The 2008 New Italian Cinema Events Film Festival New York edition will take place from November 13 to 17 at the Tribeca Cinemas.
The traveling festival is dedicated to presenting first films by Italian directors to an international audience. The festival will open with MAR NERO (“BLACK SEA”) in the presence of first-time director Federico Bondi, whose protagonist Ilaria Occhini won the award for Best Actress at the International Film Festival Locarno.
One of this year’s special events is the North American premiere of “Puccini and the Girl” by Paolo Benvenuti, one of Italy’s most important independent film makers. Benvenuti will be present at the screening on November 16 at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.
Here are the films for this year’s festival.
BLACK SEA (MAR NERO) Director: Federico Bondi, Italy 2008.
Gemma (Ilaria Occhini) -an elderly widow- and Angela (Dorotheea Petre), her caretaker -a young Romanian recently arrived in Italy- live together in the same house. In their loneliness, they unconsciously search for one another until slowly, day after day, they establish a kind of friendship. But suddenly a violent, unexpected and tragic event happens: Angela’s husband (Vlad Ivanov), still living in Romania, has mysteriously disappeared. Angela would like to leave immediately to look for him but Gemma, with the selfishness typical of her age, doesn’t want to let her to go and be alone again. But Gemma is also a woman with a tender heart and something incredible happens: Gemma and Angela leave for Romania together. They find themselves at the delta of the river Danube, each looking for her own truth.
THE GIRL BY THE LAKE (LA RAGAZZA DEL LAGO) Director: Andrea Molaioli, Italy 2007.
A small village in northern Italy, 8am. Six-year-old Marta (Nicole Perrone), is walking home, having slept at her aunt’s house. A van pulls up: Mario (Franco Ravera), a mentally challenged local young man, convinces her to follow him to his farm. When her mother doesn’t see her come back, she calls for help. Inspector Sanzio (Toni Servillo) is an experienced policeman who recently moved to this remote area. A younger colleague Siboldi (Fausto Maria Scialappa), born in the valleys, becomes his guide to get to know the family ties and relationships of the small community. The two of them, accompanied by Alfredo (Nello Mascia), Sanzio’s loyal colleague since his time in homicide, will have to stay in town because another crime is about to be committed; a crime probably connected to one of the families in the village, born from a sentimental or emotional tie. Everyone in town could be the potential killer.
DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME JOHNNY! (LASCIA PERDERE, JOHNNY!)
Director: Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Italy 2007.
Caserta, Southern Italy, in 1976. In order to avoid being drafted, Faustino “Johnny” Ciaramella (Antimino Merolillo), fresh out of school, has to prove he is employed as a guitarist, and is the sole support of his widowed mother (Lina Sastri). But coaxing a contract out of slippery music manager Raffaele Nigro (Ernesto Mahieux) is proving difficult. Faustino plays for a hodgepodge outfit led by alcoholic Mimmo Falasco (Toni Servillo); but suddenly the summer tour comes to an end at Roccamorfina… When faded ’60s bandleader Augusto Riverberi (FabrizioBentivoglio) comes to town, Raffaele makes Faustino the maestro’s personal assistant. A little hustling by Raffaele gets Riverberi & Co. a decent gig, so they hire an amateur crooner renamed Jerry Como (Peppe Servillo) and the local beautician Annamaria (Valeria Golino). But Raffaele absconds with the box office, Riverberi returns to Milan, and Faustino is without a contract once more…
LESSONS IN CHOCOLATE (LEZIONI DI CIOCCOLATO), Director: Claudio Cupellini.
Mattia (Luca Argentero), an ambitious and ruthless building contractor, is forced to accept an unusual by the construction site accident of one of his illegal workers, Kamal (Hassani Shapi). To prevent Kamal from pressing charges, Mattia agrees to take Kamal’s place in an advanced course for chocolate pastry makers. Together with 6 other amateur foodie chocolate makers who are more skilled and experienced than him, he has to invent new chocolate recipes under the direction of a Master in Chocolate Art. For the inexperienced Mattia, who creates one disaster after another, this is the beginning of a nightmare, but also a voyage of discovery of an unexpected side of himself. The charming and slightly offbeat Cecilia (Violante Placido) helps him to uncover secrets of chocolate and of himself
A NIGHT (UNA NOTTE), Director: Toni D’Angelo, Italy 2007.
Four friends, Salvatore (Salvatore Sansone), Annamaria (Stefania Troise), Alfonso (Alfonso Postiglione) and Riccardo (Riccardo Zinna), are forty year-olds from a middle-class background; they are all originally from Naples but their jobs require them to live elsewhere. They return to their native city for the funeral of their closest friend, Antonio. After the wake, they decide to have dinner together. Talking about their lives, they share their memories and experiences. Taking stock of each other’s lives lasts throughout the night. A taxi driver, Raffaele (Nino D’Angelo), who drives them around for the rest of the night acts as a sort of Neapolitan Charon: he takes these lost souls through the maze of the city, and, as the humble man he is, teaches them something about life.
COVER BOY – The Last Revolution (COVER BOY – L’ultima rivoluzione), Director: Carmine Amoroso, Italy 2007.
Ioan (Eduard Gabia) is an illegal Romanian immigrant who has come to Rome seeking a better future. Michele (Luca Lionello) is a Roman fortysomething who lives on precarious jobs. They meet, make friends and Ioan accepts Michele’s invitation to share his room with him for 8 euros a day. Together they live through a number of experiences on the very margin of the city, enduring the vexations of a terrible landlady. The background of the story is a troubled Western world torn by the fall of the Communist ideology on one side and the Myth of Capitalism on the other. A capitalism whose vital criteria have become competition and the worsening and deepening of social diversities. Their strong friendship helps them to help one another, even if the compromises they have to make deeply affects their lives.
THE REST OF THE NIGHT (IL RESTO DELLA NOTTE), Director: Francesco Munzi, Italy 2008.
Silvana (Sandra Ceccarelli), the depressed wife of a provincial industrialist, persuades herself that Maria (Laura Vasiliu), their young Romanian maid, is responsible for the disappearance of some valuable objects. Without any proof, Silvana decides to fire Maria without notice. After desperately wandering around, Maria finds shelter with her former boyfriend, Ionut (Costantin Lupescu). The young man has just been released from prison and now shares a squalid apartment on the outskirts with his younger teenaged brother, Igor. The long-extinguished passion between Marie and Ionut flares up again. Soon they realize the family dynamics have changed. Victor (Victor Cosma) is suspicious of Maria and believes she will endanger his brother’s happiness. Meanwhile, Ionut has started to hang out with Marco Rancalli (Stefano Cassetti), a young cocaine addict with a difficult past. This gang of dropouts decides to target the industrialist’s family and events take a tragic turn