31/10/2002 - The Turin Film Fest celebrates its 20th anniversary with lots of contemporary films and some classics of the past

A party for film fans. The Turin Young Cinema is twenty, and to celebrate, will return to the philosophy that prevailed thirty years ago when films were considered sacred texts to discuss and draw inspirations form. Not without having fun, of course. According to the director of this festival, Stefano Della Casa, “cinema was created to entertain and is entertainment. It was meant to be something that goes beyond the cage in which it has been imprisoned by contemporary culture and therefore goes beyond the simple laugh and becomes an authentic category of the soul.”
This year’s programme is especially rich. From 7-15 November 1,150 screenings are scheduled. The films have been divided into 13 categories, five of which for features and shorts in competition, four for the great directors of the past and present, three to European, Japanese and Italian contemporary cinema, with the occasional classic like the screening of the restored print of Non si sevizia un paperino by Lucio Fulci. The restoration work was carried out by the SNC. The festival will be held in its new home: the spacious Pathé Lingotto Multiplex after 19 years in various Turin cinemas.
The list of European films taking part is impressive and includes Mehdi Charef’s Franco-Tunisian Bent Keltoum, Ulrich Koler’s Bungalow (Germany), Luca Vendruscolo’s Piovono Mucche (Italy), Jean-Charles Fitoussi’s Le jours où je n’existe pas (France) and Bille Eltringham’s This is not a love song (UK. They were all selected for the official selection. Another section entitled Horizon Europe will feature the novelties and new trends that came to the fore during the last 12 months in Europe. This section also includes documentaries of the past and present (Docs in Europe) and auteur horror films (Another Europe).
This year’s edition of the Turin festiva also features retrospectives dedicated to John Milius, who co-wrote Apocalypse Now with Coppola and directed Dillinger and Big Wednesday; the refined Brazilian director, Julio Bressane, a little-known filmmaker in Europe who made 35 films films, 3 of which have been lost forever and Gianni Amico, a leading cultural promoter and the director of films like Le mani svelte, Giovani, Donne, Fabbrica, Io con te non ci sto più and The Man who killed Libery Valance. Some of these Amico’s films have not been screened for twenty years.

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