Join us in celebrating the extraordinary film tradition of Italy with this series of great Fellini, Germi, Olmi, Pasolini, and De Sica classics, as well as two recent crime movies from the Rai television network. We kick it all off with an Opening Night festa after Fellini’s masterpiece I Vitelloni.
I Vitelloni June *6, 9, 10
*Opening Night: Intro by Lewis Cole, Italian food and wine feast
Divorce, Italian Style June 7, 8
Seduced and Abandoned June *11, 14, 16 *Q&A w/Jacqueline Reich
I Fidanzati June 13, 15, *18
*Shlomi will lead a discussion after (in English)
Crimes: Teresa's Hideout Sun. June 15
Mamma Roma June 20, 22, 25
Umberto D. June 21, 23, 24
Crimes: Blood Art Sun. June 22
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I VITELLONI June *6, 9, 10
Federico Fellini. 1953. 104 min. NR. Italy/France, in Italian with subtitles. Corinth Films.
"Shows all of Fellini's unrivaled virtues." (NY Times)
One of Fellini's most beloved films, I Vitelloni is set in a sleepy seaside town where a group of young men in their 20s—the "calves" of the title—spend their days, restless yet unable to stray far from home and family. The director "captures the bittersweet emotions of a moment that eventually comes for everyone: the moment you realize you can either grow up, or stay forever a child" (Martin Scorsese).
*Fri. June 6 at 7:15: Opening Night Feast.
Introduction by Lewis Cole, a former chair of the Columbia University Film Division, who continues to teach in Columbia’s MFA program in film.
Join us in the gallery for a postscreening feast catered by the fabulous Arthur Avenue Caterers and accompanied by a great selection of wines provided by series sponsor, Wine Enthusiast.
Tickets: $12 (members), $16 (nonmembers) |
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DIVORCE, ITALIAN STYLE June 7, 8
Pietro Germi. 1961. 105 min. NR. Italy, in Italian with subtitles. Janus Films.
"One of the most perfect comedies ever filmed." (New York Times)
In one of the best comic turns in movies, Marcello Mastroianni plays to the hilt a bored Sicilian aristocrat who falls for a beautiful teen. The fact that he's married and that the girl is his cousin does nothing to slow his ruthless pursuit of true happiness. This "wild and wonderful" (New Yorker) send-up of Sicilian mores was a worldwide smash, winning a Best Comedy award at Cannes and an Oscar for Original Screenplay. New 35mm print. |
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SEDUCED AND ABANDONED
June *11, 14, 16
Pietro Germi. 1964. 115 min. NR. Italy/France, in Italian with subtitles. Janus Films.
"A gaily comic reflection...ofmores and manners." (New York Times)
Germi's follow-up to Divorce, Italian Style tells the story of a Sicilian father who'll stop at nothing to restore his family's honor after one of his daughters (the breathtaking Stefania Sandrelli) loses her virginity to another's fiancé. A gleeful skewering of the Sicilian code of honor, its "crowded, cartoonish style suggests the work of Preston Sturges," says critic Dave Kehr, but "the wit may be closer to Evelyn Waugh." New 35mm print.
*Q&A June 11 at 7:15: Jacqueline Reich heads the Cinema and Cultural Studies program at SUNY Stony Brook. She speaks frequently on Italian film at the JBFC.
Tickets: $6 (members), $10 (nonmembers) |
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I FIDANZATI June 13, 15, *18
Ermanno Olmi. 1963. 84 min. NR. Italy, in Italian with subtitles. Janus Films.
"A classic of the new cinema….Olmi is a master of his complex craft." (Time)
With fine attention to detail and tone, director Ermanno Olmi (Il Posto, The Tree of Wooden Clogs) poetically conveys the simple humanity of a man who's forced to leave fiancée and home behind for a job in Sicily. An exploration of loneliness and longing told through the main character's wanderings, dreams, and memories, this neorealist classic chooses cinematic techniques over dialogue to explore the emotional life of the characters. Award winner at Cannes.
*June 18 at 7:30: Join Shlomi Ron for a discussion of the film. Shlomi Ron, the co-founder of San Diego's Classic Italian Film Festival, celebrates the cinema of Italy in his Cafe Pellicola blog. (The discussion will be in English)
Tickets: $6 (members), $10 (nonmembers) |
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Teresa's Hideout
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Blood Art
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CRIMES June 15 & 22
Two films from the "Crimes" series of polizieschi (police thrillers) commissioned by Rai television from some of Italy's foremost writers in the genre.
TERESA'S HIDEOUT Sun. June 15 at 6:00
Writer: Diego De Silva. Director: Stefano Sollima. 100 min. In Italian with subtitles.
In "Teresa's Hideout", detective Mario Zonin of the Naples squad gets his first assignment, to track down a band of novice bank robbers. Things get tricky when a woman in the same flat as one of the thieves is swept up in the crime.
BLOOD ART Sun. June 22 at 4:30
Writer: Marcello Fois Director: Gianfranco Cabiddu. 100 min. In Italian with subtitles.
"Blood Art" follows detective Giacomo Curreli as he investigates the murder of elderly Signora Marcucci in Sardinia. Is the perpetrator the moody artist who lives upstairs, the strung-out niece of the signora's housekeeper...or are more sinister forces at work?
A production of Rai Fiction and Rodeo Drive Media, courtesy of Rai Radiotelevisione Italiana. Thanks to Antonio Monda of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts for facilitating the screenings. |
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MAMMA ROMA June 20, 22, 25
Pier Paolo Pasolini. 1962. 110 min. NR. Italy, in Italian with subtitles. Milestone Films/Intramovies.
"Magnani gives a volcanic performance." (Wired)
Oscar winner Anna Magnani "erupts with lust, laughter, and carnivorous pleasure" (San Francisco Chronicle) as a prostitute trying to make a respectable life for herself and her son. Deemed obscene, the film didn't show in the US until 33 years after it was made. Restored Print. |
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UMBERTO D. June 21, 23, 24
Vittorio De Sica. 1952. 91 min. NR. Italy, in Italian with subtitles. Warner Bros.
"An unflinching masterpiece." (Time Out New York)
"Extraordinary [in its] pure simplicity and almost unbearable candor and compassion" (New York Times), Umberto D. looks at a few days in the life of an elderly retired bureaucrat. But, as with De Sica's Bicycle Thief, it's the intimate human moments and small but telling scenes that lend this neorealist classic its deep resonance. Restored Print. |
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