Italiano
Tomorrow, Thursday 24 October at 6 pm, the nineteenth Rome Film Fest will present the preview screening of La casa degli sguardi, Luca Zingaretti’s directorial debut, in the Grand Public section. The film, which will be shown in Sala Sinopoli at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone, is inspired by the eponymous novel by Daniele Mencarelli, finding the immediacy and sincerity required to tell the story of different generations and presenting the city of Rome today through the eyes of those who believes in hard work and writing, and decide not to give up after all.
In the same theatre at 9:30 pm, the Film Fest and Alice nella città will host the screening of Il ragazzo dai pantaloni rosa by Margherita Ferri. The filmmaker tells the story of one of the first acknowledged cases of cyberbullying, that of Andrea Spezzacatena, who was driven to commit suicide by the taunting of his classmates on Facebook. What triggered those comments was a pair of pants that had come out of the washing machine pink; Andrea decided to wear them anyway, heedless of the possible reactions of those who remain hostage to brittle social stereotypes based on personal appearance.
At 4 pm in Sala Sinopoli, Fabio and Damiano D’Innocenzo will be the protagonists of a Paso Doble with the audience of the Fest. The most talented twins in Italian cinema are the award-winning authors of works such as La terra dell’abbastanza, Favolacce, America Latina, all presented at the major international film festivals, and the television miniseries Dostoevskij, which premiered at the last Berlinale.
Two films from the Progressive Cinema competition are in today’s programme, both to be screened in Sala Petrassi.
At 4:30 pm, viewers are invited to see 100 Litres of Gold by Teemu Nikki. The director of Death Is a Problem for the Living, presented last year in competition at the Rome Film Fest, tells the inside story of a provincial small town that is both very far and very near at the same time, where pride in one’s roots and the joy of revelry mask distress and a deep anxiety. And he does so with an irrepressible narrative, steeped in gallows humour and deadpan comedy. The actresses are all irresistible.
At 6:45 pm, the screening will feature Bring Them Down, the directorial debut of Christopher Andrews, who takes us into rural Ireland where tormented figures lurk against the background of serenely bucolic landscapes, suspended between the shadows of a dark past and imminent future threats. A complex drama of family feuds, in which the tension of an adrenalin-rushing story is tangible and every word or movement of the protagonists, thanks to the performances of Abbott and Barry Keoghan, is charged with omens.
At 9:15 pm, Sala Petrassi will be the venue for the screening of Nottefonda by Giuseppe Miale di Mauro, one of the founders of NEST, the theatre company in San Giovanni a Teduccio that works with young people in one of the most deprived neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Naples. For his debut on the big screen, the director draws his inspiration from his novel La strada degli americani, to tell a story of anger and redemption. He depicts the nocturnal settings of a city as they are rarely seen and in Francesco Di Leva finds an actor who puts everything on the line, and who, not coincidentally, acts alongside his son Mario.
The Teatro Studio Gianni Borgna will feature four films from the Special Screenings section.
They will start at 3:30 pm with Nel tempo di Cesare by Angelo Loy. The documentary tells a compelling and intensely emotional story that took place along the Tiber River starting in 1999, and follows the events in the life of two families of eel fishermen who for generations have lived and worked along the urban stretch of the river, near the Grande Raccordo Anulare in the southern part of Rome. The film enriches the lineup of the “Drops of Cinema” series, organised by Fondazione Cinema per Roma in collaboration with Acea.
At 5:45 pm, there will be a screening of Cattivi maestri by Roberto Orazi. The protagonist of the documentary is Vincenzo Fuoco: he is thirty-five years old and has had a boundless passion for football, ever since he was a child. When at the age of eleven he played on the local team of his town, Villa d’Adda, he was bought by a professional team, and that was where he met a serial predator sports manager, who wormed his way into his life and that of his family. Today, Vincenzo is no longer living this nightmare.
At 7:30 pm, the audience is invited to see Dike–Vita da magistrato. Caterina Crescini, assisted by Filippo Cellini, the author responsible for developing and writing the script of the documentary along with the National Association of Magistrates, explores how the law is applied by Italian judges, searching beyond the myths and prejudices. And so explores the lives of six judges working in different roles and different phases of their private and professional lives, analysing the difficulties, the efforts and the satisfactions of this profession, rooted in a complex and articulated reality.
At 9:30 pm, it will be time for Lirica ucraina by Francesca Mannocchi, one of Europe’s most important war correspondents. The filmmaker spent many months in Ukraine shortly before the beginning of the conflict with Russia, discovering its secret soul and interacting with many people whose trust she slowly earned. And so, traveling the liberated streets of Bucha, Borodianka and Irpin’, she understood that reporting on a war means first and foremost listening to the voices of those who experienced the horror and the suffering it brings with it.
The programme at the MAXXI features three events.
At 6:30 pm there will be a screening of Il complotto di Tirana (The Tirana Conspiracy) by Manfredi Lucibello.
In December 2000, the famous photographer Oliviero Toscani accepted an invitation from the art critic Giancarlo Politi to curate a section of the first Tirana Biennale. Toscani decided to present four controversial artists, the authors of provocative and outrageous works: Dimitri Bioy, an alleged paedophile; Marcello Gavotta, an avowed pornographer; Bola Equa, an activist on the run from the Nigerian Government; and Hamid Picardo, Bin Laden’s official photographer. It was just the beginning of what would go down in history as one of the greatest hoaxes in the history of contemporary art. Now that the statute of limitations has expired, the protagonists can finally tell the truth.
At 9 pm, spectators are invited to see Architecton by Viktor Kossakovsky. The Russian documentary filmmaker produces a visual meditation on architecture itself, sweeping yet intimate and poetic at the same time. The planet Earth can no longer sustain grandiose architectural monuments, while modern buildings made of cement have a devastating environmental impact.
At 4 pm, the Istituto di Istruzione Superiore Statale “Cine-Tv Roberto Rossellini” presents a new documentary titled Claudio Palmieri: demone a due teste, made by the students of the school and directed by Massimo Franchi. The feature-length film is a portrait of the renowned exponent of the New Roman School, an eclectic and multi-talented artist, told in the words of colleagues, critics, friends and collectors. There will also be a screening of the short film La mia Roma: in viaggio con Lina Bo Bardi, stemming from a research project by Carla Zollinger with the Academy of Spain and directed by Gloriana Maria Giammartino: a tribute to one of the pioneers of Italian architecture, and a journey through her memories, thoughts and roots.
In Sala Cinecittà at Casa del Cinema, at 4:15 pm, the History of Cinema section will feature the first episode of Mani sporche, the only work for television by director Elio Petri: an adaptation in three episodes of the controversial play by Jean-Paul Sartre written in 1948, which marked Marcello Mastroianni’s debut in a television production. The film will be preceded by the screening of Marcello!, an anthology of Marcello Mastroianni’s appearances on RAI television, curated by Paolo Luciani.
The programme of documentaries from the History of Cinema section will close at 7 pm with the screening of John Cassavetes par Thierry Jousse by Camille Clavel, a film essai that leads the viewer into the creative universe of Cassavetes and his wife Gena Rowlands, through the passion and understanding of critic Thierry Jousse.
At 9 pm, the screening will feature The Sugarland Express by Steven Spielberg, one of the most phenomenal debut films in the history of cinema, a road movie shot entirely on the road in Texas. The film will be shown in the version restored by Universal Pictures in 4K under the director’s supervision.
For the eighth consecutive year, the collaboration between MediCinema Italia ETS and Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS and the Rome Film Fest continues with the screening of two films from the official programme. The second event is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday 24 October, with Paradiso in vendita by Luca Barbareschi: the director sets a comedy of characters, mores and politics in Filicudi, telling the story of an eternal challenge between kindred and pugnacious cultures, of conquerors conquered and battling townspeople, in the finest tradition of Italian comedy. The director will appear in Sala MediCinema to greet the patients and their families.
As in previous years, in 2024 the Rome Film Fest returns to the prisons of the Lazio region with a programme of screenings and encounters that will involve the population of inmates and the audience of city-dwellers. Rebibbia Nuova will host a screening of U.S. Palmese by the Manetti Bros, who have made a romantic sports comedy set in Palmi, with scenes in Milan and Paris, in which sports and personalities collide, with characters and their loyalties, flaws, and zest for getting even that all coalesce in the end and reestablish a balance. The two directors will introduce the screening. At the Casa Circondariale prison in Latina, the screening will feature Paradiso in vendita by Luca Barbareschi.
Starting tomorrow Thursday October 24th and through October 26th, Cinema Andromeda will show several repeat screenings of films from the nineteenth Rome Film Fest: at 9 pm, the restored version of Ricomincio da tre by Massimo Troisi.
Also in the programme of repeat screenings, at 2 pm at the MAXXI, the feature will be Giulia mia cara! Giorgio by Maria Mauti, while Teatro Olimpico will show Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band by Thom Zimny at 12 noon and the complete series of The Count of Monte Cristo directed by Bille August. The latter event will take place at 3 pm (episodes 1 and 2), at 5 pm (episodes 3-4), at 7:15 pm (episodes 5-6) and at 9:30 pm (episodes 7-8).
At 8 pm, at the Teatro Palladium there will be a screening of Ghostlight, written and directed by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson.
Nuovo Cinema Aquila will host the screening of L’albero, Sara Petraglia’s debut as a director and screenwriter (at 9 pm).
The programme of repeat screenings at Cinema Giulio Cesare will begin in Sala 1 at 3:30 pm with On Falling by Laura Carreira and will continue with San Damiano by Gregorio Sassoli and Alejandro Cifuentes at 6 pm and Le cose in frantumi luccicano by Marta Basso, Sara Cecconi, Carlotta Cosmai, Alice Malingri, Lilian Sassnelli at 8:30 pm. Sala 3 will show 100 Litres of Gold by Teemu Nikki (at 5 pm), Bring Them Down by Christopher Andrews (at 7 pm) and We Live in Time by John Crowley (9:30 pm). In Sala 7, at 4 pm, the screening will feature Ghostlight by Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson.
