05/11/2013 - The Turin Festival has presented its programme for its 31st edition

The 31^st Turin Film Festival, headed by director Paolo Virzì after four years under Gianni Amelio’s leadership, is all set to kick off on November 22 through 30. Its programme includes the screening of 185 films, 70 of which will be debuts and second films. Of the fourteen competing films, six are European. The festival is set to be a rich, passionate, urban one, “popular and refined at the same time,” as the Tuscan filmmaker put it, confirming his role as an enabler of new talent, with the aim of a “pluralistic outlook”.

In competition, the much anticipated debut film by Pif, La mafia uccide solo d'estate, which will tackle the theme of mafia in a new, sarcastic way, all the while still managing to remain moving. “A bit like Benigni chose to spoke about the lager in Life Is Beautiful,” Virzì said in explanation. Another Italian film in competition will be Il treno va a Mosca by Federico Ferrone and Michele Manzolini, a film which genre is “indefinable” and which tells, through the editing of many homemade videos, the story of communism in Italy and the end of an illusion. France will be competing with three movies: 2 Automnes 3 Hivers [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sébastien Betbeder, a disenchanted and melancholic love life instruction manual, which pays homage to the Nouvelle Vague; La bataille de Solférino [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Justine Triet (news) and social drama Vandal [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Hélier Cisterne, starring a rebellious, disquieting teenager. The sixth film in competition is Spanish La plaga [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Neus Ballús, a soft and visionary comedy on marginalization.

Of particular interest in the Festa Mobile section, which collects the best films from around the world - as yet unseen in Italy - is senile comedy Last Vegas by Jon Turteltaub, which will be opening the festival. The film stars Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline and follows them as they organize a debauched stag night in Las Vegas. Spanish thriller Grand Piano [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eugenio Mira
film profile] by Eugenio Mira will close the festival film. The film’s Italian release date is forecast for beginning of 2014 with M2 Pictures. Enough Said by Nicole Holofcener shows James Gandolfini in a new light – tender and in love – in one of his most recent pieces of work. More films from this section include Polish Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
film profile] by Pawel Pawlikowski, French Suzanne [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Katell Quillévéré
film profile] by Katell Quillévéré, Cannes films Inside Llewyn Davis by the Coen brothers and Only Lovers Left Alive [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jim Jarmush, the long-awaited premiere of Carlo Mazzacurati’s latest film La sedia della felicità (who previously made La regina della neve), as well as the newly restored digital version of 8½ by Federico Fellini.

This year’s new features include a Europop cycle: “a walk through European box offices’ best,” according to Virzì, with a selection of films that have done well at the box office across Europe. Films range from French Alceste à bicyclette [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Philippe La Guay to Polish Traffic Department [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wojtek Smarzowski
film profile] by Wojciech Smarzowski, Swedish Monica Z by Per Fly and Irish The Stag by John Butler as well as the premiere of Italian actor Claudio Amendola’s directing debut with La mossa del pinguino. An overview of “what is going on in Italian cinema” will also be given, with directors offering up information on upcoming projects, as well as projects they have undertaken in between films (directors will include Francesca Archibugi, Francesco Bruni, Alice Rohrwacher, Gianni Zanasi and Diego Bianchi, aka Zoro). A new space has been allocated for television with Big Bang Tv, featuring the Italian launch of House of Cards by David Fincher; as well as an "After Hours" section, which will assemble bizarre, nocturnal, sci-fi, horror and mockumentary films (among those is Caníbal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Manuel Martín Cuenca
film profile] by Manuel Martín Cuenca and documentary by Shane Meadows The Stone Roses: Made of Stone [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

For access to the complete festival programme, which also includes the traditional Onde, TFFdoc and Italiana.Corti sections, and the TorinoFilmLab list of films, click here.  

(Translated from Italian)