17 NOVEMBER - 4 DECEMBER 2006

In this section you can find the latest offerings by some of Italy’s most established directors such as Roberto Faenza, Ferzan Ozpetek, Marco Bellocchio, Giuseppe Piccioni, Sergio Rubini, Giaocomo Campiotti, Vincenzo Marra, and Giovanni Veronesi. The flavours are varied, the aromas rich and satisfying – in a word appassionato!

The Caiman / Il Caimano (15)

Dir: Nanni Moretti

Part impassioned political exposé, part marital drama, part cinematic comedy, The Caiman according to one reviewer is “a curious hybrid that, in most other hands, would feel forced. It’s the director’s intuitive command of tonal shifts – from slapstick to serious, from Allen-esque one-liners to barbed Moore-ish satire - that pulls the disparate strands together in the end.” The film starts off in high comic gear as failed film producer Bruno (Silvio Orlando), is presented through some of the trashy B-movies he made years before – like the adventures of an anti-Communist superwoman called Aidra, or the strongman romp Maciste Versus Freud. When Teresa (Jasmine Trinca, Best Of Youth), a first-time film director, hands Bruno a script called The Caiman, he decides to make it after skimming through the first few pages, seeing this political thriller as a way to keep the creditors at bay for a few more weeks.

Cast: Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca, Daniele Rampello Giacomo Passarelli, Michele Placido, Elio Di Capitano, Nanni Moretti. 2006 112 mins

The Days of Abandonment / I giorni dell’abbandono (15)

Dir: Roberto Faenza

Based on a novel by Elena Ferrante, one of today’s most mysterious and fascinating Italian authors (she has never been seen or met), The Days of Abandonment recounts the anguish and loss of identity of a woman whose husband has left her. The attractive, 40-ish Olga (Buy) believes she has a solid relationship with her successful engineer-husband Mario (Luca Zingaretti), even toying with the idea of having a third child. So it's like a bolt from the blue when he announces he's moving out because he feels his life lacks meaning and he needs to be alone. Olga is so startled it takes her several scenes to realise he's dumped her for another woman. As her young son and daughter look on helplessly, she passes from denial to depression, blaming herself for being abandoned. Buy’s extraordinary performance confirms her as one of the finest actresses in contemporary Italian cinema.

Cast: Margherita Buy, Luca Zingaretti, Goran Bregovic, Alessia Goria 96 mins 2005

The Earth / La Terra (15)

Dir: Sergio Rubini

A compulsively watchable combo of lopsided Italian comedy and Southern film noir, La Terra is the most energetic and appealing of director-actor Sergio Rubini’s eight movies to date. Fabrizio Bentivoglio heads a bold ensemble cast as an exiled son who returns to his native Puglia and finds himself thrust into the role of capo famiglia. Stunning location work and a story playing off familiar Italian stereotypes is guaranteed to provide pleasures aplenty.

Cast: Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Paolo Briguglia.
2006. 112mins.

The Life I Want / La vita che vorrei (15)

Dir: Giuseppe Piccioni

Laura (Sandra Ceccarelli) is a passionate, impetuous young woman, making her first uncertain steps in acting. At an audition for a period drama, she meets the famous actor Stefano (Luigi Lo Cascio) who, impressed by Laura’s beauty, sees she gets the part. The two are cast opposite each other as a pair of lovers having a secret, forbidden affair. Day after day, the couple recite words of love, and gradually Laura and Stefano begin an affair of their own. The make-believe of the film’s stolen embraces, soon becoming intertwined with the intoxicating reality of their own true, love story.
The Life I Want is a captivating and evocative new romantic drama from Giuseppe Piccioni (Light of my Eyes). Richly woven and handsomely crafted, this glorious film cuts straight and unapologetically to the heart.

Cast: Sandra Ceccarelli, Luigi LoCascio
2005. 125mins.

The Manual of Love / Manuale d’amore (15)

Dir: Giovanni Veronesi

A box office smash on its home turf, The Manual of Love is a charming, bitter-sweet comedy about the mysterious nature of love. The fluctuating fortunes of relationships are chronicled through four intertwining episodes, each one played out by a different couple. The innocent, dreamlike stage of falling in love; the heart-wrenching phase of relationship crisis; the impulsive and frenetic epiphany of betrayal; and the lonesome, tragic freefall of being abandoned. The stories are both everyday and extraordinary, sweet and moving, romantic and funny. A refreshingly modern portrayal of love in all its incarnations.

Featuring Italy’s finest actors including Silvio Muccino (Remember Me, My Love), Sergio Rubini (The Earth), Margherita Buy (Caterina in the City), Jasmine Trinca (Best of Youth) and Luciana Littizzetto and Dino Abbrescia, (I’m Not Scared).

Cast: Carlo Verdone, Silvio Muccino, Luciana Littizzetto, Sergio Rubini, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca

Never Again Like Before / Mai piu’ come prima (12A)

Dir: Giacomo Campiotti

A gripping coming-of-age story about four boys and two girls who've just graduated from school. This mountain-set drama, with a cast of unknowns, sports a wholesomeness and an uplifting message geared to family audiences. As evidenced in his warm feature debut Like Two Crocodiles, Giacomo Campiotti has absorbed a canny blend of American and Euroean filmmaking styles. Here the human drama is set amid picture-perfect Italian scenery and carefully built to white-knuckle tension. After an emotional pay-off, the story eases back to a thoughtful conclusion.

Casts: Marco Casu, Marco Velluti, Natalia Piatti, Nicola Cipolla, Laura Chiatti, Federico Battilocchio, Pino Quartullo, Lidia Broccolino, Francesco Salvi, Mariella Valentini, Fabio Sartor.
2005. 106mins

Sacred Heart / Cuore sacro (15)

Dir: Ferzan Ozpetek

From the acclaimed director of Ignorant Fairies and the award-winning Facing Windows (a smash hit at the 2004 Italian Film Festival) Sacred Heart is a wonderfully warm drama, focussing on a steel-hearted woman who inexplicably finds her redemption. Irene (the luminous Barbara Bobulova) is an unscrupulous and successful businesswoman. In her hands, the family enterprises continue to expand and profit. But when two of her friends commit suicide following her buy-out of their company, Irene’s soaring self-confidence begins to crack, and she retreats to her family’s historic palazzo residence in central Rome. There she befriends a bright young street kid, Beni (Camille Dugay Comencini) - and finally discovers the secret to finding happiness. Winner – Best Actress & Best Cinematography in the 2005 David di Donatello awards, the Italian Oscars.

Cast: Barbara Bobulova, Andrea Di Stefano
2005. 120 mins.

The Session is Open / L’udienza e’ aperta (18)

Dir:Vincenzo Marra

A firm Italian Film Festival favourite for his features Sailing Home (2001) and Vento di Terra (2004), Vincenzo Marra is set to win many new admirers with this impressive documentary giving unprecedented access to the workings of the Italian judicial system. Proving that fact is always stranger than fiction, he has created a cinema-verité feature that is as compelling and startling as anything in the work of Francesco Rosi or Sidney Lumet.
The focus is on the appeal trial of a member of the Neapolitan Camorra. We come to know the avuncular President of the Jury who presides over the appeals process, his overworked advising magistrate and the defence lawyer, a devout Catholic who has built a formidable reputation challenging the state and defending the interests of the Camorra. Certain to make jaws drop and eyes pop, the
proceedings confirm that the law is an ass and that anyone expecting justice to triumph is sadly mistaken. What we see instead is a
conspiracy of interests and a system that borders on the farcical with the advising magistrate on the hunt for evidence that has
gone missing but only when she is not locked out of her own office. In the best traditions of the genre, Marra sees no need to point the finger of blame or editorialise. He merely presents the evidence and allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions. The result is a devastating condemnation of the Italian judiciary and a fascinating insight into why organised crime has long considered itself above the law.

Cinematography Mario Amura, Ed Cristina Flamin, Sound Massimo Mittiga Prod Nargira,Vicolo della Madonnela, 0186 Rome.

showing with

Breathe / Aria

Dir: Claudio Noce

The anonymous apartment buildings in Rome’s rundown Tor Bella Monaca district make the teenage Giorgio’s life seem like a prison sentence. The stifling atmosphere breeds indifference. Giorgio decides to run away but first he must climb over a towering wall to find out what is on the other side. Winner of the David di Donatello award for best short film of 2005 and also the Nastro d’Argento prize for best production. A gem delving into the complexities and inadequacies of the jumbled world of a troubled inner-city teen.

Cast: Paolo Sassanelli, Michele Amoruso, Alessandra Roca Prod: Cristiano Bortone, Daniele Mazzocca, and Claudio Noce. Zanahoria Film. Scr: Elisa Amoruso, Claudio Noce. Ph: Alberto Iannuzzi. Ed: Andrea Maguolo, Gianni Vezzosi. Mus: Valerio Vigliar. 2005. 26 mins

The Wedding Director / Il regista di matrimoni (18)

Dir: Marco Bellocchio

Edinburgh 17 Nov 6.00pm
Glasgow 20 Nov 5.45pm
London Renoir 25 Nov 6.30pm

Marriage is not necessarily forever, especially if you knock off the groom at the ceremony. That's the kernel of this dark descent into premarital distress. The main protagonist is an unsavoury film director Franco Elica, played by Sergio Castellitto. Depressed because his daughter has married a traditional Catholic and distressed by the down-sliding course of his hack career, Franco detaches himself to a small village, where he is commissioned by a pompous prince to film his princess daughter's wedding. Not surprisingly, the predatory Franco becomes immediately infatuated with the princess (Donatella Finocchiaro) who is depressed about her upcoming marriage. A callous opportunist, Franco decides to sabotage the marriage, rationalising that he is saving her from an arranged union. Along the way, he stumbles upon a rival director who has staged his own death as a good career move, thus winning the big film award that eluded him all his life.

Cast: Sergio Castellitto, Donatella Finocchiaro, Sami Frey, Gianni Cavina, Maurizio Donadoni.
2006. 100 mins