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Film Society of Lincoln Center Announces Additional Screenings
By: Caryn Robbins Jun. 06, 2013
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced additional screenings for Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, which will take place from June 6-12, 2013. This year's lineup includes impressive debuts, a return of favorite filmmakers as well as several award winners. Due to popular demand, screenings have been added for: THE DISCOVERY AT DAWN, DORMANT BEAUTY, EVERY BLESSED DAY, THE FIRST MAN, I TRAVEL ALONE, IT WAS THE SON, NINA, and PRETTY BUTTERFLIES.
Director: Susanna Nicchiarelli
Rome, 1981: Professor Mario Tessandori is shot in the university courtyard and dies in the arms of Lucio Astengo, his friend and colleague. A few weeks later, Astengo vanishes mysteriously. Flash forward to 2011. Caterina and Barbara Astengo, 6 and 12 when their father passed away, put their family cottage by the sea up for sale, which has long since been abandoned. The house is filled with memories of a childhood interrupted by the father's disappearance, a broken family that never reassembled. In one corner, there's an old phone still attached to the outlet. Caterina picks it up and discovers that, inexplicably, it works, even though the line is disconnected. Playfully, she dials her home number from 30 years earlier and hears the voice of a child responding on the other end. In shock, she realizes that she is speaking to her 12-year-old self, a week before the death of her father. She's been given a second chance, if not to save him then at least to uncover the truth. Wonderful performances by Margarita Buy and Susanna Nicchiarelli herself as Caterina's sister.
Special appearance by Susanna Niccharelli at June 8 screening.
Saturday, June 8, 1:30pm (Q&A)
Monday, June 10, 4:00pm
ADDED SCREENING: Saturday, June 8 at 2:30pm
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Isabelle Huppert and Toni Servillo star in Italian master Bellocchio's compelling, somber ensemble drama in which characters in three interrelated storylines struggle with the moral impasses and compromises of modern life. The film's point of departure is a real-life, right-to-euthanasia case that became a national controversy in 2008, culminating in a Parliamentary vote. (The film's title might more precisely be "Sleeping Beauty.") Against this backdrop, Bellocchio attempts to encompass the differing values and outlook of young and old, reactionary and idealistic: that of a senator (Servillo) with a passionately pro-life daughter (Alba Rohrwacher) preparing to cast his vote on the issue; a retired actress and devout Catholic (Huppert) who tends to her own comatose daughter; and a troubled young doctor (Bellocchio's brother, Pier Giorgio) who tries to help a suicidal methadone addict (Maya Sansa). Bellocchio takes an X-ray of the lingering malaise of late-Berlusconi Italy and its frightening intellectual and psychological confusion-and certainly touches a nerve.
Special appearance by Marco Bellocchio at June 6 screening.
Thursday, June 6, 9:15pm
Friday, June 7, 1:15pm
ADDED SCREENING: Friday, June 7 at 4:00pm EVERY BLESSED DAY (TUTTI I SANTI GIORNI) (2012) 102m
Director: Paolo Virzi
Virzi confirms his interest in the young generation with this small and intimate romantic comedy about Antonia and Guido, a strangely matched couple madly in love. Though the film takes its time to build nuanced, well-grounded characters and tells the story of their painful ordeal, it is fast paced and very funny. Antonia is a strong willed, volatile musician from Sicily (and responsible for the film's soundtrack); Guido is a bookish, gentle ancient language expert from Toscana. They want to have a child and are willing to try almost anything, including a treatment that involves chanting barefoot on the snow and a visit to the pope's gynecologist. Virzi is one of the most personal voices in new Italian cinema, having infused his comedies with not-so funny real life issues, gentle irony and endearing characters. Based on La generazione by Simone Lenzi with original music by Thony (who plays Antonia).
Special appearance by actor Luca Marinelli
Thursday, June 6, 6:30pm, Walter Reade Theater (Q&A)
Tuesday, June 11, 9:00pm
ADDED SCREENING: Tuesday, June 11 at 9:15pm THE FIRST MAN (2011) 100m
Director: Gianni Amelio
This adaptation of Albert Camus' last novel, left unfinished by the Nobel Prize winner when he died in a car accident at 46, is a fictionalized autobiography: part childhood memoir set in 1920s Algeria, part epic narrative of a country on the eve of revolution in the 1950s as it struggles for independence from France. The movement back and forth in time helps explain the protagonist's conflicted political position in the incipient revolution. Beautiful cinematography by Yves Cape (Ma vie en rose) effectively captures the contrast between the glowing warmth of the sun and sea of Camus's childhood, as described in his writing, and the more subdued tones portraying the intellectual he becomes.
Sunday, June 9, 8:30pm
ADDED SCREENING: Sunday, June 9 at 8:45pm
Wednesday, June 12, 4:00pm I TRAVEL ALONE (VIAGGIO SOLA) (2013) 85m
Director: Maria Sole Tognazzi
Single and middle-aged, beautiful Irene (Margarita Buy) is wholly devoted to her job as an inspector of luxury hotels. Constantly on the road, she indulges in expensive pleasures at impeccable resorts, but always incognito and alone, soon escaping to the next exotic destination with her checklist and laptop in tow. When her best friend and ex Andrea (Stefano Accorsi), who has always been a source of emotional support, suddenly becomes unavailable, Irene is thrown into a deep existential crisis. "Luxury is a form of deceit," she is told by a fellow traveller in the fog of a steam room, and thus begins Irene's quest to bring more meaning into her life.
Special appearance by Maria Sole Tognazzi at June 8 screening.
Saturday, June 8, 6:15pm (Q&A)
ADDED SCREENING: Tuesday, June 11, 6:45pm
Wednesday, June 12, 9:00pm IT WAS THE SON (E' STATO IL FIGLIO) (2012) 90m
Director: Daniele Cipri
In his first film without long time partner Maresca, Daniele Cipri crafts with characteristic acid humor a multilayered tale about a Sicilian family tragedy populated with grotesque characters. The film, based on a novel by Roberto Alajmo, is a story within a story narrated by Old Busu, about the Ciraulo family boy who killed his father in a fight over a scratched car. Nicola Ciraulo (in a wonderful performance by Toni Servillo) makes a living by scavenging for old boat parts with son and father while his mother, wife and adored daughter Serenella take care of the home in a grim housing project. A tragic accident resulting from a vendetta offers them the opportunity to make lots of money fast. What ensues is an unforgiving satire of Palermo lifestyle bordering on the absurd and involving a Mercedes-Benz blessed with holy water.
Special appearance by Daniele Cipri at June 7, 6:00pm screening.
Friday, June 7, 6:00pm (Q&A)
ADDED SCREENING: Friday, June 7, 6:30pm
Monday, June 11, 4:30pm NINA (2012) 78m
Director: Elisa Fuksas
Over the course of a hot summer in a near-empty suburb of Rome, a young woman in her 20s (Diane Fleri, My Brother Is an Only Child and I Am Love) indulges in a period of solitude and inner contemplation. She shuttles around in her yellow vespa, giving singing lessons, dog sitting and learning the art of Chinese calligraphy from an aged professor whose technical instructions are also meant to be (much needed) spiritual guidance. Her life's lack of direction is contained within impeccably composed and gorgeously shot portrayals of the district's architectural gems-large, modernist and Neoclassical buildings. This is no coincidence, as 31-year-old Fuksas is the daughter of two leading Italian architects and studied architecture herself before becoming a filmmaker. Modernist architecture and precise, clean compositions are the perfect backdrop to emphasize the sensuality imparted by Nina's enjoyment of sensorial pleasures in the ever-present heat: ice cream, the sound of crickets, poetry, and the breeze as she bikes through desolate locations that are like self-contained little worlds, all of which imperceptibly help move her onto the next stage in her life.
Special appearance by Elisa Fuksas at June 8, 4pm and June 10 screenings.
Saturday, June 8, 4:00pm (Q&A)
ADDED SCREENING: Saturday, June 8, 4:30pm
Sunday, June 10, 6:30pm PRETTY BUTTERFLIES (BELLAS MARIPOSAS) (2012) 104m
Director: Salvatore Mereu
All 12-year-old Caterina wants is to escape the house and dangerous neighborhood where she lives with her numerous siblings and tyrannical father in the slums of the Sardinian capital, Cagliari. She doesn't want to end up like her sister Mandarina, pregnant at 13. We learn all of this from her as she candidly narrates her own story, with humor and startling directness, often looking into the camera. When she learns that her brother Tonio wants to kill Gigi, a neighbor with whom she's in love, she sets out to stop him. A sense of urgency pervades her narration, as the camera travels in semi-documentary style through the almost deserted margins of Cagliari, following Caterina and her best friend Luna as they visit the beach, eat ice cream and joke around on the day the murder is supposed to happen. Based on a short story by Sardinian author Sergio Atzeni.
Special appearance by Salvatore Mereu at June 9 6:00pm screening.
Sunday, June 9, 6:00pm (Q&A)
ADDED SCREENING: Sunday, June 9, 6:30pm
Monday, June 11, 6:30pm
Public Screening Schedule Screening Venues:
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam
Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam
* Added screenings in RED Thursday, June 6
6:30PM Every Blessed Day (102m) (WRT)
9:15PM Dormant Beauty (115m) (WRT) Friday, June 7
1:15PM Dormant Beauty (115m)
3:45PM Handmade Cinema (52m) with The Rescue (22m)
4:00PM Dormant Beauty (115m)
6:00PM It Was the Son (90m)
6:30PM It Was the Son (90m)
8:30PM Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy (129m) Saturday, June 8
1:30PM The Discovery at Dawn (95m)
2:30PM The Discovery at Dawn (95m)
4:00PM Nina (78m)
4:30PM Nina (78m)
6:15PM I Travel Alone (85m)
8:45PM The Face of Another (83m) Sunday, June 9
1:15PM The Face of Another (83m)
3:45PM Handmade Cinema (52m) with The Rescue (22m)
6:00PM Pretty Butterflies (104m)
6:30PM Pretty Butterflies (104m)
8:30PM The First Man (90m)
8:45PM The First Man (90m) Monday, June 10
4:00PM The Discovery at Dawn (95m)
6:30PM Nina (78m) (Gilman) Tuesday, June 11
4:30PM It Was the Son (90m)
6:30PM Pretty Butterflies (104m)
6:45PM I Travel Alone (85m)
9:00PM Every Blessed Day (102m)
9:15PM Every Blessed Day (102m) Wednesday, June 12
4:00PM The First Man (100m)
6:15PM Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy (129m)
9:00PM I Travel Alone (85m)
ISTITUTO LUCE CINECITTÀ
Istituto Luce Cinecittà is the state owned company dedicated to Italian audiovisual production, whose work includes promoting contemporary Italian cinema worldwide, collaborating with all of the major film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Shanghai, Tokyo, Locarno, New York, London by organizing the Italian selections to the presence of the films and artists in the various festivals. In collaboration with the major national and International Cultural Institutes, Istituto Luce Cinecittà is also responsible for organizing numerous events aimed to promote Italian productions in countries with strong commercial potential such as Japan, the United States of America, Great Britain, Spain and Central Europe. Istituto Luce Cinecittà's heritage is the historic Archive, an enormous film and photographic archive both of its own productions, and private collections and acquisitions from a variety of sources, which includes a film library which contains 3.000 titles of the most significant Italian film productions from classic to contemporary cinema subtitled in various foreign languages. Istituto Luce Cinecittà is also involved in the distribution and promotion of Italian productions, and guarantees first and second features are given an adequate release on the National market. Lastly Istituto Luce Cinecittà is responsible for editing a daily news magazine on-line CINECITTÀ NEWS (news.cinecitta.com), which delivers the latest breaking news on the principal activities involving Italian cinema as well as its developing legislative and institutional aspects. FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize and support new directors, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility and understanding of film. Among its yearly programming of film festivals, film series and special events, the Film Society presents two film festivals in particular that annually attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, which just celebrated its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award-now named "The Chaplin Award"-to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Sidney Poitier. FSLC presents its year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational and transmedia programs and specialty film releases at the famous Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stonehenge Partners, Stella Artois, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.
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