13/09/2002 - Felice Laudadio’s European Film Festival gets underway in Viareggio. A full programme of premieres, 11 films in competition and a conference about Italian cinema

Viareggio is ready to host the 19th edition of EuropaCinema, an event created by Federico Fellini, presided over by the newly appointed Luciana Castellina and directed, after a six-year absence, by Felice Laudadio. This year’s programme features a good number of Russian productions, both in and out of competition, including Alexei Balabanov’s War, Alexander Rogohkin’s Cuckoo and an entire section has been dedicated to German films, in recognition to their newfound prominence and success at major European festivals like Locarno and Venice 59. The titles include Sven Taddicken’s Mein Bruder Der Vampir and Horst Sczerba’s Herz, both of which are in competition.
“It was only right and proper for me to showcase films from countries that in recent years seemed almost to have disappeared, in spite of their noble past. This is especially true of Germany and Russia, whose film industries are back on track with powerful and original stories that restore the credibility of their writers and directors.
The festival also features several premieres including Sophie Marceau’s directorial debut, Parlez-moi d’amour starring Judith Godrèche and Nils Arestrup and The Heart of Me by Ireland’s Thaddeus O’Sullivan, starring Helena Bohman-Carter and Paul Bettany. EuropaCinema will pay tribute to the art of Fernando Trueba with the screening of his latest work, El embrujo de Shangai.
Together with European Film Promotion, EuropaCinema also plans to promote Europe’s coming talents and “introduce” actors and actresses who are already famous in their own countries, to a wider audience.
The festival will also host an important conference about Italian cinema in a pan-European context.
The festival will open with Florent Emilio Siri's Nid de guépes (The Wasp’s Nest) and will end on 21 September with the first Italian screening of Luc Besson’s Le Grand Bleu. The film was made fourteen years ago but never screened in Italy because of legal problems.