Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” and Gabriele Mainetti’s “Freaks Out” lead the pack at the David di Donatello Awards this year with 16 nominations each.
Here’s the complete list of nominees:
Picture
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore
“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone
Director
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore
“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone
Debut Director
“The Bad Poet,” Gianluca Jodice
“Maternal,” Maura Delpero
“Small Body,” Laura Samani
“Re Granchio” (The Legend of King Crab), Alessio Rigo De Righi, Matteo Zoppis
“Una Femmina” (The Code of Silence), Francesco Constabile
Producer
“A Chiara,” Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Jonas Carpignano (Stayblack Productions) — Rai Cinema
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Carlo Cresto...
Here’s the complete list of nominees:
Picture
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore
“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone
Director
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore
“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone
Debut Director
“The Bad Poet,” Gianluca Jodice
“Maternal,” Maura Delpero
“Small Body,” Laura Samani
“Re Granchio” (The Legend of King Crab), Alessio Rigo De Righi, Matteo Zoppis
“Una Femmina” (The Code of Silence), Francesco Constabile
Producer
“A Chiara,” Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Jonas Carpignano (Stayblack Productions) — Rai Cinema
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Carlo Cresto...
- 4/30/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani directed films together from the early 1950s until Vittorio died in 2018, leaving his now 90-year-old brother to carry on alone. Leonora Addio, the second film Paolo has made without Vittorio, is not only dedicated to him but picks up many of the themes that ran through their earlier work, including their enthusiasm for theater in general and the writings of Nobel laureate Luigi Pirandello in particular. The Berlin Film Festival competition entry looks and sounds sumptuous, but its two stories — both of which raise questions about what the living owe the dead — are disappointingly slight.
Pirandello wrote novels and poetry, but he was most famous as a playwright fond of theatrical trickery; today, his best-known play is Six Characters in Search of an Author. Accordingly, Leonora Addio is filmed and...
Pirandello wrote novels and poetry, but he was most famous as a playwright fond of theatrical trickery; today, his best-known play is Six Characters in Search of an Author. Accordingly, Leonora Addio is filmed and...
- 2/17/2022
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
A lopsided diptych that welds an intimate travelogue through Italian cinema and history to a rather shaky bit of literary adaptation, Paolo Taviani’s “Leonora Addio” is, in theory, a valentine to Sicilian poet and dramaturge Luigi Pirandello, and in practice an extended homage to the filmmaker’s brother, Vittorio. But then, given the brothers’ seven-decade partnership, which brought them a Palme d’Or, a Golden Bear, and a lifetime achievement Lion in Venice (among several other glories), and only came to a close upon Vittorio’s death in 2018, how can the 90-year-old Paolo Taviani’s first solo effort be anything else?
And so, well after his opening dedication “To my brother Vittorio,” Taviani never stops finding new ways to evoke his loss, just as the film proper never stops reinventing itself. A travelogue not only across land but also through moods and styles and diverse film forms,
Uniting the...
And so, well after his opening dedication “To my brother Vittorio,” Taviani never stops finding new ways to evoke his loss, just as the film proper never stops reinventing itself. A travelogue not only across land but also through moods and styles and diverse film forms,
Uniting the...
- 2/16/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
It’s no spoiler to say that Luigi Pirandello dies nine minutes into “Leonora addio.” This alternately playful and lugubrious work of reflection isn’t really about the controversial Italian writer’s life at all, but rather his legacy, and in a less literal yet ineluctable sense, that of film directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.
Over the course of half a century, the two cinematic siblings made movies together — including 1985’s “Kaos,” an omnibus-style collection of five Pirandello stories — bookending their career together by winning top prizes at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals. And then, in 2018, Vittorio died.
“Leonora addio” marks Paolo’s first solo feature. There’s almost no way not to read the film as a farewell by one sibling to another, or an even larger-aperture reflection on what becomes of an artist and his art after his passing — more relevant now than ever, with monuments being...
Over the course of half a century, the two cinematic siblings made movies together — including 1985’s “Kaos,” an omnibus-style collection of five Pirandello stories — bookending their career together by winning top prizes at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals. And then, in 2018, Vittorio died.
“Leonora addio” marks Paolo’s first solo feature. There’s almost no way not to read the film as a farewell by one sibling to another, or an even larger-aperture reflection on what becomes of an artist and his art after his passing — more relevant now than ever, with monuments being...
- 2/15/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Italy’s robust 2022 Berlinale representation of a half-dozen titles runs the gamut from the latest works by venerable veterans Paolo Taviani and Dario Argento to pics by fresh new Cinema Italiano voices including Chiara Bellosi, whose first film, “Ordinary Justice,” launched from Berlin in 2020.
Taviani, who is 91, is returning to Berlin but alone this time — his filmmaker brother, Vittorio, with whom he won a Golden Bear in 2012 for “Caesar Must Die,” passed away in 2018 — in competition with surreal drama “Leonora Addio,” inspired by a short story by Italian playwright and author Luigi Pirandello.
Argento, who set his 1977 chiller “Suspiria” in Germany, will be at the Berlinale for the first time as a director with Rome-set suspenser “Dark Glasses,” though he was on the fest’s main jury panel in 2001. Film unspools as a Berlinale Special Gala.
Bellosi is back with Panaorama selection “Swing Ride” (“Calcinculo”), about a 15-year-old named...
Taviani, who is 91, is returning to Berlin but alone this time — his filmmaker brother, Vittorio, with whom he won a Golden Bear in 2012 for “Caesar Must Die,” passed away in 2018 — in competition with surreal drama “Leonora Addio,” inspired by a short story by Italian playwright and author Luigi Pirandello.
Argento, who set his 1977 chiller “Suspiria” in Germany, will be at the Berlinale for the first time as a director with Rome-set suspenser “Dark Glasses,” though he was on the fest’s main jury panel in 2001. Film unspools as a Berlinale Special Gala.
Bellosi is back with Panaorama selection “Swing Ride” (“Calcinculo”), about a 15-year-old named...
- 2/13/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The trailer for Francesco Costabile’s Mafia family drama “Una Femmina,” which premieres in Berlinale’s Panorama section, has debuted. Intramovies will handle sales at the virtual European Film Market.
The film centers on Rosa, a restless young woman who lives with her mother’s relatives in a remote village in Calabria, Southern Italy. Her mother’s mysterious death when she was still a child casts a shadow on her present. When the truth emerges and Rosa realizes she is trapped in a same predestined fate, she decides to betray her family, seeking revenge against her own blood. However, when your family belongs to the ‘Ndrangheta Mafia, a single misstep can lead to death.
The script was adapted from Lirio Abbate’s book “Fimmine Ribelli,” and the storyline was written by Abbate with Edoardo de Angelis, one of the producers of the movie and an established director. Together, they distilled...
The film centers on Rosa, a restless young woman who lives with her mother’s relatives in a remote village in Calabria, Southern Italy. Her mother’s mysterious death when she was still a child casts a shadow on her present. When the truth emerges and Rosa realizes she is trapped in a same predestined fate, she decides to betray her family, seeking revenge against her own blood. However, when your family belongs to the ‘Ndrangheta Mafia, a single misstep can lead to death.
The script was adapted from Lirio Abbate’s book “Fimmine Ribelli,” and the storyline was written by Abbate with Edoardo de Angelis, one of the producers of the movie and an established director. Together, they distilled...
- 1/25/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The Mafia drama is the directing debut of Francesco Costabile.
Italy-based sales agent Intramovies has acquired international rights to Mafia drama Una Femmina – The Code Of Silence ahead of the film’s world premiere in Panorama at next month’s Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-16).
The film is the directorial debut of Italian filmmaker Francesco Costabile, and is produced by Italy’s Tramp Limited and O’Groove. Costabile wrote the film with Lirio Abbate, Serena Brugnolo and Adriano Chiarelli.
Una Femmina follows a girl living with relatives in a remote South Italian village following her mother’s mysterious death when she was young.
Italy-based sales agent Intramovies has acquired international rights to Mafia drama Una Femmina – The Code Of Silence ahead of the film’s world premiere in Panorama at next month’s Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-16).
The film is the directorial debut of Italian filmmaker Francesco Costabile, and is produced by Italy’s Tramp Limited and O’Groove. Costabile wrote the film with Lirio Abbate, Serena Brugnolo and Adriano Chiarelli.
Una Femmina follows a girl living with relatives in a remote South Italian village following her mother’s mysterious death when she was young.
- 1/21/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
- 1/19/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-20) revealed its Competition line-up on Wednesday, scroll down for the full list.
As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.
This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.
South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.
The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...
As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.
This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.
South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.
The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...
- 1/19/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
- 1/19/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The program announcements continue for the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival this week, with the full Panorama line-up now confirmed.
Adding to the initial titles unveiled back in April are films including Alain Guiraudie’s Nobody’s Hero, which opens the strand this year.
Also confirmed today were the titles that will participate in the Berlinale Series Market and Co-Pro Series event this year.
Taking part in Berlinale Series Market Selects will be The Fear Index, the upcoming show from Left Bank Pictures that is set to star Josh Hartnett, as well as projects from Keshet, Viaplay and Globo. See the full lists below.
Tomorrow, Berlin chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek will unveil the 2022 Competition line-up at an event that kicks off at 11Am Cet.
Panorama Additions:
Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm
Germany
by Cem Kaya
World premiere / Panorama Dokumente
Baqyt (Happiness)
Kazakhstan
by Askar Uzabayev
with Laura Myrzakhmetova,...
Adding to the initial titles unveiled back in April are films including Alain Guiraudie’s Nobody’s Hero, which opens the strand this year.
Also confirmed today were the titles that will participate in the Berlinale Series Market and Co-Pro Series event this year.
Taking part in Berlinale Series Market Selects will be The Fear Index, the upcoming show from Left Bank Pictures that is set to star Josh Hartnett, as well as projects from Keshet, Viaplay and Globo. See the full lists below.
Tomorrow, Berlin chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek will unveil the 2022 Competition line-up at an event that kicks off at 11Am Cet.
Panorama Additions:
Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm
Germany
by Cem Kaya
World premiere / Panorama Dokumente
Baqyt (Happiness)
Kazakhstan
by Askar Uzabayev
with Laura Myrzakhmetova,...
- 1/18/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
French auteur Alain Guiraudie’s political drama “Nobody’s Hero” has been set as the opener of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival’s multifaceted Panorama strand, which has announced its full lineup.
The latest feature from Guiraudie, who is best known for his 2016 “Staying Vertical,” takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, where a terrorist attack triggers some paranoid dynamics involving a young homeless man, a middle-aged sex worker and her married lover who have taken refuge in a building. The film’s cast comprises actor-director Noémie Lvovsky, Jean-Charles Clichet and Doria Tillier.
The ten-title Panorama Dokumente strand, which runs concurrently with the feature films, comprises previously announced transgender-themed doc “Nel Mio Nome” (“Into My Name”) by Italian director and producer Nicolò Bassetti. Elliot Page has come on board as executive producer to support the doc which observes gender transition from a female to a male identity of four characters within a...
The latest feature from Guiraudie, who is best known for his 2016 “Staying Vertical,” takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, where a terrorist attack triggers some paranoid dynamics involving a young homeless man, a middle-aged sex worker and her married lover who have taken refuge in a building. The film’s cast comprises actor-director Noémie Lvovsky, Jean-Charles Clichet and Doria Tillier.
The ten-title Panorama Dokumente strand, which runs concurrently with the feature films, comprises previously announced transgender-themed doc “Nel Mio Nome” (“Into My Name”) by Italian director and producer Nicolò Bassetti. Elliot Page has come on board as executive producer to support the doc which observes gender transition from a female to a male identity of four characters within a...
- 1/18/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Some creatures waste away when they’re domesticated, pining for the freedom of the outdoors. That seems to be the case not only for the immensely improbable, leadenly symbolic peacock at the center of Laura Bispuri’s “The Peacock’s Paradise,” but also for Bispuri’s flair for characterization and absorbingly grounded melodrama, which comes tamely indoors after the vibrant, windblown elementalism of “Sworn Virgin” and “Daughter of Mine,” and vanishes.
In the stultifying environment of a small coastal apartment, “The Peacock’s Paradise” follows a family of unbearably self-involved secret-keepers at a reunion that precipitates an entire telenovela’s worth of soapy revelation in the space of a single afternoon. Long-term same-sex affairs are discovered; dormant passions are reawakened; new lovers are betrayed; a history of institutionalization is dredged up; financial petitions are broached; and a clinically mute character speaks, delivering one single, loaded comment that scriptwriters Bispuri and...
In the stultifying environment of a small coastal apartment, “The Peacock’s Paradise” follows a family of unbearably self-involved secret-keepers at a reunion that precipitates an entire telenovela’s worth of soapy revelation in the space of a single afternoon. Long-term same-sex affairs are discovered; dormant passions are reawakened; new lovers are betrayed; a history of institutionalization is dredged up; financial petitions are broached; and a clinically mute character speaks, delivering one single, loaded comment that scriptwriters Bispuri and...
- 10/29/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Based on his novel of the same name, the film will be shot mainly in Trentino with actors Lorenzo Richelmy, Fabrizio Ferracane and Fabrizio Rongione. Writer Massimo Donati makes his feature film directorial debut with Diario di Spezie, adapted from his own 2013 novel of the same name and which started filming a few days ago. Already behind the camera for Fuoriscena, a documentary about the Accademia Teatro alla Scala co-directed with Alessandro Leone, Donati is directing in this new film Lorenzo Richelmy, Fabrizio Ferracane and Fabrizio Rongione. The film is produced by Master Five Cinematografica with Rai Cinema and Rodeo Drive, with the support of the Trentino Film Commission. Written for the big screen by Donati himself, Diario di spezie is...
Dominique Sanda, Alba Rohrwacher and Maya Sansa star in the director’s new film, the story of an impossible love that will throw into question the feelings of an entire family. Filming on Il paradiso del pavone, the latest film from Laura Bispuri, has just wrapped in Ostia. The film comes three years after Sworn Virgin and Daughter of Mine (selected in competition at the 2018 Berlinale). This story of an impossible love that will throw into question the feelings of an entire family will be told by actors Dominique Sanda (recently seen in Saint Laurent), Alba Rohrwacher (seen last year in The Ties and shortly in Tre piani), Maya Sansa (last year in Lasciami andare), Carlo Cerciello, Fabrizio Ferracane, Leonardo Lidi, Tihana Lazović (the Croatian actress...
Leading arthouse outfit The Match Factory is continuing its successful partnership with Laura Bispuri as it boards sales on her latest film, “The Peacock’s Paradise.” The film stars Cannes best actress winner Dominique Sanda and Venice best actress winner Alba Rohrwacher, Bispuri’s long-time collaborator.
The Match Factory previously represented the director’s “Sworn Virgin,” which played in Berlinale Competition in 2015, and “Daughter of Mine,” which was in Berlinale Competition in 2018.
“The Peacock’s Paradise” follows Nena’s family, who reunite in their house by the sea to celebrate her birthday. Everybody is there: her husband Umberto, their children Vito and Caterina, cousin Isabella, their daughter-in-law Adelina, Caterina’s ex Manfredi with his new girlfriend Joana, their granddaughter Alma, and Lucia, the maid, with her daughter Grazia. Finally, there is Paco, Alma’s peacock, who surprisingly falls in love with a little painted dove: an impossible love that will...
The Match Factory previously represented the director’s “Sworn Virgin,” which played in Berlinale Competition in 2015, and “Daughter of Mine,” which was in Berlinale Competition in 2018.
“The Peacock’s Paradise” follows Nena’s family, who reunite in their house by the sea to celebrate her birthday. Everybody is there: her husband Umberto, their children Vito and Caterina, cousin Isabella, their daughter-in-law Adelina, Caterina’s ex Manfredi with his new girlfriend Joana, their granddaughter Alma, and Lucia, the maid, with her daughter Grazia. Finally, there is Paco, Alma’s peacock, who surprisingly falls in love with a little painted dove: an impossible love that will...
- 3/3/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Leonora Addio
Following the death of his brother and fellow co-director Vittorio Taviani in 2018, Paolo Taviani continues with his first solo effort Leonora Addio, based on the novella Il Chiodo by Nobel prize winner Luigi Pirandello. Produced through Rai Cinema and Donatella Palermo’s Stemal Entertainment, the project is headlined by Fabrizio Ferracane and Massimo Popolizio. Nicola Piovani provides the score, while regular Taviani Dp Simone Zampagni will lens alongside Paolo Carnera. The Taviani Bros. emerged as one of Italy’s most prominent filmmaking duos in the 1970s, winning the Palme d’Or in 1977 for Padre Padrone and Cannes would be great to them with their 1982 classic The Night of Shooting Stars with the brothers winning the Grand Prize of the Jury and the Ecumenical Jury Prize.…...
Following the death of his brother and fellow co-director Vittorio Taviani in 2018, Paolo Taviani continues with his first solo effort Leonora Addio, based on the novella Il Chiodo by Nobel prize winner Luigi Pirandello. Produced through Rai Cinema and Donatella Palermo’s Stemal Entertainment, the project is headlined by Fabrizio Ferracane and Massimo Popolizio. Nicola Piovani provides the score, while regular Taviani Dp Simone Zampagni will lens alongside Paolo Carnera. The Taviani Bros. emerged as one of Italy’s most prominent filmmaking duos in the 1970s, winning the Palme d’Or in 1977 for Padre Padrone and Cannes would be great to them with their 1982 classic The Night of Shooting Stars with the brothers winning the Grand Prize of the Jury and the Ecumenical Jury Prize.…...
- 1/4/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Javier Krause, one of Argentina’s key sales agents and co-founder of Kaflims Argentina, has crossed the Atlantic and started Kafilms Suisse, a new Swiss production company where he is taking the reins to create new content for international audiences, including two new Italian co-productions which Krause has announced in exclusivity with Variety.
Joined by Maurizio and Manuel Tedesco of Italy’s Baires Produzioni, backers of Filmax-sold “Tomorrow’s a New Day” from Simone Spada and WWI drama “Il destino degli uomini,” Kafilms will co-produce “The Eye of the Rabbit” from debut feature filmmakers Valentina and Francesca Bertuzzi and “L’Arminuta,” – currently in production – written by Monica Zapelli in collaboration with the author of the eponymous novel on which the film is based, Donatella di Pietrantonio.
“The Eye of the Rabbit” turns on Liz, the eldest daughter of a middle-class Roman family who discovers a mysterious hole that, night after night,...
Joined by Maurizio and Manuel Tedesco of Italy’s Baires Produzioni, backers of Filmax-sold “Tomorrow’s a New Day” from Simone Spada and WWI drama “Il destino degli uomini,” Kafilms will co-produce “The Eye of the Rabbit” from debut feature filmmakers Valentina and Francesca Bertuzzi and “L’Arminuta,” – currently in production – written by Monica Zapelli in collaboration with the author of the eponymous novel on which the film is based, Donatella di Pietrantonio.
“The Eye of the Rabbit” turns on Liz, the eldest daughter of a middle-class Roman family who discovers a mysterious hole that, night after night,...
- 12/1/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Toni Servillo and Silvio Orlando are set to lead a cast together for the very first time in the Italian director’s third feature film, shot in a former prison in Sassari. Filming began on 12 November, in Sassari’s former San Sebastiano prison, on Leonardo Di Costanzo’s third feature film Dall’interno. Written by Di Costanzo alongside Bruno Oliviero and Valia Santella, the title will see Silvio Orlando and Toni Servillo play starring roles together, for the very first time, flanked by professional actors such as Fabrizio Ferracane (Silver Ribbon for The Traitor) and Salvatore Striano (Caesar Must Die), and joined by a cast composed of entirely new faces, uncovered by the director and trained over months of rehearsals and workshops. The synopsis shared by the production company is succinct, to say the least: in a prison in the process of decommission, a handful of officers and the last remaining inmates await.
- 11/16/2020
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Paolo Taviani, of revered filmmaking duo the Taviani brothers, is back behind the camera — this time without his brother Vittorio, who died in 2018.
Taviani is shooting “Leonora Addio,” a surreal drama that takes its cue from a short story by great Italian playwright and author Luigi Pirandello. It’s a long-gestating project that Paolo says he and Vittorio had long intended to film together.
Italy’s Fandango Sales has taken international distribution for the film and will be kicking off world sales outside Italy during the Toronto International Film Festival’s online film market this month.
Co-produced by Donatella Palermo’s Stemal Entertainment and Rai Cinema with France’s Les Films d’Ici, “Leonora” started principal photography at the end of July at Cinecittà Studios and will also be shooting in Sicily. Production is expected to wrap in October and Taviani said he expects to complete the film by year’s end.
Taviani is shooting “Leonora Addio,” a surreal drama that takes its cue from a short story by great Italian playwright and author Luigi Pirandello. It’s a long-gestating project that Paolo says he and Vittorio had long intended to film together.
Italy’s Fandango Sales has taken international distribution for the film and will be kicking off world sales outside Italy during the Toronto International Film Festival’s online film market this month.
Co-produced by Donatella Palermo’s Stemal Entertainment and Rai Cinema with France’s Les Films d’Ici, “Leonora” started principal photography at the end of July at Cinecittà Studios and will also be shooting in Sicily. Production is expected to wrap in October and Taviani said he expects to complete the film by year’s end.
- 9/7/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italian A-listers Alba Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”), Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) and Silvio Orlando (“The Young Pope”) are set to star in a high-profile prison drama to be directed by Leonardo di Costanzo, who is best known for social-realist drama “The Intruder.”
Di Costanzo crossed over from documentary to feature filmmaking first with “The Interval,” which went to Venice, and then with “The Intruder” which in 2017 made a splash in Cannes. His latest project is working-titled “Dall’Interno” (From the Inside).
Producer Carlo Cresto–Dina (pictured) describes “From the Inside” as “an important step in the journey” that his Tempesta film company is making with Di Costanzo, going from narrative documentaries and fiction films featuring non-pro actors, to what is now the director’s first film with a star-studded cast.
“Like all of Leonardo’s movies this one takes place in a confined space, which is a jail,” Cresto-Dina told Variety.
Di Costanzo crossed over from documentary to feature filmmaking first with “The Interval,” which went to Venice, and then with “The Intruder” which in 2017 made a splash in Cannes. His latest project is working-titled “Dall’Interno” (From the Inside).
Producer Carlo Cresto–Dina (pictured) describes “From the Inside” as “an important step in the journey” that his Tempesta film company is making with Di Costanzo, going from narrative documentaries and fiction films featuring non-pro actors, to what is now the director’s first film with a star-studded cast.
“Like all of Leonardo’s movies this one takes place in a confined space, which is a jail,” Cresto-Dina told Variety.
- 7/20/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The Traitor Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Marco Bellocchio Screenwriters: Marco Bellochio, Ludovica Rampoldi, Valia Santela, Francesco Piccolo Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fausto Russo Alesi, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Nicola Calì Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/8/20 Opens: May 12, 2020 […]
The post The Traitor Movie Review: The true story of the Cosa Nostra appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Traitor Movie Review: The true story of the Cosa Nostra appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 5/15/2020
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The Traitor Trailer Marco Bellocchio‘s The Traitor / Il traditore (2019) U.S. movie trailer has been released by Sony Pictures Classics and stars Pierfrancesco Favino, Maria Fernanda Candido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Fausto Russo Alesi, and Luigi Lo Cascio. Plot Synopsis The Traitor‘s plot synopsis: “The Traitor starts in the early 1980’s, when an all-out war rages [...]
Continue reading: The Traitor (2019) U.S. Movie Trailer: Sicilian Mafia Member Pierfrancesco Favino Betrays the Casa Nostra...
Continue reading: The Traitor (2019) U.S. Movie Trailer: Sicilian Mafia Member Pierfrancesco Favino Betrays the Casa Nostra...
- 9/7/2019
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
"You can't take money to the grave." Sony Pictures Classics has debuted a new official Us trailer for the Italian mafia drama The Traitor, originally titled Il Traditore, which first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It's stopping by the Toronto Film Festival next, then will be hitting Us theaters sometime in early 2020. The film tells the real story of Tommaso Buscetta, the so called "boss of the two worlds", who became the first mafia informant in Sicily in the 1980s. The film received mostly negative reviews out of Cannes, with critics saying that, "there's just no real perspective on Buscetta, which separates this brisk but uninvolving history lesson from the truly great mob movies." The film stars Pierfrancesco Favino, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fausto Russo Alesi, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Nicola Calì, and Giovanni Calcagno. This looks like an epic retelling of this big mafia trial, but perhaps a bit too indulgent.
- 9/5/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Marco Bellocchio’s film bagged seven prizes from the Italian film journalists, including Best Film and Best Director, while Leonardo D’Agostini and Valerio Mastandrea scooped Best Debut Directors. It really was Marco Bellocchio’s night on Saturday in Taormina’s Teatro Antico. The Traitor, the Piacenza-born director’s film on the subject of Tommaso Buscetta, which debuted in competition in Cannes this year and already triumphed at the Italian Golden Globes just a few days ago (read our news), was handed no less than seven awards (out of 11 nomination) by the Sngci – National Union of Film Journalists: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Actor (Pierfrancesco Favino) and Best Supporting Actor (Luigi Lo Cascio and Fabrizio Ferracane). In terms of the reigning women, Italy’s film journalists named Anna Foglietta and Marina Confalone best actresses, while...
In today’s film news roundup, “Between Two Ferns: The Movie” is unveiled, “Friedkin Uncut” gets a fall release and Sony Classics buys “The Traitor” at Cannes.
Movie Releases
Netflix has set a Sept. 20 release date for Zach Galifianakis’ “Between Two Ferns: The Movie,” based on his 11-year-old talk show.
Galifianakis made the announcement during a Netflix awards event with David Letterman on Thursday night. Galifianakis co-wrote the movie with Scott Aukerman, who’s directing the film.
Aukerman was the director of 14 of the 21 episodes of the talk show, which began in 2008 with an interview with Michael Cera. The most recent “Between Two Ferns” aired in 2018 with Jerry Seinfeld, Wayne Knight and Cardi B.
Aukerman and Galifianakis are producing with Funny or Die’s Caitlin Daley and Mike Farah. The logline involves the comedian and his crew taking a road trip to complete a series of high-profile celebrity interviews and restore his reputation.
Movie Releases
Netflix has set a Sept. 20 release date for Zach Galifianakis’ “Between Two Ferns: The Movie,” based on his 11-year-old talk show.
Galifianakis made the announcement during a Netflix awards event with David Letterman on Thursday night. Galifianakis co-wrote the movie with Scott Aukerman, who’s directing the film.
Aukerman was the director of 14 of the 21 episodes of the talk show, which began in 2008 with an interview with Michael Cera. The most recent “Between Two Ferns” aired in 2018 with Jerry Seinfeld, Wayne Knight and Cardi B.
Aukerman and Galifianakis are producing with Funny or Die’s Caitlin Daley and Mike Farah. The logline involves the comedian and his crew taking a road trip to complete a series of high-profile celebrity interviews and restore his reputation.
- 5/25/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
What surprises most about Marco Bellocchio’s Mafia drama “The Traitor” is just how straightforward it is. Given its subject — Tommaso Buscetta, the highest-ranking Mafia don to sing to the authorities — there were expectations that the director would deliver a theatrical drama along the lines of “Vincere,” but notwithstanding a few operatic flourishes, his latest seems to realize the built-in theatrical elements are already so histrionic that it’s best to play them as direct as possible. Consequently, “The Traitor” feels a bit too anonymous. It’s clearly made by a master filmmaker questioning the nature of repentance, and as such is far from superficial; and yet while it never loses our attention, it also doesn’t deliver much of a punch.
Non-Italian audiences may feel a bit overwhelmed at first by the avalanche of names, helpfully spelled out on screen, but the characters who matter come to the fore...
Non-Italian audiences may feel a bit overwhelmed at first by the avalanche of names, helpfully spelled out on screen, but the characters who matter come to the fore...
- 5/23/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
The Traitor
Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, whose radical early works were a seminal part of 1960s and 1970s Italian cinema, embarks on his latest feature The Traitor, a biopic of Cosa Nostra member Tommaso Buscetta, the first high ranking official of the mafia organization to break their code of silence. Pierfrancesco Favino stars as Buscetta, joined by Brazilian actress Maria Fernando Candido, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fabrizio Ferracane and Fausto Russo Alesi. Oscar winning composer Nicola Piovani of 1998’s Life is Beautiful is writing the score and Vladan Radovic will serve as Dp. The feature is a four-country co-pro financed through Italy’s Ibc Movie, Kavac Film and Rai Cinema, while France’s Ad Vitam, Arte France Cinema and Canal Plus are also joined by Brazil’s Gullane and Germany’s Match Factory.…...
Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, whose radical early works were a seminal part of 1960s and 1970s Italian cinema, embarks on his latest feature The Traitor, a biopic of Cosa Nostra member Tommaso Buscetta, the first high ranking official of the mafia organization to break their code of silence. Pierfrancesco Favino stars as Buscetta, joined by Brazilian actress Maria Fernando Candido, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fabrizio Ferracane and Fausto Russo Alesi. Oscar winning composer Nicola Piovani of 1998’s Life is Beautiful is writing the score and Vladan Radovic will serve as Dp. The feature is a four-country co-pro financed through Italy’s Ibc Movie, Kavac Film and Rai Cinema, while France’s Ad Vitam, Arte France Cinema and Canal Plus are also joined by Brazil’s Gullane and Germany’s Match Factory.…...
- 1/7/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Brazilian actress and model Maria Fernanda Candido is to play the female lead in veteran Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” a biopic of Tommaso Buscetta, the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence.
Candido, who most recently starred in Rede Globo’s popular prime-time soap “Edge of Desire,” will play Buscetta’s third wife, Maria Cristina de Almeida Guimaraes, the daughter of an upper-crust Brazilian lawyer. She played an important part in her husband’s decision in 1984 to start cooperating with Italian and, later, American prosecutors.
She is believed to have been crucial in prompting Buscetta to turn against the Corleonesi faction in the first major “betrayal” within Cosa Nostra’s high-ranks. Buscetta’s testimony about heroin smuggling in the ”pizza connection” case in the mid-1980s allowed him to obtain U.S. citizenship and a place in the witness protection program.
Candido, who most recently starred in Rede Globo’s popular prime-time soap “Edge of Desire,” will play Buscetta’s third wife, Maria Cristina de Almeida Guimaraes, the daughter of an upper-crust Brazilian lawyer. She played an important part in her husband’s decision in 1984 to start cooperating with Italian and, later, American prosecutors.
She is believed to have been crucial in prompting Buscetta to turn against the Corleonesi faction in the first major “betrayal” within Cosa Nostra’s high-ranks. Buscetta’s testimony about heroin smuggling in the ”pizza connection” case in the mid-1980s allowed him to obtain U.S. citizenship and a place in the witness protection program.
- 9/17/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Francesco Munzi’s tale of a Calabrian mob family at war is sombre and spare
Don’t say mafia, say ’ndrangheta – the Calabrian crime network that is the subject of Francesco Munzi’s gripping drama, as sombre as its title suggests. This is a dynastic tale that gets more claustrophobic as it develops, as its web of vendetta-style recriminations closes in on the Carbone clan, goat farmers who have diversified into riskier and more profitable businesses.
The film focuses on the differences of character between the Carbone brothers: Luigi (Marco Leonardi), the hard man out in the field; urbane Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta), who lives a seemingly respectable bourgeois lifestyle in Milan; and older brother Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), who’d rather tend his herd than continue the old cycle of bloodshed. But when Luciano’s tearaway son makes a rebellious gesture, matters move inexorably towards an outcome that could be called operatic,...
Don’t say mafia, say ’ndrangheta – the Calabrian crime network that is the subject of Francesco Munzi’s gripping drama, as sombre as its title suggests. This is a dynastic tale that gets more claustrophobic as it develops, as its web of vendetta-style recriminations closes in on the Carbone clan, goat farmers who have diversified into riskier and more profitable businesses.
The film focuses on the differences of character between the Carbone brothers: Luigi (Marco Leonardi), the hard man out in the field; urbane Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta), who lives a seemingly respectable bourgeois lifestyle in Milan; and older brother Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), who’d rather tend his herd than continue the old cycle of bloodshed. But when Luciano’s tearaway son makes a rebellious gesture, matters move inexorably towards an outcome that could be called operatic,...
- 11/1/2015
- by Jonathan Romney
- The Guardian - Film News
'Everest' 2015, with Jake Gyllenhaal at the Venice Film Festival. What global warming? Venice Film Festival 2015 jury: Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón president The 2015 Venice Film Festival, to be held Sept. 2–12, has announced the members of its three main juries: Venezia 72, Horizons, and the Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film. In case you're wondering, “Why Venezia 72”? Well, the simple answer is that this is the 72nd edition of the festival. Looking at the lists below, you'll notice that, as usual, Europeans dominate the award juries. The only two countries from the Americas represented are the U.S. and Mexico, and here and there you'll find a sprinkling of Asian film talent. Golden Lion jury The Golden Lion – Venezia 72 Competition – jury is comprised by the following: Jury President Alfonso Cuarón, the first Mexican national to take home the Best Director Academy Award (for the Sandra Bullock-George Clooney...
- 7/28/2015
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
Neil Armfield.s Holding the Man, Simon Stone.s The Daughter, Jeremy Sims. Last Cab to Darwin and Jen Peedom.s feature doc Sherpa will have their world premieres at the Sydney Film Festival.
The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.
Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.
Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.
As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...
The festival program unveiled today includes 33 world premieres (including 22 shorts) and 135 Australian premieres (with 18 shorts) among 251 titles from 68 countries.
Among the other premieres will be Daina Reid.s The Secret River, Ruby Entertainment's. ABC-tv miniseries starring Oliver Jackson Cohen and Sarah Snook, and three Oz docs, Marc Eberle.s The Cambodian Space Project — Not Easy Rock .n. Roll, Steve Thomas. Freedom Stories and Lisa Nicol.s Wide Open Sky.
Festival director Nashen Moodley boasted. this year.s event will be far larger than 2014's when 183 films from 47 countries were screened, including 15 world premieres. The expansion is possible in part due to the addition of two new screening venues in Newtown and Liverpool.
As previously announced, Brendan Cowell...
- 5/6/2015
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
In places where opportunities and hope are harder to obtain than a loaded gun, the glorification of a seemingly effortless and powerful criminal lifestyle is engraved deeply into the youth’s psyche like a poisonous spell. Irremediably, it becomes their most tangible aspiration. Kids there do not dream of becoming doctors, lawyers or teachers, but drug dealers, murderers, or gangsters who walk through life intoxicated by the fear of others disguised as respect. It’s just the same in a rough American neighborhood, a Mexican border town, a war torn African capital, or an isolated village in the Italian countryside.
Is in this last setting that director Francesco Munzi unfolds “Black Souls” (Anime Nere), an understated mafia tale that is brutally unflinching and sobering when distilling the built-in conventions of the genre and reapplying them in a powerfully stark manner. First, Munzi takes us on a short trip to the high-stakes world of international drug trafficking and the money laundering schemes that fueled it. Brothers Luigi (Marco Leonardi) and Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) manage the operation as a family business each with a distinct approach to getting things done. Luigi is the threatening brute that’s willing to get his hands dirty, while Rocco prefers to be as diplomatic as the drug underworld allows. But just as we are prompted to believe the film will follow on the footsteps of countless predecessors, the perspective shifts to a much more intimate, almost pastoral, look at the unbreakable ties and honor-driven feuds between opposite families within the same criminal microcosm: the Calabrian hills in southern Italy.
Making a humble living from farming and raising cattle, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), the eldest sibling in the dynasty, disapproves of his younger brothers lifestyle, which he left behind years ago. But in spite of his father’s evident disdain for his siblings’ violent ways, Luciano’s son Leo (Giuseppe Fumo), a teenage boy full of senseless bravado and thirst for retribution, admires his uncle Luigi ‘s status as an authority figure within the community. Projecting fearlessness and absolute dispassion to be part of the gang, Leo grows detached from his father and begins partaking in the increasingly dangerous disputes with their adversaries. With Luigi back in town, old grudges resurfacing, and Leo’s reckless ability to start trouble, tragedy permanently lurks over the entire clan.
This perpetual feeling of an imminent disaster approaching is what makes the film a restrained and potent statement. Intelligently, the filmmaker chooses unnerving tension over gruesome imagery. Of course, violence is unavoidable in a story like this, but those scenes are much more effective because of their importance in the layered emotional landscape presented. Pride is a boundless catalyst for hatred, and that’s what motivates the individuals here to die in the name of their lineage. Leo loses respect for his father because the promise of easy cash and overall badassery is exponentially more enticing than arduously working the land. Luciano is a coward in his son’s eyes for wanting to live a peaceful life, but the man can hardly experience that as he is caught up in between his brothers’ unfinished business and preventing Leo from following their path. It’s all the subtext that is embedded in every interaction that keeps “Black Souls” from becoming predictable, and instead asks us to ponder on the complex set of characters on screen.
Hauntingly somber, but all the more enthralling because of it, Vladan Radovic’s cinematography inconspicuously contributes to Munzi’s exploration of human darkness. A prime example of its gloomy appeal is a funeral sequence that centers both on a mother grieving her son, and the inevitably brutal consequences of the event. However, although a viscerally serious tone permeates the film, Munzi and Radovic were clever enough to capture beautiful moments of rural life that give “Black Souls” a timeless atmosphere: Luigi singing a traditional tune for the sheer joy of singing or Luciano walking among the ruins of an ancient church quietly denoting his religious devotion. Such glimpses of vulnerability create a mob film that is more concerned with the subtleties beneath the gunshots.
Indispensable for an ensemble piece like “Black Souls,” the entire cast, even those in minimal roles, is made up of a group of actors capable of refraining from ostentatious performances and focusing on the characters’ essential, nuanced qualities. Their conflicts are so profoundly intertwined that a weak link would have been problematic. Still, among these talented group, Fabrizio Ferracane as Luciano gives the most quietly compelling performance as a father, a brother, and a son who can’t recognize himself anymore or fit in among those around him. Ultimately, Ferracane steals the film in the riveting and shocking conclusion.
“Black Souls” delivers a gutsy twist on the tiresome works that showcase villains as stars and their feats as heroic. Munzi offers authenticity and poignancy ignoring our expectations and portraying his characters as deeply misguided people for whom loyalty is a golden asset and death is a common outcome. His film is about unspoken rules and unforgivable transgressions that might appear irrational to the outsider, but unquestionable to those involved.
"Black Souls" is now playing in NYC and opens in Los Angeles on April 24th.
Director Francesco Munzi will be doing a Skype Q&A from Rome, Italy on Saturday 4/18 at both the Angelika Film Center in NYC (after the 7:30 pm show) & at the Angelika Film Center in Fairfax, Va (after the 8pm show).
For all the play dates and theaters across the U.S. visit Here...
Is in this last setting that director Francesco Munzi unfolds “Black Souls” (Anime Nere), an understated mafia tale that is brutally unflinching and sobering when distilling the built-in conventions of the genre and reapplying them in a powerfully stark manner. First, Munzi takes us on a short trip to the high-stakes world of international drug trafficking and the money laundering schemes that fueled it. Brothers Luigi (Marco Leonardi) and Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) manage the operation as a family business each with a distinct approach to getting things done. Luigi is the threatening brute that’s willing to get his hands dirty, while Rocco prefers to be as diplomatic as the drug underworld allows. But just as we are prompted to believe the film will follow on the footsteps of countless predecessors, the perspective shifts to a much more intimate, almost pastoral, look at the unbreakable ties and honor-driven feuds between opposite families within the same criminal microcosm: the Calabrian hills in southern Italy.
Making a humble living from farming and raising cattle, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), the eldest sibling in the dynasty, disapproves of his younger brothers lifestyle, which he left behind years ago. But in spite of his father’s evident disdain for his siblings’ violent ways, Luciano’s son Leo (Giuseppe Fumo), a teenage boy full of senseless bravado and thirst for retribution, admires his uncle Luigi ‘s status as an authority figure within the community. Projecting fearlessness and absolute dispassion to be part of the gang, Leo grows detached from his father and begins partaking in the increasingly dangerous disputes with their adversaries. With Luigi back in town, old grudges resurfacing, and Leo’s reckless ability to start trouble, tragedy permanently lurks over the entire clan.
This perpetual feeling of an imminent disaster approaching is what makes the film a restrained and potent statement. Intelligently, the filmmaker chooses unnerving tension over gruesome imagery. Of course, violence is unavoidable in a story like this, but those scenes are much more effective because of their importance in the layered emotional landscape presented. Pride is a boundless catalyst for hatred, and that’s what motivates the individuals here to die in the name of their lineage. Leo loses respect for his father because the promise of easy cash and overall badassery is exponentially more enticing than arduously working the land. Luciano is a coward in his son’s eyes for wanting to live a peaceful life, but the man can hardly experience that as he is caught up in between his brothers’ unfinished business and preventing Leo from following their path. It’s all the subtext that is embedded in every interaction that keeps “Black Souls” from becoming predictable, and instead asks us to ponder on the complex set of characters on screen.
Hauntingly somber, but all the more enthralling because of it, Vladan Radovic’s cinematography inconspicuously contributes to Munzi’s exploration of human darkness. A prime example of its gloomy appeal is a funeral sequence that centers both on a mother grieving her son, and the inevitably brutal consequences of the event. However, although a viscerally serious tone permeates the film, Munzi and Radovic were clever enough to capture beautiful moments of rural life that give “Black Souls” a timeless atmosphere: Luigi singing a traditional tune for the sheer joy of singing or Luciano walking among the ruins of an ancient church quietly denoting his religious devotion. Such glimpses of vulnerability create a mob film that is more concerned with the subtleties beneath the gunshots.
Indispensable for an ensemble piece like “Black Souls,” the entire cast, even those in minimal roles, is made up of a group of actors capable of refraining from ostentatious performances and focusing on the characters’ essential, nuanced qualities. Their conflicts are so profoundly intertwined that a weak link would have been problematic. Still, among these talented group, Fabrizio Ferracane as Luciano gives the most quietly compelling performance as a father, a brother, and a son who can’t recognize himself anymore or fit in among those around him. Ultimately, Ferracane steals the film in the riveting and shocking conclusion.
“Black Souls” delivers a gutsy twist on the tiresome works that showcase villains as stars and their feats as heroic. Munzi offers authenticity and poignancy ignoring our expectations and portraying his characters as deeply misguided people for whom loyalty is a golden asset and death is a common outcome. His film is about unspoken rules and unforgivable transgressions that might appear irrational to the outsider, but unquestionable to those involved.
"Black Souls" is now playing in NYC and opens in Los Angeles on April 24th.
Director Francesco Munzi will be doing a Skype Q&A from Rome, Italy on Saturday 4/18 at both the Angelika Film Center in NYC (after the 7:30 pm show) & at the Angelika Film Center in Fairfax, Va (after the 8pm show).
For all the play dates and theaters across the U.S. visit Here...
- 4/15/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Don't be alarmed if you feel a little lost during the early scenes of the somber new gangster film Black Souls. Director Francesco Munzi lets his tragic narrative unfold gradually and subtly, like a neo-neorealist take on The Godfather. There's a good reason for this: He wants to show us his individual characters — all members of the Carbone family – in their different environments. And at first, this isn't quite the Mafia we recognize from movies. There's a mundane quality to this business: We see Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta), the boss, getting cash from his bankers so he can pay his men (many of whom, we may notice, have Middle Eastern names); we see his loose-cannon brother Luigi (strong-jawed Marco Leonardi — who was once the fresh-faced teenage Toto in Cinema Paradiso) negotiating some kind of deal with a group of Spaniards; we see Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), the oldest, who wants...
- 4/11/2015
- by Bilge Ebiri
- Vulture
In his review of Vitagraph Films’ Black Souls (Anime Nere), Travis Keune wrote the movie is, “a richly deep story about an unconventional “family business” that conjures up the essence of The Godfather but distances itself even further from the genre stereotypes than just about any film we’ve seen in recent years.”
Read the rest of the review here and check out the brand new clip.
Based on real events described in Gioacchino Criaco’s novel, Black Souls (Anime Nere) is a tale of violence begetting violence and complex morality inherited by each generation in rural, ancient Calabria, a reallife mafia (‘Ndrangheta) seat in Southern Italy.
The Carbone family consists of three brothers, Luigi (Marco Leonardi) and Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) who are engaged in the family business of international drug trade and Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane) who has remained in the ancestral town of Africo in the Aspromonte mountains on the Mediterranean coast – herding goats.
Read the rest of the review here and check out the brand new clip.
Based on real events described in Gioacchino Criaco’s novel, Black Souls (Anime Nere) is a tale of violence begetting violence and complex morality inherited by each generation in rural, ancient Calabria, a reallife mafia (‘Ndrangheta) seat in Southern Italy.
The Carbone family consists of three brothers, Luigi (Marco Leonardi) and Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) who are engaged in the family business of international drug trade and Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane) who has remained in the ancestral town of Africo in the Aspromonte mountains on the Mediterranean coast – herding goats.
- 4/10/2015
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Crime and families (and crime families) have been a part of international cinema for years with movies as diverse as The Godfather, Animal Kingdom and The Raid all touching on the subject to varying degrees. Two new far lower profile films head into theaters this week, and while neither reach the heights of the ones just mentioned they’re both worthy additions to the sub-genre as they explore the deadly ramifications of mixing blood relatives with bloodletting. You can pick your friends, but it turns out you can’t pick your crime family. ————————————————- Three adult men, brothers, have moved on from the grief over their father’s murder to focus on what makes them happy. Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) is a businessman, at least on the outside, who runs a drug and crime empire from his snazzy Milan apartment while Luigi (Marco Leonardi) participates with a far more hands-on approach. The...
- 4/10/2015
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Like many genre films, the category of mafia films is often branded with certain expectations. Granted, not all of these films are created equal, but we generally expect to see lots of violence and/or lots of foul language and Hollywood stereotypes. Where Black Souls succeeds is in refusing such stereotypes and telling a richly deep story about an unconventional “family business” that conjures up the essence of The Godfather but distances itself even further from the genre stereotypes than just about any film we’ve seen in recent years.
Director Francesco Munzi’s Black Souls (“Anime nere” in Italian) maintains a nearly unprecedented level of dignity for its type. The film tells the story of three brothers closely connected to N’drangheta, a mafia-like criminal organization based out of Calabria. These three brothers, sons of a shepherd, have differing views on their relationships with N’drangheta, which plays a...
Director Francesco Munzi’s Black Souls (“Anime nere” in Italian) maintains a nearly unprecedented level of dignity for its type. The film tells the story of three brothers closely connected to N’drangheta, a mafia-like criminal organization based out of Calabria. These three brothers, sons of a shepherd, have differing views on their relationships with N’drangheta, which plays a...
- 4/9/2015
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
“You’re dressed like a shepherd!” Driving around Milan, middle-aged Luigi Carbone (an unrecognizable Marco Leonardi, of Like Water for Chocolate fame) affectionately disparages his 20-year-old nephew, Leo (Giuseppe Fumo), before planting him in a job in his own industry. The only child has fled a Calabrian farm and the father who runs it, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane, master of fluctuating facial tics), who is Luigi’s oldest brother. Leo hopes for an exciting and lucrative life better tailored to his needs than herding: working with Luigi, his idol, Uncle Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta), and their childhood pal and staunch ally, Nicola (Stefano Priolo). […]...
- 4/9/2015
- by Howard Feinstein
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
“You’re dressed like a shepherd!” Driving around Milan, middle-aged Luigi Carbone (an unrecognizable Marco Leonardi, of Like Water for Chocolate fame) affectionately disparages his 20-year-old nephew, Leo (Giuseppe Fumo), before planting him in a job in his own industry. The only child has fled a Calabrian farm and the father who runs it, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane, master of fluctuating facial tics), who is Luigi’s oldest brother. Leo hopes for an exciting and lucrative life better tailored to his needs than herding: working with Luigi, his idol, Uncle Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta), and their childhood pal and staunch ally, Nicola (Stefano Priolo). […]...
- 4/9/2015
- by Howard Feinstein
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Now I Lay Me Down to Kill: Munzi’s Enjoyably Reserved Mafia Film
Premiering last fall at the 2014 Venice Film Festival, where it picked up a handful of prizes, Francesco Munzi’s third film, Black Souls, is a deliberately paced examination of familiar mafia standards. Based on a novel by Giacchino Criaco, it’s bound to be compared (and perhaps exist within the shadow of) Matteo Garrone’s highly celebrated 2008 feature, Gomorrah. But Munzi’s film is equally convincing, lending an austere sense of realism to what otherwise plays like a classic theatrical tragedy of three brothers at odds, locked in opposition and contention with the heavy baggage of their lineage. Light on dialogue and heavy on brooding characters marinating in their own mistrust or disdain of one another, it’s a successfully engaging film, but despite an enjoyably dire finale, isn’t as memorable as some modern comparative material.
Premiering last fall at the 2014 Venice Film Festival, where it picked up a handful of prizes, Francesco Munzi’s third film, Black Souls, is a deliberately paced examination of familiar mafia standards. Based on a novel by Giacchino Criaco, it’s bound to be compared (and perhaps exist within the shadow of) Matteo Garrone’s highly celebrated 2008 feature, Gomorrah. But Munzi’s film is equally convincing, lending an austere sense of realism to what otherwise plays like a classic theatrical tragedy of three brothers at odds, locked in opposition and contention with the heavy baggage of their lineage. Light on dialogue and heavy on brooding characters marinating in their own mistrust or disdain of one another, it’s a successfully engaging film, but despite an enjoyably dire finale, isn’t as memorable as some modern comparative material.
- 4/9/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The makers of Black Souls, a superior Italian gangster movie, deserve praise for executing with atypical sensitivity a generic times-are-changing/nostalgia-for-an-imaginary-chivalrous-yesteryear scenario. Like most post-Godfather Mafia dramas, Black Souls concerns an ambivalent protagonist — in this case, gruff goat-herder Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane) — who has a love/hate relationship with his family's unspoken, honor-bound traditions. Luciano, the eldest of three brothers, cares for siblings Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) and Luigi (Marco Leonardi). But Luciano doesn't want anything to do with their drug-smuggling business or their shaky alliance with Don Peppe, the man who killed Luciano's father. Luciano is forced to do something after his trigger...
- 4/8/2015
- Village Voice
"Goodfellas" turns 25-years-old in 2015, but mob life continues to inspire even more movies. "Black Souls" is another tale of the underworld, and today we have an exclusive clip the award-winning movie where it seems every move is a dangerous one. Directed by Francesco Munzi, and starring Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane, Barbora Bobulova, Anna Ferruzo, and Giuseppe Fumo, the film is based on real events and follows the three Carbone brothers, Luigi and Rocco, who are engaged in the family business of the international drug trade, and Luciano, who has remained behind herding goats in their ancestral town of Africo in the remote Aspromonte mountains on the Ionic coast. When Luciano’s 20-year-old son Leo shoots up a local bar owned by a rival family, his reckless actions reignite a longstanding blood feud and set off a tragic chain of events that violently grinds toward an inevitable bloody showdown for all involved.
- 4/2/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Mafia drama, labelled ‘the new Gomorrah’, gets UK deal.
Vertigo has picked up UK rights to Francesco Munzi’s well-received Mafia drama Black Souls from Rai Com.
Munzi’s Venice debut, adapted from Gioacchino Criaco’s novel, follows three brothers from Southern Italy steeped in the life of the Calabrian Mafia who become caught up in a spiral of events heading towards tragedy.
Billed by some as ‘the new Gomorrah’, Black Souls is currently screening at the BFI London Film Festival.
Cast includes Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane and Barbora Bobulova. Producers are Valerio Azzali and Olivia Musini.
Rupert Preston, managing director of Vertigo Films, said: “Black Souls is really classy and intelligent film-making that stays with you for days after. We’re delighted and honoured to be releasing it in the UK.”
Previous deals for the film include Italy (Good Films), France (Bellissima Films), Switzerland (Xenix Filmdistribution), Czech Republic and Slovak Republic (Filmeurope), and Australia...
Vertigo has picked up UK rights to Francesco Munzi’s well-received Mafia drama Black Souls from Rai Com.
Munzi’s Venice debut, adapted from Gioacchino Criaco’s novel, follows three brothers from Southern Italy steeped in the life of the Calabrian Mafia who become caught up in a spiral of events heading towards tragedy.
Billed by some as ‘the new Gomorrah’, Black Souls is currently screening at the BFI London Film Festival.
Cast includes Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane and Barbora Bobulova. Producers are Valerio Azzali and Olivia Musini.
Rupert Preston, managing director of Vertigo Films, said: “Black Souls is really classy and intelligent film-making that stays with you for days after. We’re delighted and honoured to be releasing it in the UK.”
Previous deals for the film include Italy (Good Films), France (Bellissima Films), Switzerland (Xenix Filmdistribution), Czech Republic and Slovak Republic (Filmeurope), and Australia...
- 10/10/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
The dark days of Venice continue. It’s not easy starting your morning with a film called “Black Souls” but someone has to do it. Italian director Francisco Munzi’s tale of a Calabrian family embroiled in the mafia gave me a stomach ache, partly because of the sense of dread it successfully exported from the opening shot, and partly because it never quite achieves what it seems to be going for. Luigi and Rocco Carbone are two middle-aged brothers running a mob business in Milan. Luigi (Marco Leonardi) is your typically good-looking, fun-loving tough guy, a sort of Calabrian Sonny Corleone. The lean, bespectacled Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) runs the business side and aspires to normality and respectability, with a pretty northern wife (Barbora Bobulova) and young daughter. The odd man out is their elder brother Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), who has remained on the Calabrian hilltop farm, raising goats, and...
- 9/1/2014
- by Tom Christie
- Thompson on Hollywood
After the huge international success of the film Gomorrah in 2008 followed by its acclaimed recent TV adaptation, Francesco Munzi’s Anime Nere has a tough act to follow. While there are no end of films depicting the mafia, and Gomorrah shows life in Naples’ camorra underworld, this time it’s the turn of the Calabrian ’ndrangheta.
The opening scene is a chilly and grey waterfront in Holland before travelling south to Milan, then all the way down to the tiny mountainside village of Aspromonte, yet as it reaches the Mediterranean the film never manages to shake off those downcast and icy tones. Outside, from north to south it’s dark, grey and gritty.
Luigi (Marco Leonardi) is in Holland to close a drugs deal, then it’s off to Milan for celebrations with his brother, the solid and steady Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta). But there’s another brother, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), ensconced down south,...
The opening scene is a chilly and grey waterfront in Holland before travelling south to Milan, then all the way down to the tiny mountainside village of Aspromonte, yet as it reaches the Mediterranean the film never manages to shake off those downcast and icy tones. Outside, from north to south it’s dark, grey and gritty.
Luigi (Marco Leonardi) is in Holland to close a drugs deal, then it’s off to Milan for celebrations with his brother, the solid and steady Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta). But there’s another brother, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), ensconced down south,...
- 8/29/2014
- by Jo-Ann Titmarsh
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The 71st Venice Film Festival announced its lineup this morning, highlighted by films from American directors, including David Gordon Green, Barry Levinson, Peter Bogdanovich, Lisa Cholodenko, Andrew Niccol, and James Franco. As had been previously announced, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, starring Michael Keaton and many others, will be the opening film when the festival begins on Aug. 27.
Click below for the entire list of 55 films playing in Venice.
Competition
The Cut, directed by Fatih Akin
Starring Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, directed by Roy Andersson
Starring Holger Andersson,...
Click below for the entire list of 55 films playing in Venice.
Competition
The Cut, directed by Fatih Akin
Starring Tahar Rahim, Akin Gazi, Simon Abkarian, George Georgiou
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, directed by Roy Andersson
Starring Holger Andersson,...
- 7/24/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
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