All About Cannes, Italian Style
Salve ragazzi,
Anyone here going to the Cannes Film Festival? (Tuesday, May 17 until Saturday, May 28). Andiamo! Let’s go! I have a French photographer friend who goes every year and gets the most fabulous photos, which I will share with you this year if he doesn’t mind. I love France and French cinema, but I can’t get over the competitiveness I feel when people say that Venice isn’t in the same league as Cannes. While that was once true, it isn’t now.
Still, it’s a little more glamorous than Venice (probably the only reason they let me into Venice 😂). I’m looking forward to ending my covid break and attending this year!)
I’ll probably never go to Cannes, but it’s always fun to see which Italian movies catch the attention of French moviemakers
FUN FACTS ABOUT LA DOLCE VITA: In 1960, Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita caused a BIG commotion when it won the Palme D’or. A packed theater booed and whistled after the screening. FUN FACT - whistles signify disapproval in Europe.
The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano condemned the film in an article entitled “La Schifosa Vita” (“The Disgusting Life”). 😄 Burn!
This is fun - La Dolce Vita in 6 Minutes
This year two Italians are vying for the Palme D’Or, but only Mario Martone is presenting one in the Italian language. Actress/Director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s film, Les Amandiers (The Almond Tree) is in French. Valeria was born in Turin but was raised by her wealthy Italian parents in Paris because they feared the kidnappings by the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades). Like her younger sister, Carla Bruni (former first lady of France), she was raised bilingual and has dual citizenship.
But I digress…Mario Martone is offering a film called Nostalgia.
Nostalgia is about a guy named Felice, who returns to his childhood neighborhood after 40 years. This is Martone’s first time screening a film here since the 1990s. L’Amore Molesto (Troubling Love) in 1995 and Teatro di Guerra (Rehearsals for War) in 1998.
For what it’s worth, I’ve always been taught that a more precise definition of “nostalgia” would be “homesickness” rather than the English cognate “nostalgia”.
But anyhow, I have to say this about Mario Martone: Not a fan. His movies, for me, are big, lethargic snoozefests that are hardly ever worth the time and never make it to the USA anyway. But I’ll give Nostalgia a chance.
If you want to watch his award-winning L’Amore Molesto (Troubling Love), get it here, free, with ads.
It’s an adaptation of a novel by Elena Ferrante ("My Brilliant Friend") about a woman who travels home to Naples for her mother's funeral and it stars Licia Maglietta (Pane e Tulipani).
In more recent years, Marco Bellocchio debuted Il Traditore (The Traitor) at Cannes in 2019 and was awarded an honorary Palme D’Or in 2020.
FUN FACT: Seven of Paolo Sorrentino’s films debuted at Cannes, and in fact, he used to say he’d never return to Venice (he changed his mind when he presented The Young Pope.
Here’s a list of Italian movies that have won the Palme D’Or through history and where to find them in the USA, if possible.
PS…
Alice Rohrwacher won the Grand Prix for Le Meraviglie (The Wonders) in 2014.
Un bacione 💋,
Cheri
America’s Cheerleader For Italian Cinema