A “feast” of European cinema
"Italy doesn’t want to laugh only at Christmas,” says Massimo Boldi, the star of Claudio Risi’s Matrimonio alle Bahamas. The actor (making his producing debut here with Mari Film) is this year renouncing the head-on confrontation with the Aurelio De Laurentiis-branded holiday films, and coming out today on 530 screens through Medusa Film.
With The Hideout [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Pupi Avati has gone back to the American Midwest and his Gothic streak. Shot in English and conceived for an international market, the film was produced by DueA Film and RAI Cinema and is launched by 01 Distribution on 211 screens.
After premiering at the RomeFilmFest, Mimmo Calopresti’s L’abbuffata [+see also:
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film profile] (“The Feast”) is being distributed on 90 screens by Istituto Luce, which also produced with Cooperativa Gagè, Dania Film and RAI Cinema. Partly autobiographical, this comedy features Diego Abatantuono alongside young actors (such as Paolo Briguglia) and more noted names (Gérard Depardieu and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).
Producer-distributor Gianluca Arcopinto has come out with an ambitious directorial debut in Angeli distratti (“Distracted Angels”). Inspired by Francesco Niccolini’s play Canto per Fallujah the Iraqi-set docudrama was made by Lucky Red (which is distributing it on five screens) and Man’è, without public funding but with support from the non-governmental association “Un ponte per…”.
The release of Pasquale Scimeca’s Little Boy Red has been pushed back to Monday. The first of three projects produced by the Region of Sicily with funds from the EC, the film, based on the Giovanni Verga novel (and co-financed and distributed by Arbash Film) deals with the dramatic issue of child labour and will give part of its box office earnings to Bolivian children.
Lastly, there are three European co-productions this week: Universal is releasing a 16-print run of Michael Winterbottom’s A Mighty Heart [+see also:
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film profile] (produced for the UK by Revolution Films), Mediafilm Richard Shepard’s US title The Matador (co-funded by Germany and Ireland), and Sacher Film the French/Israeli Jellyfish [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen.
(Translated from Italian)
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