The Rome Film Festival, one of the major Italian festivals dedicated to films (and by now also to TV series), kicks off on October 16, in its nineteenth edition, flanked as always by the parallel section Alice nella Città, which deals specifically with young talent and newcomers.
Both the Festa and Alice both have a competition and other non-competitive sections, and they open in pre-opening on Oct. 14 with the Italian premiere of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, in the presence of Coppola himself, who will then also give a masterclass on the 15th.
The Festival awards lifetime achievement prizes to Viggo Mortensen and Johnny Depp (pictured), who will be present with their respective films as directors, the western The Dead don’t Hurt (already released in the U.S.) and Modì, which recounts a moment in the life of artist Amedeo Modigliani, played by Riccardo Scamarcio.
Here are the (many) Italian films to watch out for, starting with the competition at the Festa.
We start with L’albero, Sara Petraglia’s debut feature starring Tecla Insolia, in its world premiere, about a 20-year-old woman of today in search of utopias; then there’s Berlinguer la grande ambizione, by Andrea Segre, starring Elio Germano and Elena Radonicich, a biopic of the Italian politician in the years of the historic compromise, also in its world premiere; and again L’isola degli idealisti by Elisabetta Sgarbi, from Giorgio Scerbanenco’s 1942 novel that was lost and was published only in 2018 by Nave di Teseo, starring Tommaso Ragno and (again) Elena Radonicich, while Luca Barbareschi is directing Paradiso in vendita a curious film set on the fictional Sicilian island of Fenicusa (but actually filmed on the Aeolian island of Filicudi) that the bankrupt Italian government decides to sell to the French.
In the non-competitive sections, I point out La casa degli sguardi, by and starring Luca Zingaretti; Eterno visionario by Michele Placido, with Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, which recounts the family life of Luigi Pirandello; Gabriele Muccino’s new film, Fino alla fine, set in Palermo over 24 hours; Hey Joe by Claudio Giovannesi starring James Franco; Il treno dei bambini by Cristina Comencini; and U.S. Palmese by theManetti Bros. with Rocco Papaleo.
Plus the first feature film by the artistic duo Masbedo set in Stromboli, already the focus of some of their works and video installations; Ciao bambino by Edgardo Pistone, a borderline story between adolescence and adult life in Naples; Natale fuori orario, a collaboration between director Gianfranco Firriolo and singer-songwriter Vinicio Capossela somewhere between road movie and concert film; Nottefonda by Giuseppe Miale di Mauro with Francesco Di Leva, again set in Naples; Waiting for King Liar, directed and starring Alessandro Preziosi; and Duse The Greatest by Sonia Bergamasco.
TV series include, in addition to the final season of L’amica geniale (already aired in the U.S. on HBO); Avetrana – Qui non è Hollywood, by Pippo Mezzapesa, about the Avetrana crime; and Miss Fallaci by Luca Ribuoli, about the young Oriana Fallaci played by Miriam Leone.
If that were not enough, there is still the very rich program of Alice nella Città, whose Panorama Italia section is opened by No More Trouble by Tommaso Romanelli, son of the sailor Andrea who died at sea 25 years ago, while among the special screenings I would like to point out 100 di questi anni, which celebrates the 100th birthday of the Archivio Luce with an episodic film directed by Michela Andreozzi, Max Bruno, Claudia Gerini, Edoardo Leo, Francesca Mazzoleni, Rocco Papaleo and Sydney Sibilia, and Margherita Ferri’s Il ragazzo dai pantaloni rosa, the story of Andrea Spezzacatena, the 15-year-old bullying victim who died by suicide.
The series section premieres the second season of the sensational The Bad Guy; Adoration, based on Alice Urciolo’s novel starring the beautiful Noemi Magagnini; and the new season of Lidia Poet’s Law starring Matilda De Angelis.
Finally, among the special events, not to be missed is the presentation of the crazy photographic volume Italian Party by “paparazzi” Letizia Giambalvo and Vitaliano Napolitano (89Books).
Article The Rome Film Festival is about to kick off, here’s our guide comes from TheNewyorker.
