Venezia or Bust
Salve ragazzi,
I’m “Venezia or bust!” Does anybody ever even say that anymore? I’m constantly afraid that I am using stone-age expressions that younger people wouldn’t get. But I can’t help it - I like old-timey sayings.
“Or bust” originated during the California gold rush, and “bust” = “break,” so prospectors would get to California and make their fortune “or bust,” or at least keep trying until their wagons broke down. All I have to do is hope the airlines don’t cancel my flight, or there isn’t a big monkeypox outbreak - I am planning on being in Venice for the film festival for the first time in three years.
As I tell people when I’m there, “I’m not here for Tom Cruise. I’m here for Luigi Lo Cascio.” And this year, YAY, I really will be there for Luigi Lo Cascio! Gianni Amelio’s Il Signore delle Formiche will premiere in competition at Venice, and that stars Luigi with Elio Germano and Sara Serraiocco. Il Signore delle Formiche, or “the lord of the ants,” is a “based on a true story” about Aldo Braibanti, an Italian poet who was convicted and did time in prison after a complaint from his young partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray, was repealed in 1981.
I can also look forward to seeing Susanna Nicchiarelli’s ‘Chiara’, a biopic about Saint Clare of Assisi, starring Margherita Mazzucco (L’Amica Geniale). Aren’t you as happy as I am that little “Lenù’s” career is going so well? Margherita Mazzucco (Elena) and Gaia Girace (Lila) starred in the HBO adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novels since they were in middle school, and Margherita had never acted before.
…AND
Emanuele Crialese’s ‘L’Immensita’. It stars Penelope Cruz and Vincenzo Amato, and Deadline.com says: “Set in 1970’s Rome. The Borghetti family has just moved into one of the many freshly-built apartment blocks in the city. Despite the beautiful, sweeping views of the city from their top-floor apartment, the family is not as close as they once were. Clara (Cruz, who speaks Italian) and Felice (Vincenzo Amato) are no longer in love, but are unable to leave each other. Clara finds refuge from her loneliness in the shelter of her special relationships with her three children. The oldest, Adriana, an unknown child in their new neighborhood, deliberately presents as a boy to the neighborhood children, pushing the family’s bond towards breaking point.”
You know Emanuele Crialese from excellent films like Nuovomondo (The Golden Door) and Terraferma. I’ve been forever nagging you to watch Nuovomondo, but I hope you’ll have also watched Terraferma. It’s a remarkable account of residents of an island off Sicily that gets flooded with immigrants that arrive and need help but aren’t permitted by law to give it to them.
AND OF COURSE…
…Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Bones and All’, starring Timothée Chalamet! Oh man, I can’t wait to be there with all the fangirls screaming his name. 😄
There are more - hopefully many more - films that I’ll be able to attend premieres for, but I’ll let you know more about them later. Don’t worry; I’ll be talking about this stuff - pretty much until you won’t be able to stand me anymore. 😄
About the Venice Film Festival…
You should go! Don’t be intimidated; it’s incredibly easy to navigate, not oppressively expensive, and super duper exciting. I have watched movie premieres with big stars like Kristin Stewart, Natalie Portman, and Scarlett Johansson sitting LITERALLY right behind me. We were there to witness Jennifer Lawrence get booed and jeered out of the theater after the premiere of Mother! All you have to do is buy a ticket that is sometimes the price of a ticket at your neighborhood Cineplex and other times no more than the price of a Broadway show.
Here’s my number one most admired photo that I ever took at the Venice Film Festival.
And coming soon to a Film Festival, I WISH (Magari!) I could attend...
Variety’s Nick Vivarelli reports that the upcoming Locarno (Switzerland) Film Festival (August 3-13) is premiering two films that have already sold to distributors worldwide. He wrote: “Italy’s True Colours has sold Mario Martone’s Naples-set Cannes competition drama “Nostalgia” to Curzon Film for the U.K. and Ireland, among other new territories. At the Italian Screenings market event recently held in Lecce, Southern Italy, the Rome-based sales company also sealed fresh deals on several other films, including pre-sales on upcoming Locarno title Delta (starring Luigi Lo Cascio), which is a revenge drama with a contemporary Western vibe.”
Martone’s Nostalgia, which has been praised by Variety critic Guy Lodge as the prolific Italian auteur’s “most rewarding film in years,” stars Pierfrancesco Favino as the middle-aged Felice Lasco, who returns to the bustling port city after having lived in Egypt for 40 years. Once back, he is caught up in memories of a distant life spent in his hometown, as his criminal youth slowly catches up with him.
In Italian movie news, summer is usually a little slow, but this news makes me realize that we all have a lot to look forward to this fall and winter!
For some old-time horror fun…
Keep in mind that I was born in 1957 and grew up through the time when you had no choice - you watched whatever was on TV at the time. But I have fond memories of watching scary Italian movies that were terribly dubbed at, like, 4:00 pm on a rainy Saturday afternoon when there was nothing else to watch except fishing or bowling.
Innamorata Della Morte (In Love With Death) takes me right back to the Italian Giallo of my teenage years, but with one improvement - this more recently made one is subtitled, not dubbed. But wait, that’s not completely true. It’s in Italian, and there are subtitles, but the dialogue has definitely been dubbed. The voices have that weird vibe that always made me think the voice actors were the same ones in every movie. If someone could explain this to me, I would be eternally grateful.
It’s about two young sisters who disappear from a birthday party. The police are called, and the property is searched; when they are found, it’s clear that something terrible has happened to them. Eight years later, the girls are all grown up, and the weirdness continues. If you are in the mood for a movie that is “so bad it’s good,” this one’s for you. It’s so low-budget and campy that it’s almost a comedy.
Un bacione 💋,
Cheri
America’s Cheerleader For Italian Cinema