03/12/2010

Italian cinema will descend on the French capital from December 6-9 with screenings of eight features unreleased in France and a conference on the themes "Buyers-sellers: what kind of distribution should be used for Italian films in France?" and "What is the future for cinematic co-productions between France and Italy?"

The event entitled Viva il Cinema will be held at Cinéma Le Balzac and the Italian Cultural Institute. It is backed by the Cinema department of the Italian Culture Ministry, France’s National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC), the Lazio region, the Rome Film Festival, the Accademia del Cinema Italiano, the Roberto Rossellini Foundation and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.

Among the films programmed at the Balzac on Tuesday 7, Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9, highlights include Guido Chiesa’s Let It Be [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (in competition at the recent Rome Film Festival – see review – sales: Rai Trade); Aureliano Amadei’s 20 Cigarettes [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (award-winner in the Contrecampo Italiano section at Venice – see review); and Piergiorgio Gay’s No Fear, unveiled out of competition at the Mostra (see news).

The line-up also includes Portrait of My Father by Maria Sole Tognazzi (see news); Martino’s Summer [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by Massimo Natale (see news); The Last 56 Hours [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Claudio Fragasso; Rocco Mortelliti’s The Disappearance of Patò [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (co-scripted by Andrea Camilleri); and Ricky Tognazzi’s The Father and the Foreigner [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (sales: Intramovies). On Monday evening, the CNC will also host a screening of the restored version of Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City.

The opening conference will kick off at 11am on Monday, December 6 at the Italian Cultural Institute. Participants include Nicola Borrelli (director general of the cinema section at the Italian Culture Ministry); Piera Detassis (artistic director of the Rome Film Festival); Francesco Ranieri Martinotti (head of the Farnese Workshop and the France Odeon Festival in Florence); Roberto Di Girolamo (Filmexport Group) and Frédéric Bereyziat (CNC). Directors Tognazzi, Natale, Mortelliti, Fragasso and Luca Miniero (Welcome to the South, released in French theatres on November 24) will also be in attendance at Viva il Cinema.

Finally, beyond this event, Italian cinema will also grace French screens with the release on December 29 by Mars Distribution of Gabriele Muccino’s Kiss Me Again [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

(Translated from French)