pm, festgoers can catch, among others, Patricia Arquette and the stars Willem Dafoe and Camila Morrone. Before the screening, Morrone will take the stage to receive the 18th Film Fest’s Progressive Cinema Lifetime Achievement Award.
Thursday will see three more screenings of films in the Grand Public section.
At 4 pm in the Sala Sinopoli, the film Second Tour by Albert Dupontel (See You Up There, Bye Bye Morons), also stars the director alongside Cécile de France and Nicolas Marié.
Miss Pove, a political journalist fallen into disgrace and relegated to writing about football, is suddenly called in to cover the campaign of French presidential candidate Pierre-Henry Mercier, an old acquaintance of hers whose past is not as clean as he claims.
At 9:30 pm, Sala Sinopoli hosts another premiere: Dream Scenario by Kristoffer Borgli. On his first American film, the Norwegian filmmaker (Sick of Myself premiered at Un Certain Regard 2022) has written and directed a post-modern fantasy built around the performance of Nicholas Cage, who has produced edgier and edgier star turns in recent years. His co-stars are Julianne Nicholson and Michael Cera.
At 6 pm, the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna will hold the screening of Cottontail by Patrick Dickinson.
The film shows the travels of Kenzaburo – masterfully played by Lily Franky, who will be on the Fest’s red carpet at 5:30 pm – through both geographic and emotional landscapes, offering a profound meditation on the complexity of family relationships and the search for a sense of belonging in an unfamiliar, alienating world.
The Absolute Beginners section has two titles on the Thursday programme.
The Professor – the series by Giuseppe Tornatore will premiere tomorrow, Thursday, October 26th, at 7 pm in the Sala Sinopoli. The five-episode series was filmed in 1985, at the same time as the film of the same name that was produced by Titanus Produzione and ReteItalia and released in 1986. The series, though, was never broadcast. “The current restoration and re-edit required an enormous commitment in artistic terms and in the professional skills involved. It was completed after almost a whole year and produced by Titanus Production and RTI – Mediaset, with Minerva Pictures as distributor,” explains the Titanus president Guido Lombardo. The restoration was supervised by Tornatore himself. Audiences will be watching the first and fourth episodes of the series.
At 4:30 pm in the Sala Petrassi, Gianfranco Rosi meets Fest audiences to discuss his very first experience behind the camera, when he directed Boatman in 1993, a journey down the Ganges in the company of a unique Charonte: the boatman Gopal, who knows every bend in the river. The documentary, on its thirtieth anniversary in 2023, was widely acclaimed when it premiered at leading film festivals such as Sundance, Locarno, and Toronto.
The Progressive Cinema competition sees two titles premiering in the Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna. The first, at 3:30 pm, will be Sweet Sue by Leo Leigh, on his feature directorial debut. In the film, English actress Maggie O’Neill (famed for her TV roles in East Enders and Midsomer Murders) gives life, energy, humour and tenderness to a very human and sometimes awkward character, who (like all the others) seems to come straight out of one of (Leo’s father) Mike Leigh’s early, satirical, made-for-TV films.
At 8:30 pm, the screening of Black Box by Asli Özge sees the Turkish-German director, after the documentary Men on the Bridge and the thriller All of a Sudden, painting a cutting and paranoid portrait of society: good neighbours who take advantage or become hostile, in a closed-off world that recalls J. G. Ballard, with a voyeuristic obsession that (explicitly) cites Rear Window.
The MAXXI will be hosting two films on the Freestyle lineup.
The first, at 5:30 pm, is Gli immortali, which feels like a Greek tragedy, rewritten by Finnish-Sicilian director Anne-Riitta Ciccone (Le sciamane, I’m – Infinita come lo spazio), with the style and rhythms of sci-fi, in which the protagonist (Gelsomina Pascucci) moves as if she is on the stage of our dream world.
At 8:30 pm, festgoers can catch Fela, il mio dio vivente by Daniele Vicari, who elaborates on material featuring Nigerian musician Fela Kuti (1938-1997) that was filmed by Michele Avantario, the pioneering videomaker who died in 2003 and had intended to make a film about Kuti. Vicari uses the voice of Claudio Santamaria to reconstruct two universes: on one hand, Renato Nicolini’s extravagant Rome of the late 1970s; on the other, the life of musical genius Fela Kuti, and the world of African funk and jazz.
The Carte Blanche programme devoted to Isabella Rossellini continues at the Casa del Cinema. In the Sala Cinecittà at 5 pm, two films will be screened: My Dad Is 100 Years Old by Guy Maddin, and Stromboli (Terra di Dio) by Roberto Rossellini, the director’s first film with Ingrid Bergman.
Next in the Sala Cinecittà, at 7:45 pm, filmmaker Dante Desarthe will meet audiences for the premiere of Joseph Losey the Outsider, the artistic parable of the American director and screenwriter Joseph Losey in a documentary full of surprises, supported by extraordinary archival materials. Following Joseph Losey, and courtesy of a restoration conceived by StudioCanal, there will be a screening of Peeping Tom by Michael Powell, who in this film bares his visionary soul and the perverse relationship we all have with cinema.
The Casa del Cinema continues to host repeat screenings on Thursday: in the Sala Fellini at 7 pm, La nostra Monument Valley by Alberto Crespi and Steve Della Casa, and at 9 pm Io, il tubo e le pizze by Ugo Gregoretti.
At 5:30 pm, the Sala Fellini at the Casa del Cinema, hosts the fifteenth annual Gianandrea Mutti Award – Il cinema migrante, promoted by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Associazione Amici di Giana, Archivio delle Memorie Migranti (AMM) and Fondazione Pianoterra Onlus, supported by the Regione Emilia-Romagna. 18,000 euros will be awarded to the best film project inspired by a participatory and dynamic vision of contemporary culture. Aimed at foreign and Italian migrant filmmakers from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Near and Middle East, Central and South America who have been residing in Italy for at least one year, the award supports the realisation of film productions that demonstrate a profound look at migration and social inclusion. Speakers will include Laura Traversi (art historian), Giampiero Judica (actor), Amedeo Siragusa (Pianoterra Onlus), Sandro Triulzi (historian and African expert), and Xin Alessandro Zheng (filmmaker).
Cinedays is the annual event for Rome City of Film UNESCO that this year will be held tomorrow, Thursday, October 26th, at 11 am in the Sala Cinecittà at the Casa del Cinema.
Admission is free to this conference titled “Creative Urban Regeneration: building a new landscape for the contemporary city” and devoted to the theme of urban regeneration as a cultural and creative driver. Opening the session, Francesca Via (General Director of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma), Cristina Priarone (General Director of the Roma Lazio Film Commission), and Vittorio Salmoni (National Coordinator– Italian Creative Cities – UCCN). Next, there will be a screening of the film Il Padiglione 17 by Jesús Armesto, filmed in the historic psychiatric facility Santa Maria della Pietà. After the screening, there will be a debate moderated by Lucio Argano (Project Manager Rome City of Film UNESCO), featuring speakers Ines Radić (Project Manager Sarajevo UNESCO City of Film), Jesús Armesto (filmmaker), Maura Romano (Melting Pro – Head of Creative Regeneration and Valorization of Urban Areas), and Marco Della Porta (President of Municipio XIV – Roma Capitale).
MAXXI hosts the last session of “Dialogues on the Future of Cinema”, promoted by the Fondazione Cinema per Roma and ANICA, in collaboration with Cinecittà Spa and SIAE. The title of the conference tomorrow, Thursday, October 26th, is “Can there be a European cinema that captivates Italian and European audiences? Exhibitors and distributors interact with the public”. After video greetings from filmmaker Pupi Avati, the discussion gets underway, with speakers Sandra Campanini (Rosebud), Lionello Cerri (Anteo Spazio Cinema), Mario Lorini (Multisala Naturale Valdelsa), Davide Novelli (Vision Distribution), Paolo Orlando (Medusa Film), and Andrea Romeo (I Wonder). Moderated by Simone Gialdini. The Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano will wrap up the session. Free admission on a first-come, first-served basis.
This year the European Parliament and the European Commission are participating in the Rome Film Fest as institutional partners. They will be on hand tomorrow, Thursday, October 26th, at 2 pm, in the Sala Cinecittà della Casa del Cinema, for the conference entitled “The competences in the film and audiovisual sector”.
Introductory remarks will be entrusted to Laura Delli Colli (journalist and president of the National Italian Film Journalists Union SNGCI) and Paola Malanga (Artistic Director of the Film Fest). Next, institutional greetings will be provided by Elena Grech (Vice Director of the European Commission Representation in Italy), Bruno Zambardino (General Directorate of Cinema and Audiovisual, Ministry of Culture), and Alberto D’Argenzio (Press Officer, Liaison Office of the European Parliament in Italy), along with a video message from Massimiliano Smeriglio (Member of the European Parliament and of the Commission on Culture and Education).
The panel discussion that follows features Oscar®-winners Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, Carlo Poggioli (Costume Designer and President of the Italian Association of Set Designers, Costume Designers and Decorators), and actor and dubbing artist Carlo Valli. The talks continue with Dawson Martin (vice-head of unit – DG CONNECT of the European Commission, joining remotely), Enrico Bufalini (Project Manager Creative Europe Media Desk Italy and Director of the Luce Archives, Director, Production, Distribution, Rights Office , Post Production), Sara Baiocco (Policy Officer, General Directorate for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion DG EML – European Commission), Santo Darko Grillo (General Director of the Istituto Nazionale per l’Analisi delle Politiche Pubbliche INAPP and National Coordinator for Italy of the European Year of Competences). The session wraps up with concluding remarks by Gian Luca Farinelli (President of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma) and Antonio Parenti (Head of the Italian Representation of the European Commission).
For the first time, the Film Fest brings its film to the juvenile detention facility at Casal del Marmo. On Thursday, October 26th at 4 pm, the screening of Troppo azzurro will be presented by filmmaker Filippo Barbagallo.
On the same day, the programme continues at Rebibbia prison’s New Complex, involving inmates and audiences from the outside alike, at the auditorium in the prison and the new Sala Cinema Enrico Maria Salerno. At 4 pm, the screening of the film Zucchero – Sugar Fornaciari will be introduced by screenwriter Federico Fava.
For the seventh year in a row, the Rome Film Fest teams up with MediCinema Italia ETS and the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS to arrange screenings of Fest films for patients and have them meet actors and directors before the screenings. The second date is tomorrow, Thursday, October 26th at 4 pm, with C’è ancora domani, preceded by a video message from director Paola Cortellesi and greetings from Francesca Via, General Director of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma.
NABA, the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, and the Fondazione Cinema per Roma are promoting the third annual Z-PITCH Contest, the competition dedicated to students and recent graduates of film and media design schools in Italy and conceived as one of the activities branded Rome – UNESCO City of Film. Participation is open to original and as yet unproduced audiovisual storytelling projects, starting 1 December 2023.
The Rome Film Fest will again collaborate with the Community of Sant’Egidio in the Pope’s Home for the Poor. Palazzo Migliori is an eighteenth-century aristocratic palace that many thought should become a luxury hotel: but the Pope was determined for it to become a luxury hotel for the poor. Since then, the home owned by Vatican, entrusted to the Papal Almoner and managed by the Community of Sant’Egidio, welcomes over 30 poor people every night, most of whom slept on the streets surrounding St. Peter’s.
Tomorrow, Thursday, October 26th, at 7 pm in Sala 5 at the Cinema Giulio Cesare, the guests of Palazzo Migliori have the chance to take part in a screening expressly for them, of the film In viaggio by Gianfranco Rosi. The film will be introduced by Andrea Tornielli, Editorial Director of the Communications Department of the Vatican, along with producer Donatella Palermo and film editor Fabrizio Federico.
Repeat screenings of films at the 18th edition of the Film Fest abound at the Cinema Giulio Cesare on Thursday. In Sala 1, at 4 pm, the first is Sweet Sue by Leo Leigh, followed at 6:30 pm by Cottontail by Patrick Dickinson and at 9 pm Black Box by Asli Özge. There are several titles screening in Sala 3, as well: Second Tour by Albert Dupontel (at 4:30 pm), The Professor – the series by Giuseppe Tornatore (at 7:30 pm), and Dream Scenario by Kristoffer Borgli (at 10 pm). From the Grand Public section, there are two repeat screenings unspooling in Sala 5: Cento domeniche by Antonio Albanese at 5 pm and Gonzo Girl by Patricia Arquette at 9:45. In Sala 7, Fest audiences can catch two titles from the Freestyle section: at 3:30 Tehachapi by JR and at 5:30 Shakespea Re di Napoli by Nadia Baldi and Ruggero Cappuccio.
