29/12/2010

Distributors’ slates are full of Italian and European titles the first trimester of 2011. The most highly anticipated domestic film is by far Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam, co-produced by Fandango with France’s Le Pacte. Five years after The Caiman [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Labadie
interview: Nanni Moretti
film profile], Moretti directs himself as a psychoanalyst sent to help a Pope in crisis, played by Michel Piccoli. 01 distributes.

The first week of February will see the release of the follow-up to comedy hit-maker Fausto Brizzi’s Maschi contro femmine [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] (“Men vs. Women”), which was distributed last October to a healthy €12.5m at the box office. Femmine contro maschi (“Women vs. Men”) is instead being released by Medusa.

Also promising laughs is the Fandango production Qualunquamente (01 Distribution, January 21), directed by Giulio Manfredonia, in which Antonio Albanese brings TV character Cetto La Qualunque, a criminal who goes into politics, to the big screen.

Another serial comedy is Giovanni Veronesi’s Manuale d'amore 3, produced and distributed by Filmauro on the heels of the first two successful instalments (which respectively grossed €14m and €19m). The film stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Valeria Solarino and features a cameo by Robert De Niro, playing himself.

A long time in the making, Filmauro will also release Amici miei... Come tutto ebbe inizio, Neri Parenti’s prequel and tribute to the two films that the recently deceased Mario Monicelli shot in 1975 and 1982.

Paolo Genovese is behind the comedy Immaturi [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Medusa) with Raoul Bova and Ambra Angiolini, in theatres from January 21.

There’s drama instead in Il gioiellino (BIM), which director Andrea Molaioli (The Girl by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) based on the Parmalat scandal. From the Venice fest, where it screened out of competition and raised controversy, comes Michele Placido’s Vallanzasca [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (20th Century Fox, January 21), on the infamous criminal of the 1970s, starring Kim Rossi Stuart.

Other titles include Ricky Tognazzi’s The Father and the Foreigner [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (01 Distribution, February 18), which played out of competition at the Rome Film Festival; Paola Livia Randi’s debut feature Into Paradiso [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Cinecittà Luce), which premiered at the Venice festival; Giuseppe Papasso’s Un giorno della vita (Iris, January 14); Laura Luchetti’s debut Febbre da Fieno [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Walt Disney); the drama Afraid of the Dark (Bruises) [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (BIM) by Massimo Coppola, produced by Indigo Film; Italo Spinelli’s Gangor [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Cinecittà Luce); and Lucio Pellegrini’s La vita facile, featuring Stefano Accorsi (Medusa).

(Translated from Italian)