Italian Cinema Exposed Again at 2014 Open Roads Fest

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Monday, 02 June 2014 11:43

Written by Brad Balfour

Those Happy Years

Open Roads has served as the leading North American showcase of contemporary Italian cinema for the past 13 years. Organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center with Istituto Luce-Cinecittà-Filmitalia and in collaboration with New York’s Italian Cultural Institute — this diverse series takes place from June 6th - 12th, 2014. Screenings are scheduled at the Film Society's Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th Street).

This long running overview includes the latest work from established veterans (Gianni Amelio, Roberto Andò, Daniele Luchetti) and top award winners, as well as promising new talents from both the commercial and independent film world.

This year’s festival highlights the emergence of new works by Italian documentarians, and explores the trend towards rich and fascinating hybrids of documentaries and fiction, with more than a third of the films to be shown focused on the medium.

This year’s lineup explores the evolution of Italy’s political transformation spotlighted by the opening-night selection — Luchetti’s Those Happy Years. This charming, coming-of-age autobiographical tale tells of the director’s childhood as a budding filmmaker growing up in Rome during the 1970s — a particularly radical, transformative period in Italy. A revealing, sometimes humorous look at the period and its contradictions, this film highlights the past but looks at it with contemporary perspective.

Renowned TV host and political comedian Pierfrancesco Diliberto wrote, directed, and stars in The Mafia Only Kills in Summer, his feature debut. About a young boy and his obsession with the Mafia’s presence in his city, the film effectively blends and both an ironic and sentimental view of the past and Italy criminal class. The movie is alsostory of the boy’s obsession with a beautiful schoolmate who remains his love interest until adulthood. Set against a backdrop of some of Italy’s most tragic past criminal events, the film offers a striking look in the Italian mindset.

Gianfranco Rosi’s Sacro GRA -- the first documentary to win the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival — explores Rome’s 43.5-mile highway Grande Raccordo Anulare that encircles the city by focusing on absorbing, moving individual portraits that emerge from the areas drivers pass through but never see, to reveal a different side of the bustling city’s inhabitants. Though an interesting experiment, this sort-of travelogue is more visually compelling than narratively coherent.

Other documentaries include Vincenzo Marra’s Naples-set The Administrator, which looks at a building administrator’s dealings with his larger-than-life tenants, providing a tough-minded yet affectionate portrait of an Italy mired in crisis. Gianni Amelio’s Happy to Be Different is a moving, enlightening work of oral history of gay life in Italy from the fall of Fascism through the early 1980s.

Alberto Fasulo’s docudrama debut Tir won the top prize at the Rome Film Festival and follows a former teacher from Bosnia who takes a job driving a tractor trailer (“tir”) through Europe. Combining professional actors and real truck drivers, Fasulo has created a striking film about what life is really like on the road—one that simulates a documentary.

Politics and social issues facing Italians also play a role in Gianni Amelio’s A Lonely Hero, starring comedian and actor Antonio Albanese, whose character learns to reinvent and adapt himself to any job as a professional substitute (train conductor, fishmonger, tailor, etc.), as a result of the country’s unstable unemployment crisis.

Roberto Andò’s Long Live Freedom is a scathing critique of Italian political dynamics and stars Toni Servillo as a seasoned politician navigating the decline of his party by fleeing to Paris and hiding out at the home of his ex-girlfriend.

Edoardo Winspeare’s Quiet Bliss follows three generations of women who seek refuge in their family’s olive grove after their small textile business collapses and their efforts to revive their lives in the wake of economic catastrophe and the recession.

Giovanni Veronesi’s The Fifth Wheel is a humorous tale that takes audiences on a journey of a half-century of pivotal political events through the eyes of actor and screenwriter Ernesto Fioretti.

During the initial weekend there will be in-person appearances of directors, actors and producers at many of the screenings.

For more information, go to: filmlinc.com/openroads.

Open Roads: New Italian Cinema
June 6th - 12th, 2014

Film Society of Lincoln Center

Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St.
(Btwn Broadway & Amsterdam Av.)
New York, NY 10023

Rainer Werner Fassbinder - The Romantic Anarchist Enjoys A Retrospective (Pt. 1)

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 14 May 2014 13:49

Written by Jack Angstreich

From May 16th through June 1st, 2014, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will be running the first part of a major retrospective of the late great German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945–1982), including all of his theatrical features as well as many of his television films, along with several films influenced by the director. The second half of the series will begin in November 2014. 

• Friday, May 16th
• Saturday, May 17th
• Monday, May 19th

25 Must See Films of SIFF 2014

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 08 May 2014 18:14

Written by Matt Oakes

For its 40th, the Seattle International Film Festival is again raising the bar on itself, this year offering a whopping 435 films including 198 feature films, 60 documentaries, and 163 short films from 83 countries. Of those, 44 are world premieres, 29 North American premieres and 13 US premieres. All this amongst a slew of festival favorites from this year and last. Let's just say that the odds of seeing them all just got that much slimmer. 

Kicking the festival off is Oscar-winner (12 Years a Slave) John Ridley's Jimi: All is By My Side, a zero frills biopic that chronicles the afro-ed classic rocker's year in Britain leading up to his iconic Woodstock performance. And all by his side is 12 Years alum Chiwetel Ejiofor who will be in attendance May 19 (6 PM @ The Egyptian Theater) to talk about his new film Half of a Yellow Sun, an African-produced historical drama about Nigerian's civil war through the 60s. Ejiofor will also take place in a Q&A with an audience eager to speak with the Academy Award nominee that same evening.

The festival will close June 8 at the glorious Cinerama with The One I Love starring Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Mark Duplass (The League) which saw strong reviews opening at Sundance and is said to mix elements of modern romance with "Twilight Zone" twists and turns. Add it to the ever growing "To See" List.

But likely the most exciting and anticipated film of the festival will be found in SIFF's Centerpiece Gala in Richard Linklater's Boyhood on Saturday, May 31 @ 5 PM. I had the great fortune of being amongst the first audience to see this at Sundance and it did nothing short of blow me away. Though I don't want to be greedy and steal away the seats of those yet uninitiated to Boyhood, I look forward to experiencing it again and may not be able to resist a second viewing.

Since it's all but impossible to see everything at SIFF, I have a list of 25 must sees that should put you on the right track for this year's festivities.

The 25 Must Sees of SIFF 2014

Boyhood
Obviously Boyhood is gonna be on the list. I absolutely loved it and could wax said love over this page all day but I'll spare the gushing and just tell you that of the 80+ films I've reviewed this year (!!!) this is the only to have yet received an A+. Sundance review here.

Mood Indigo
Michael Gondry returns to the realm of the weird, this time in his native French language, in what should be equal measures charming, bittersweet, and esoteric. The incredibly alluring Audrey Tatou is Chloe, who becomes wrapped up with a quirky inventor, even though she's dying (because she has flowers growing in her lungs.)

Grand Central
Blue is the Warmest Color star Lea Seydoux puts in her second turn against A Prophet's Tahar Rahim in this French/Austrian production about a risky love affair set at the nuclear power plant where they both work.

Venus in Furs
Carnage wasn't exactly the prodigal return for Roman Polanski we might have hoped for but it was anything but bad. Polanski continues his recent tradition of adapting lauded plays with Venus in Furs which stars Mathiew Amalric (Quantum of Solace) and is filmed in Polanski's native French. Venus focuses on a playwright's battle with his creative side.

The Grand Seduction
Taylor Kitsch plays a doctor, Brendan Gleeson a fisherman in this Canadian comedy that looks to play fast and loose with the deadpan side of things. Seeing Kitsch and Gleeson (much anticipated) return to comedy oughta be worth the price of admission alone.

Wetlands
A brilliantly told German satirical sexploitation/black comedy based on the popular and controversial German novel from Charlotte Roche. Wetlands is ooey, gooey fun that'll make the hardest of stomachs churn every now and again but fully worth it for anyone up to the task. Sundance review here.

Lucky Them
What better to symbolize Seattle than the Sub Pop music scene? Megan Griffiths, who directed last year's critically acclaimed Eden, takes on an entirely different subject right here in the rainy city and feel aided by performances from Toni Collette, Thomas Haden Church, and Oliver Platt.

They Came Together
Although the trailer shown seems to suggest a movie so deep in meta that it didn't know which way was up, They Came Together found loads of fans when it played at this year's Sundance. The ingredients alone - Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, David Waine (director of Wet Hot American Summer) in a doubly farcical, heavily tongue-in-cheek rom-com - seems primed for success.

How to Train Your Dragon 2
This is a tricky one to really anticipate as sequels are as much of a toss up as one can plan for but if the quality boast of Toy Story 3 and the wild success of the first How to Train Your Dragon are any indication, this could be the best widely-released animated feature of the year.

Time Lapse
Bradley King's directoral debut follows a group of three friends who discover a camera that shows events in the future, and looks to combine elements of sci-fi and horror into a thrilling narrative ride. Set for it's North American premiere at SIFF, Time Lapse looks more promising than most within its field.

The Skeleton Twins
SNL favorites Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig join Bellingham director Craig Johnson to tell his droll comedy about a pair of twins who cheat death and reunite to vent about it.

Happy Christmas
Joe Swanberg returns to SIFF to present yet another unscripted, inescapably 21st-century dramedy this time starring Girls creator and star Lena Dunham. I was a big fan of Drinking Buddies and hope this can replicate a similar sense of realism in its relationship.

Difret
SIFF programmer Dustin Kaspar gave the insider tip on the Africa Film segment, calling Difret the early "best of fest." A 14-year old Aberash guns down an attacker that leads into a long court trial that bleeds into an ethical tribunal on Ethiopia's warped marriage traditions that smile on kidnapping and rape. All based on a true story.

Obvious Child
Jenny Slate might be the new face of NYC faux-chic after the string of success Obvious Child has seen. Honest, hilarious and horny, this tale of growing up in a modern age has been winning support like Daenerys liberating Slavery's Bay.

Calvary
If you leave the theater after Calvary dried-eyed, you must be at least part Fembot. With a monstrous performance from Brendan Gleeson, stunning cinematography and a decidedly more mature turn for director John Michael McDonagh, Calvary is a must see. Sundance review here.

Firestorm
This 2013 Hong Kong feature was nominated for a slew of native film awards including Best Action Choreography, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best New Director and with my penchant for violent Asian cinema, I have trouble believing that this won't be a surprise victory for SIFF.

Frank
Although the stars seem alligned to keep me from this film (I stood in line for it at Sundance and SXSW and was denied) the fact that it's coming to Seattle seems to either be mocking me or setting up a third times a charm situation. The fact that I already own a Frank mask pretty much necessitates me seeing this strange musical drama starring Michael Fassbender enclosed in a giant head.

Leading Lady
One of SIFF's world premieres and the return of Fanie Fourie's Lobola (SIFF's 2013 Best Film winner) director, Leading Lady sees a struggling actress move to South Africa to prepare for the role of a lifetime but ends up finding so much more.

Creep
Mark Duplass returns again, this time as a twisted stalker. He chews up the scenery like never before and is an absolute joy to watch. First time director Patrick Brice has made the found footage flick his own, crafting an unnerving thriller that's frightening and cleverly twisty to boot! SXSW review here.

The Internet's Own Boy
I asked someone at Sundance what their favorite film at the fest was and they pointed out this unassuming documentary. Following the life of Aaron Swartz, who laid the groundwork for RSS feeds and all but invented Reddit before killing himself at age 26, The Internet's Own Boy appears heartbreaking and need to know.

In Order of Disappearance
Stellan Skarsgard plays a snowplow driver who's son is brutally murdered, leading to a chilling dark comedy that marries bloody revenge to belly laughs in this twisted fantasy said to be a tonal cousin to Fargo.

To Kill a Man
You know when you're a critic when you look at a movie's description and "Grand Jury prize-winning," "vigilantism" and "Chile/France" pop out to you like solid gold. In sum: a man weighs the benefits and consequences of taking revenge.

Cannibal
The chilling promo image alone gets me thinking Psycho and added to the fact that this production is in part Spanish, Romanian, Russian and French, gives it the taste of "something new." Hopefully it brings the scares to the table in a SIFF surprisingly short on them.

Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
There must be something in the water making us all think Fargo as the cult Coen classic seems to be at an all-time high in terms of its popularity and influence. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter sees an outcast Japanese misanthrope travel to Minnesota to seek out Steve Buschemi's abandoned satchel stuffed with cold, hard ransom cash. It's a delightfully unorthodox romp, nothing short of epic. SXSW review here.

Fight Church
A documentary about a group of church goers who beat each other up to prove their devotion to God? Sign me up.

Surely there are many, many (many) more and there's a good chance that some on the above list may end up stinking and sinking but we're still mostly doing guesswork at this stage. However from word of mouth, early reviews and first hand experience, you have a good chance of catching some great material if you follow any above recommendations.

Check out the trailer for SIFF's 40th anniversary here.