Italian Film Festival delivers great drama and comedy

Italian Film Festival 
Rialto Cinemas, Auckland September 24 –October 12
Berkeley Takapuna, Auckland September 25 – October 12
Rialto Cinemas, Dunedin October 8 – October 22
Embassy Theatre, Wellington October 9 – October 26
Hollywood Cinemas, Christchurch October 16 – October 29

The 19th New Zealand Italian Film festival event is on for the next month with the best of the best of contemporary Italian cinema including comedy, romantic comedy and drama.

The selection covers most of the winners of the Italian film industry’s Oscars, the David di Donatello awards. From the multi-award-winning Long Live Freedo’, showcasing Toni Servillo, through Honey, a powerful first feature from celebrated actress Valeria Golino to the clever satirical depiction of the state of Italian politics in Viva l’Italia. A number of notable Italian actors are represented including Sergio Castellitto, Valerio Mastandrea, Michele Placido, Raoul Bova, Riccardo Scamarcio, Margherita Buy and Stefano Accorsi.

Included is the double feature Mr Volare: The Story of Domenico Modugno Parts 1 & 2, Domenico Modugno was singer/songwriter and actor with a career spanning the 1950s through the 1970s. He was best-known for singing the international hit Volare and later being elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies. “Salvo” was a Cannes Film Festival winner last year and tells of Mafia hit man who is attacked by another gang. Finding out who was behind the attack on him he goes to the house and kills him. Instead of killing the man’s blind sister Rita, he takes her to a disused warehouse but his mafia boss insist that she has to be killed as well. The two form a strange bond and he decides to pit himself against his masters. Sicilian directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s create a powerful noir film which is largely shot at night or in darkened interiors.

One of the great aspects of the film is the almost complete lack of dialogue and the little dialogue there is, is mundane. Even the action is limited, with some of the big action moments such as Salvo’s initial hit happening off screen. So it is Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (‘The Band’s Visit’) with a riveting performance as the supposedly steely mafia assassin, who starts to show some humane qualities, along with Sara Serraiocco, in her first screen role, who create the brilliantly choreographed tension. Viva l’Italia weaves a complex tale around the ramifications affecting politics and family when a senator Michele Spagnolo (Michele Placido) suffers a stroke while in bed with a showgirl. His brain gets affected and he starts to spout the truth about his party and his family.

As Michele becomes loose cannon of brutal honesty in both his personal and professional life, his three children suffer the consequences of his newfound candor. Daughter Susanna (Ambra Angiolini) is a terrible actress, Valerio (Alessandro Gassman) is a lost cause and Riccardo (Raoul Bova) is a successful doctor who no longer speaks to his father. By rushing to their father’s side, the three siblings are forced to face some confronting truths but these truths do not necessarily set them free. Some of the film is set in the wacky world of Italian TV and the film itself often seems like an Italian soap opera with a cast of caricatures.